Reg is on his cell phone.

Reg: Hello. Is that ‘Quantum Mechanics - No Job Too Small’? Ah, good. Yes. I need a bit more work doing on the bus. Yes. It got us here to 1959, no problem. But now I want to pay a visit to 1957. Yes. I wonder if you could come and give the bus a once-over, before we set off? Great. See you soon.

Les: ‘1957’?

Reg: That’s right. I think you’ll enjoy it. (Louder.) OK everyone. We’ll be heading off again soon. Just relax for half an hour or so, and then we’ll be on our way.

The passengers choose their favourite modes of relaxation, as they hear and feel some minor mechanical work taking place beneath them. Several of them drift off into a light sleep. Toni notices that Robin is one of them. She turns to her left and talks quietly to Lynn, diagonally behind her.

Toni: Lynn … I was just wondering …

Lynn leans forward.

Lynn: Yes?

Toni: Well, you know when Robin said she’d do anything for Reg … and you whispered to her if she would do something in particular … and she said she would … and you were shocked and asked if that was even legal in Hawaii …

Lynn: Yes?

Toni: I was, er, just wondering, er, what did you whisper to her?

Lynn: Oh, I just asked that if Reg suggested to her that she should go for a drive with him at ninety miles an hour down the freeway in his convertible … would she do it? And she said she would!

Toni: Oh …

Lynn: Is that ok?

Toni: Er, yes. Of course. I just thought it was, er … might have been something else … (cough).

Lynn: Like what?

Toni: Oh, er … nothing much, really … (cough).

And blushing rather profusely, Toni turns back to face the front, and gives another polite cough.

Reg: That’s it. We’re ready to go!

Toni has regained her composure.

Toni: Look Reg. Like I asked at the end of chapter 35 … this 1959 Colin and Karl stuff. What has it got to do with what we all know already about Alvin’s early musical experiences?

Les: Yes. Vince Marshall and the Squarecaps?

Tony: Alan Upton and the Jailbreakers?

Alan: And Ivan Jay and the Jaycats?

DLM: And as an American, I want to know more about what it was like in a town like Nottingham when rock and roll came calling in the fifties.

Don: Right on. How did things change for teenagers? Clothes? Hairstyles?

Dave: How did they get to hear the music? Where did they go?

Freddy: Now we’re here … wouldn’t it be great if we could get to meet some of these guys. See them. And talk to them! The way you wouldn’t let us talk to Colin and Karl.

Reg holds both of his hands up.

Reg: Guys, guys … calm down. But you must have read my mind. Because that’s why we’re going back to … 1957!

All: Way to go … great … how cool is that … fantastic … that’s da bomb! … etc.

DLM stands up.

DLM: Wait a minute. Who said … ‘da bomb’?

Silence.

DLM: Who. Said. It?

Victor: (Cough.) It was, er … me.

DLM turns to the back of the bus.

DLM: Bub … no one says ‘da bomb’ any more.

Victor: Don’t they …?

DLM: Nope. Not since 1998. No more … ok?

Victor: Er … ok.

Glad that all that is over, Reg turns to the mysterious hooded driver.

Reg: 1957. Beeston.

The driver nods. The bus begins to move.

Sue: This isn’t going to be like the last journey, is it?

Reg: No worries. We’re just going back two years, and only about three miles from here.

And he is right. It is a brief and easy journey, as they pass through ‘1958’ and arrive in ‘57.

Driver:. What date?

Reg: Not … exactly sure. Just go down a road called ‘West End’ and look out for a gang of lads. In their mid-teens. Hanging around outside a youth club … look, there they are! Stop here!

The bus stops.

Reg: Right guys. Everyone off again.

And as they disembark they are watched suspiciously by a group of … count them … ten lads in their mid-teens. The passengers stand around rather nervously in a large group, as the boys look them up and down. It could be awkward - but Reg calms the situation.

Reg: Ey up, lads. No need to be alarmed. We’re just paying a visit from, er, 2012. We were wondering if we could have a word with you.

One of the lads asks Reg a question.

Archie: Got any fags?

Les mutters to Tony.

Les: Oh, not the great ‘fag’ debate. We’ve just got ‘pavement’ sorted out.

To everyone’s surprise, Reg produces a packet of cigarettes and gives one to the inquirer.

Archie: Ta, mate.

Reg clearly has a winning way with the locals. He presses on.

Reg: We were hoping - especially some of our American friends here with us today - if you could tell us what’s it’s like being a teenager in Nottingham these days. As a more or less typical British town. In 1957. I guess you must have heard of rock and roll by now …

Robin: Elvis is king!

The lads: Ey up, Robin’s right.

Reg notices that there is one boy in spectacles who doesn’t appear to be particularly ‘rock and roll’ … but the rest seem to have made an effort.

Ted: What do you want to know?

Reg: Er … just about your clothes, and hairstyles. What you think of the new music. Where you get to hear it. How it’s changed your lives. All that sort of stuff.

Ted: All right, mate. I’ll tell you …

And he does. As the other nine lads clown around a bit in the background, young Ted steps forward - and talks. And talks. And talks. The passengers listen intently. And fascinated.

At last he finishes.

Reg: Well, that was very interesting. Thanks very much, Ted.

All: Yes, thanks … very helpful … very interesting … great to meet you … etc.

Ted: Do us a favour, mate.

Reg: Of course. What is it?

Ted pulls out a camera. He hands it to Reg.

Ted: Take a picture of us all. Come on lads. Get in a group.

