I thought I’d post a copy of the story in case people have forgotten it or not read it.
TEDDY BOY TIME-SLIP
Back in 1979, when I was about 10 years old, my parents took my sister and me for a day trip to the Essex countryside. On the way home we passed through a small village. My dad drove down a one-way street and came to a T-junction, which was obstructed by a large, American car. It was a hideous ‘psychedelic’ purplish colour (almost like the rainbow effect you see on the back of a CD) but obviously well looked after, judging by the acres of highly polished chrome. I have never seen a car with such an unusual paint job, before or since.
The driver, a middle-aged man with the most absurd boot-polish black DA haircut and his partner, with an equally out-of-place beehive hairdo, were standing outside the car. He was wearing a yellow ‘teddy boy’ outfit and she a 1950s-style skirt and blouse. They had spread a tablecloth over the roof of their vehicle and had assembled a pretty large picnic on it. I remember plates and plates of exotic-looking food – much, much more than you would imagine for just two people, not just cheese and pickle sarnies – and a bottle of champagne in a cooler. These guys were just eating their dinner in the middle of the road without a care in the world.
There were parked cars down both sides of the street and this car was blocking the whole road. There was no way around them. My dad leant out the window and asked them what they thought they were doing. The guy responded that his car had broken down and that “we have called in the army”, which struck us all as a bit odd and was probably why my dad left it at that. So we backed the car up about 50 feet (15m) and turned into another road. We were passing the intersection less than 30 seconds later, fully expecting to see the car and its owners enjoying their picnic – but car, picnic and owners had completely disappeared.
Even if their car had been working properly, I fail to see how they could have packed up their massive picnic and driven off in the very short period of time it took for us to take our detour. My dad was incredulous and for a moment we thought we had come out on a different road, but we recognised the antique and bike shops on the corner. We drove around for a bit but couldn’t see any sign of the car or its strange occupants. It’s a mystery that has puzzled us to this day.
Anonymous
Fortean Times Message Board, 2004