Quote:
Originally Posted by hogweed
Well… back in the 70s, my girlfriend and I used to sit in my Escort Sport by the side of Belfast Lough at night, smoking and drinking (yes, I know… it was a long time ago).
One night we suddenly realised that we’d run out of matches. This wasn’t yet in the days when motors came with cigar lighters as standard, so we had a major panic on our hands. Ever resourceful, I realised I had some welding rods in the boot, and figured I could get one of them red enough to light my smoke if I shorted it across the battery terminals 
Don’t know if it was a bit of hydrogen, or the battery boiled a bit (the welding rod did turn VERY red very quickly), but there was a big bang, I guess the plastic strip which sealed the top blew off, and my face got sprayed with acid.
I was very fortunate that the sea was only a few yards away – I ran (in near-darkness) over the rocks without breaking an ankle, and stuck my face in the water.
Lucky not to end up looking like the phantom of the opera 
I’m a bit more sensible in my old age  |
Hazelbank per chance?
Talking about the drinking bit, I stumbled across an old full page ad from the 70's in a magazine at my work (I wish I had copied it now). On it was a picture of a 4 speed with reverse gearshift gate instead of numbers, it has a picture of a pint of beer on the first, second and third gear positions with a question mark on the fourth. Below it was the caption stating 'do you really need that fourth?'
They were indeed different times lol.