I was elsewhere in 1978
Although I live in Stamford now, back in 1978, being only seven years old meant I lived with my parents about 200 miles to the south-west, in Bournemouth. Not that Bournemouth was a bad place to grow up, being by the seaside and all, but it did get crammed with grockles in summer.
When I was four, my family had moved there from the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, which was where my motoring obsession had begun. For an early birthday, I was given a bright red pedal car that looked like the bizarre scarlet-hued offspring of a Morris Minor and a Volkswagen Beetle. After apparently screaming ‘CAAAAAARRRRRRRR!’ the moment I unwrapped it, I became almost inseparable from it, to the point where I insisted on having my meals while sitting in it. I soon outgrew it – as is obvious from the picture – but that didn’t stop me using it. To be honest, these days, I still look much the same in anything smaller than a Peugeot 205.