Originally appeared on Automoblog.net

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Geoff Maxted remembers a time when life was slower and cars had a family purpose . . . 
Here on these blighted British islands, now politically cut adrift from our European neighbors like a disobedient, disowned dog, those who have reached a certain age will remember, with fondness, what have come to be known as the good old days of childhood. Remembering those warm Sunday afternoon drives with Dad at the wheel of the family automobile were a mainstay of life.
Monday through Friday were for working or “drowsy” summer school days; Saturday?s were for shopping and sport and Sundays were for relaxing in the motor car.
Those Drowsy Rose-Tinted Days Always on a Sunday, the day started early with the ritual car cleaning, the bane of children’s lives. This was followed by a traditional British roast dinner lovingly, or grudgingly, prepared by your long-suffering Mother. Once consumed it would be then that Dad would suggest a nice drive out into the countryside.
There would follow a leisurely trip through the truly glorious, green English countryside, with shady wooded glades and billowing fields flecked with sheep like lint on a blanket. Small, intimate rivers were crossed on low rustic bridges, the sun glinting like diamonds on the whispering water?s surface.
No climate control in those halcyon days, so with the windows opened the bucolic atmosphere and rural aromas ...