A BLAST INTO THE PAST’
© MARIO MAGER
PART ONE
One hazy summer's morning my dispatcher gave me a
call by to an exhibition center in Llangollen. They had lost some of their
electricity supply during the night causing some parts of the building to have
no power. This also triggered the burglar and fire alarms, which were now only
working on the battery back up systems. I was asked to make it my first call, as
they wanted the supply restoring in time for it to be open for the public at 10
o’clock. I was told that if there was no one on site I should wait by the main
entrance, and the caretaker would soon be along. I steadily made my way along
the long meandering road toward Llangollen. It was a lovely morning. The
hedgerows and fields were all wet with morning dew. It had all the signs of
being a hot and sunny day.
When I arrived at the exhibition center it was
as expected, closed. It was far too early in the morning for it to be open to
the public. There wasn't a soul in sight, so I parked up as close as I could
near the main entrance, the idea being that the caretaker would easily notice me
when he arrived. I looked up at the notice board to see what was the current
exhibition. Apparently, it was an exhibition of the famous science fiction TV
series Dr WHO. Now as a kid I saw many if not all of these episodes. And now, as
an even bigger kid, along with my good wife, we have relived and enjoyed many of
these classic episodes on the satellite channel UK GOLD.
It always intrigued me. The thought of being able to
travel back in time. Wouldn't it be great, to be able to go back in time, and
put right all those mistakes you made! But when you got to meet your younger
counterpart and tried to give him some caring advice as to what he should do
with his life, would he listen to you or would he regard you as some nutcase?
I made myself comfortable in my little van. I turned
the radio on and broke into my lunchtime sandwiches. The sun was now coming up
and started to shine on the van. It soon became quite warm in my little van. I
sat back, and began to think about all those Motorcycles that I used to own, and
all the bikes that I had a chance of owning but never took the opportunity or
made the right decision at the right time back then.
I began to think about the current value of some of
the bikes that I was offered in my teenage years. My boss offered me his fully
restored 1953 Royal Enfield Bullet for £40. I was only earning £5 a week then,
and not only did it seem too much at the time, but British bike spares were
becoming hard to obtain due to the increasing popularity of imports from the
land of the rising ¥en.
If only had I known about the continuous production
of Indian Enfields in Mysore back then, I may have bought it with the confidence
that there would be no problem with spares. So I held on to the 1960 Vespa 125
scooter, which I got for £10 when I was 16. I later progressed to a 1954 Royal
Enfield Clipper for £10 (ex-army). Then I moved on to a 1961 BSA Bantam, which
cost all of £15 from a mate at college when I had to get rid of the Enfield.
When I used to have my Bantam in bits in the shed I used to borrow my dad's
CZ125 (476).
At that time my dad tried to persuade me to
abandon my project of making my Bantam go faster and to buy myself a new CZ for
only £120! He even offered to help me with the payments. But do kids listen to
good advice from their parents? No! Some things do not change with the passing
of time!
The memories rolled on. Even the number plates would
be worth a bit now. They were ‘THW 195’,
‘XFH 514’ and ‘971 ADF’. I just wish, that I knew the registration number of my
dad's old Jawa 353 twinport, which he taught me to ride at the ripe old age of
11. I could then trace it through the DVLA computer. Sadly, none of my family
were able to remember the number of this legendary bike.
I was beginning to feel quite comfy now. I felt that
slow sinking feeling one gets when one is falling asleep. It was like slowly
sinking into an abyss of warm, soft feathers. When all of a sudden I was
disturbed by a strange gyrating screeching sound, which ended with a very loud
"thud". Just typical I thought. Just as you are having a quiet minute
to yourself someone just has to go and spoil it for you! I sat up and looked out
of my van only to see a large blue Police box adjacent to the main entrance. I
felt sure that it wasn't there before!
The door was ajar so I decided to investigate. I
climbed out of my van and went over to the Police box. I shouted out
"Hello! Anybody there?" I went inside, and to my astonishment I found
a large room inside. Just as it was depicted on the TV series Dr.Who. Then I
arrived at the conclusion that it must be a trick for the exhibition. They must
have put this Police box right up against the doorway to the exhibition center
to give it the effect of having a larger dimension inside than outside. A neat
trick I thought. But where is that Caretaker? I couldn’t see any other doorway
leading into the exhibition center, so I thought that I might as well admire the
props while I was waiting.