Reg: No problem. All right, lads. Big happy smiles. Look friendly. Archie - sit at the front. Here we go …
And ‘click’. The photo is taken.

Pete: Ey up, lads. Youth club’s starting. Come on.

And the lads wave goodbye as they go inside to enjoy their evening. The passengers return to their seats on the bus.

Pieter: That was fantastic, Reg. We learned so much.

Graeme: Oh, if only we could have a record of what he said. I’m beginning to forget some of it already.

Ignaz: And I’d love to have a copy of that photo.

Reg: Don’t worry, folks. Have a look at your internet-enabled devices, and share with a friend. Ok … ready?

All: Ready, Reg.

Reg: Google this: ‘Lenton Times Magazine - A Lenton Lad - Memories In and Around’.

All: Done that.

Reg: Now scroll down to the heading ‘The Rockin' Fifties’. You’ll see that Ted has saved those memories for us. And the photo.

All: Oh my … omg! … this is extraordinary … amazing … etc.

Then Toni rises from her seat. In apparently uncontrollable excitement, she bangs her head on the luggage rack above her. Her spectacles are dislodged from her nose …

Les: Too much detail, Reg. Just get on with it.

Toni: Oh my, oh my, oh my!

Laurie: What is it? What’s the matter?

Toni: Look at the group photo. Ted has given us the lads’ names. That boy standing up on the left. In the white jacket … it’s Ivan Harrison!

All: Omg! … Ivan Harrison … who became Ivan Jay … of Alvin’s band, Ivan Jay and the Jaycats … it’s him … Ivan …

Toni: You have got to tell us more. Reg. You have got to tell us more!

Reg: Ok then … I will …

Ted's & Tearaways






Peace,
DLM


You're So Square

You are fantastic, Reg! So much work and the result is so entertaining - thank you! I love all these little "cliffhangers". Alvin should hire you to promote his memoires, because you are good at this and have increased the interest for reading more about him and his life a lot!

No, Borje. Reg should not promote Alvin's memoirs, he should write them himself !! Great job, Reg !!

Yes great job Reg, well done. Thanks for the pic DLM.

Hey Reg, can we push back to ...

reg this is wonderful...
but i don't understand...how come we are visible this time?

Brilliant line, Reg: 'Quantum Mechanics - No Job Too Small', ha he ho! I love it! I even got a speaking line again after all, may wonders never cease. ;-) Good going, guy. No need for the great 'fag' debate, though...some of us Yanks on the bus do know the score about the British meaning, such as having learned the WWI soldier ditty "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag" in elementary school music class, perhaps, heh. Although admittedly, the overly decorous singing teacher in MY class changed the line about "something a lucifer to light your fag" to "when feet are weary and begin to lag" to be proper and seemly for our innercent 4th grade usage...seriously! Gigglety goggle. Well, well, good chapter, Reginaldo. Looking forward to the next! :-)

Ach was, Igmeister!! On this we disagree. Alvin and ONLY Alvin can and should write Alvin's memoirs... unless *I* do, of course. ;-) Except... for them to be proper memoirs, even I wouldn't really do, sigh. OK, Alv, looks like it's down to you now! :-)

Well done! But go easy on the shockers, okay? I've just bought these new glasses and they cost a small fortune!

Hmm...good question, Jane! That must have been some quantum mechanic Reg hired!

Oooh, Toni, I hear ya! Lineless "bifocals" with a built-in trifocal feature, UV and scratch coating, super-lightweight lenses, designer frames, and the works...it all adds up! Maybe we oughta eat more carrots! ;-)

Great to have the bus up and running again! I've never traveled to when I wasn't born yet , but there's a first time for everything especially when working with the Quantum Mechanics No Job Too Small company

Ohhh yea now I remember that's what I'd whispered to Robin--speeding down the Hawaii high-way, must've been the Mauiwowi highway we were whispering about?

Love the picture.

P.S. FYI, Reg, for verisimilitudinous vernacular, no one really says "Bub" anymore, either, I gotta say. Or hardly ever. It was never truly popular amongst the Woodstock generation...more from our parents' and grandparents' ones. It pretty much sounds straight out of an old Looney Tunes cartoon, or a '30s, '40s or '50s movie, especially one set in NYC... the tough-talking cop, or the wise-cracking taxi driver, for example... with occasional holdovers into subsequent decades by members of the same generations. Just so you'll pass the next pop quiz in Miss Priss' American Slang 101, natch. ;-)

You savin' that Mauiwowi wowi for the chicks only?
That's Women Trouble.

http://open.spotify.com/track/7ArMiFeUD1RXaTjEadEvXJ


Peace,
DLM

Hey Reg, great job! You must be retired to have all this research time! And thanks to DLM for illustrating the story with his embedment, er, embeddings, er, embellishments, er, videos...
Excellent. More. Please.

Igmeister?:-) Never been nicknamed so. I like it, Laurie

So, Tony...you want some -- MORE??? Hit it, Maestro!! "...Oliver! Oliver! Won't ask for more when he knows what's in store! ...There's a yellow schoolbus, '50s and quantum-mechanical... Which we'll throw him on and see if the time-travel causes a panical! Oliver! Oliver! What heavens pray will the bus driver say?" "He will tell his name to the ones who claim him... O-LI-VER!" :-) TUM-te-TUM... Chortle-chortle-tiddle-um-pum. With apologies to Lionel Bart! ;-)

Great stuff, Reg! Ahhh, I mean, you da bomb!!! Take that DLM!

Aha, good. Glad to know that, Iggilein! :-)