Maybe all dentists in the 1950s and 60s were like Mr Behan in St Laurence Street in Drogheda (above). He had a handshake like a vice – the ritual of shaking hands was bone crunching. My grandfather thoroughly approved; “you need a powerful grip to pull teeth”.
In those days dentistry was fire-fighting rampant tooth decay, so my mouth is full of fillings. Visits to Mr Behan (never Michael, even by my mother) were memorable. I’d be in the chair with my mouth open and half a canteen of cutlery inside when Mr Behan would say “now I’ll tell you the greatest thing to happen since Jesus Christ came to Earth”. Then he’d turn to his dental nurse and say, “Maureen will you take a look in the waiting room to see how they are”. Disappointingly I cannot remember any of the disclosures that followed but I do remember that he was a keen follower of the stock market and regarded my mother as a useful source of information. I believe him to have been mistaken.
He gave me two substantial presents as a young teenager. One was an army surplus World War I periscope and the other a French Solex. This was absolutely the best thing for me since JC came to e – I could zoom around the fields and tracks at Barmeath and I advise my brother to buy one or two for his grandchildren. If you are about my age you will remember Solex – if not here’s a picture.
On one occassion my mother dropped me at his surgery in the clothes she wore for feeding the hens. Mr Beehan said, admiringly, “Mrs Bellew, aren’t you great to come into Drogheda dressed like that – if my wife was seen in those clothes people would say – have you seen Mrs Behan, she’s dressed like a tramp”.
I think your picture may not be so much 50s to 60s as 60s to 70s. The Morris four-door in the foreground looks like the 1100 model in which (in white) I drove Leonard Cheshire around the country in 70/71, visiting his 50-some homes for the disabled. That year, I won a red two-door Morris 1100 in a Cheshire Foundation fête raffle. It was thrilling to own a car, but I traded it in when my first wife – who volunteered in the kitchen of the Sue Ryder home at Cavendish where Cheshire lived with his family – also volunteered to buy me an MGB drophead, to go with her Lancia Fulvia which she never let me drive. I had been lucky with female generosity, having learned to drive on a girlfriend’s Morris Minor convertible.
Your synchronicity machine is working as well as ever. The day before your post, I had been researching my vehicular memories of that period and in particular the Morris (BMC) FG Luton 2-ton truck I sometimes drove for Sue Ryder. Like her much racier Ford Transit long wheelbase mini-bus, it was in pale blue, with the Rosemary For Remembrance logo of her foundation. Any Ford was a pleasure to drive after any Morris or Austin. My years delivering grocers in an Austin J4 for Walton, Hassell and Port (of Kentish Town and most good London suburbs) had also taught me that it was thrashed by the Bedford CA.
You are right. The photograph was taken in 1970. You would make a good presenter for Top Gear, Yesteryear, by the way.
Your dentist gave you a Solex? ! why?
When I was briefly at the University of Aix en Provence in 1962 I had a Mobilette, a more powerful version of the Solex but still with pedals. It could get up a great speed (no helmets) down hill to Aix from the hill overlooking Montagne St Victoire where I stayed
Mr Behan hoped it would make me understand how engines work. It didn’t and when it finally broke I gave it back to him for repair and re-gifting.It was great fun while it lasted.