The central control panel was quite interesting.
There was a mass of controls, switches and small monitors. I didn't envy the
chap who had to wire all that lot up! There was a great big lever with a large
red knob marked ‘DOOR
ACTUATING MECHANISM’
I couldn't resist the temptation to move it over onto
the ‘CLOSED’ position. Suddenly
there was a hiss of compressed air and the door closed. Oh dear! What have I
gone and done now! I quickly moved the lever back to the ‘OPEN’ position but nothing happened! I thought, “This can't
be!” I sat there for quite a while wondering what to do next. I wondered how
long it would be before the caretaker would pop out of some hidden doorway and
rescue me. Then I got a little worried. What if the door mechanism was not
working correctly due to the power supply problem that I had come to repair?
Could they open the door from outside manually? Would they know that I am
trapped in here? I decided that while I waited I would have closer look at the
Tardis controls, and see if they were in fact wired up or if the switches were
all dummies. I opened a small access panel and sure enough, there seemed to be
an impressive array of wires under there. They still could be for show though
they might just be there for the curiously technically minded. I turned on the
largest monitor on the control panel to see what TV station could be picked up.
I thought I might as well watch the news or something while I was waiting.
Instead of the news I got a computer screen. I found it most surprising, as it
was a modern Icon based selection screen. It wasn’t any old monitor it was a
very modern computer screen display! This bit didn’t look authentic to me. I
don't remember Dr. Who using a fancy computer for his escapades through time
dimensions! There was a mouse (an item of computer hardware, not a small
rodent!) I thought that I would have a little play around with it as it looked
similar to the one we had at work.
Once the computer had finished its start up routine,
I was presented with a strange menu allowed input for "destination time,
location, Grid reference/area name, auto park or random site" along with a
load galactic space and time continuums which I did not understand. I asked
myself "If this were a real time
machine, and if I could go back in
time, where would I go?" I, along with many ageing biking enthusiasts, have
had this thought pass through their minds at sometime or another. I decided,
just for fun, that I would input ‘25-06-1972’ as this was my teenage golden years! The computer accepted the date
I selected, it then prompted "location?” I typed in
"Gloucester". It then asked for " interstellar/galactic/map grid
reference or location name and/or native area name or location". I hated
geography when I was at school, so there was no way I would be able to give this
information even if I had the map in front of me!. I regret this fact now, when
you think of all the countries that I have been hunting Jawas in! I decided to
type in a street name instead, and see how clever this dummy computer was. I
typed in "Tredworth". I picked this area as opposed to the area that I
lived in, as this was where Gloucester's one and only bike breaker’s yard
could be found. In fact it was in the High Street in Tredworth. This would be
the place to see all sorts of unwanted bikes and parts for sale. As I was only
toying with a fake time machine console, there could be no possible harm in
playing this scenario a little bit further. The worst thing that could happen is
for me to fuse the lights and end up in this blue coffin without a torch! The
cursor blinked on the final input "Are you sure? “’Y“’ or
“’N“’". I clicked on "“’Y“’". To my surprise the
centre of the panel lit up, and all sorts of weird gizmos started performing. It
was a most impressive display of flashing lights and sound effects. It looked
and sounded just like the real thing! It seemed to go on for ages. I began to
get bored with this fancy display, and wondered if I could find a kettle in some
hidden room, and make myself a nice cup of tea. Before I could look around a
little more the whole caboodle came to a halt. The computer displayed in large
flashing red letters: "ARRIVED AT SPECIFIED DESTINATION”.
I heard a new sound. A TV monitor lowered from the ceiling. It came on. All I could see on it was a brick wall! I had no way of knowing how to turn the remote camera, if it were of the remote controlled type. A large red light lit up by the door control panel. A warning light lit up showing ‘READY’ I moved the lever over to the ‘OPEN’ position. I was confident that it wouldn't work, as it would not open earlier. To my surprise these was a hiss of compressed air. The door opened! Dare I step outside to see if I had escaped back into the wilds of Llangollen, or had I took a journey back through time?
