Dad’s nutty tip that had us all in pieces

MY FAMILY got our first car in the early Fifties. Naturally, we were thrilled with it. I can’t remember the make, but it was a very upright carriage and had a Wilson pre-selector gearbox — whatever that might have been! My father wisely decided to join the AA breakdown service as the car was fairly old. Sure enough, we suffered a breakdown and had to call on the AA’s services. As the engineer dismantled parts to sort out the trouble, my father obligingly carefully pocketed the various screws, nuts, washers and bolts for safekeeping. When it became obvious that the work was almost completed, Dad reached into his pocket and began to fish out the bits he had been looking after. The AA man looked up in surprise. ‘That’s all right, Sir, we don’t accept tips.’ I don’t know who was more embarrassed; the AA man or my dad holding out a handful of oily nuts and bolts. We were all too busy holding back our amusement to see how the situation was resolved. Mike Wallace, Charlton Kings, Glos.