Away Back When; Archie Burland; First car in Grimsby

Away Back When...Which all brings to mind the first automobile in Grimsby. It was owned by the late Archie Burland and some times it ran and some times it didn't, mostly didn't. The front end of it was a curving sash affair, the top portion of which lifted up and lo and behold there was a seat, with the lifted portion serving as a back. It steered with a handle on the right hand side and the engine, a one cylinder affair, was under the main seat, thus it was either a two passenger roadster or a four passenger one. It was minus a top, front or rear lights and cranked at the side of the car. Archie would come chugging up Main Street at an unholy speed of 12 or 15 miles an hour and then all of a sudden the thing would stop. This happened quite frequently during a day. Each time it stopped Archie would climb out and crank it up and away it would go. This operation happened so often that it led the late Jno. C. Farrell to "Irishly" remark, "there's no engine in the danged thing as all. It's run by a spring. Every time it stops is because the spring as run down. Every time Archie gets out and cranks it he is only winding up the spring again. Why don't he get himself a Waterbury watch and between the two of them he will be busy 24 hours a day keeping them running".