DENIS KILCOMMONS Getting to work on time in all weathers T

HE ingenuity of the working man and his desire to clock in on time showed itself in the infamous winter of 1947. Snow fell for days on end through January and February and outlying districts were cut off.

Reader Peter Foster recalls the time. He was born and bred in Sowerby Bridge and started work as an apprentice at Brook Motors in 1946.

“This meant a fairly lengthy journey starting at 6.30am, firstly by the Triangle/ Elland bus, then a transfer to the West Vale trolley in Elland and so to Huddersfield, where some brisk walking got me to Brook Motors for 7.30.”

“In the winter of ’47, the journey became tricky with roads slippery at the bottom of The Ainleys.

“After the first few days, all the downstairs passengers would automatically get up and stand in a clump over the rear four wheels, where upon our trolley would proceed without fail to the top!”

Peter has added more memories of the trolley bus era that, in Huddersfield, was between 1933 and 1968.

Ainley Top had a turn-around at Branch Road, he says.

“On one fateful morning the driver got it wrong and we proceeded at full speed to town with the ‘branched’ trolley-poles tearing their way through an awful lot of copper cables, most of which ended up sparking away in the road. I think we walked the rest of the way.

“I think it was that same year that we had a beautiful summer followed by the worst fog that I remember. This was a terrible time for the trolleys as they had to crawl for so long that their starting resistors burnt I’VE been looking into the spam box of my Yahoo email account again, to see what junk landed there in the last week.

There was a letter from the personnel manager of an international health out, especially up the Ainleys.”

Earlier contributors have mentioned many conductors were characters.

“I remember one over-cheerful type actually greeted us with: ‘Have you all got’ em? I don’t mean the blues, I mean your tickets!’ “Imagine that at 7am. He didn’t last long. “Another good-natured soul advised a ticket-chewing passenger: ‘Try a fourpenny one, mate. They’re orange-flavoured!’” company who was looking for someone “to work remotely”.

I can do that. I’ve been remotely working all my life.

There were 10 offers from Burkina Faso, the African nation that has a plethora of citizens who are so wealthy they want to give their money away.

I was offered up to 30 million US dollars and all I had to do was send my personal and banking details. Plus a possible facilitation fee or two. I was warned that both my Paypal and Amazon accounts had been compromised and was asked to update my information on pain of castigation, and told I was due two income tax rebates plus a VAT rebate (just click the links below).

The money might have come in useful if I had responded to the offer of intimate friendship from a lady called Chantelle, who lives somewhere in Africa, and who probably needed a cash advance to buy a plane ticket to come and visit.

This was swiftly followed by a deal on half-price Viagra. Thank goodness the wife didn’t see them.

Everybody’s spam folder is rich and varied with scam offers to give you a chuckle every day. I’ll just keep on laughing without responding.