LIFE ON A DARTMOOR SCRAPYARD

Sam Harris in 1986

Petrol Fix

When I was very young, five or six, I would go round sniffing petrol tanks. I would get very high on the fumes. I just loved two-star petrol, the fumes would make me hallucinate. I would hear the trees talking to me and gas cylinders lying on the ground would open up and turn into snapping red-hot monsters. I would run around and jump over them yelling. It felt as if my feet were on fire. I would do this until the effect wore off or until I passed out. When mother eventually noticed what I was doing, she cured me. She gave me the hiding of a lifetime.

After that I learned not to sniff but to siphon petrol instead. We used to siphon petrol from the cars to be scrapped to reuse it and prevent accidents if the cars were burnt, as we did in those days. When we were older we used the petrol in our mopeds and cars, but I used to sell it when I was young for pocket money. I would sell it to people who came to the yard for spare parts.

There were some young lads who used to come from Princetown on a regular basis to buy cars or parts. They were a bunch of rogues and you had to watch them. They often bought petrol off me, five gallons at a time, each week. One week they had some petrol put it in the car and then said that they didn’t have any money but they would pay me next week. Next week came and went and the following weekend came and went. Then they turned up and told me they had been and paid mother. Well I knew they hadn’t and they wanted more petrol. I said, ‘Money up front!’ and they paid up. I went and got ropey petrol and peed in the top of the can. It all looks the same colour, but sinks nicely to the bottom of the petrol tank and eventually stops the car. You have to drain the system to get things going again. I had great pleasure imagining their journey home across the moor! That taught them for trying to cheat me!