LAST week’s Memories had a bit of a pop teaser set by John Biggs of Etherley Grange. Knowing our fascination with the Humber Pullman car – the grand limousine that was the mayor of Darlington’s official car and the vehicle of choice for Durham police in the late 1950a – he asked for the identity of the group behind this 1960s song:

Oh, you railway station!

Oh, you Pullman train!

Here’s my reservation

For my destination,

Far beyond the western plain.

B Walker, Doug Porthouse and Dennis Harrison were among those who got it right, as was Ron Twigg in Hurworth who said: “It is Pasadena by The Temperance Seven, with "Whispering" Paul Paul McDowell on megaphone. The song went to No 4 in June of 1961. They also had hits in 1961 with You’re Driving Me Crazy, Hard Hearted Hannah and The Charleston, and I remember seeing them in cabaret at Tito’s in Stockton in 1968.”

Bill Bartle in Barnard Castle added: “Reg Smyth produced an Andy Capp cartoon about the band. Andy is lying on his couch listening to the song. "These are good." he says to Flo. "What are they called?" "The Temperance Seven," she answers. Click! Andy promptly switches off.”

There were nine members of the Temperance Seven – ie: they were one over the eight, and so not at all temperance minded.

The original Temperance Seven came from Preston in the early 1830s, and they were the first men to sign a public pledge swearing that they would give up alcohol completely.

Now, this is one of Memories favourite stories. One of those seven men was a fish hawker called Richard “Dickey” Turner, who had a strong Preston accent and, quite possibly, a stutter. At the first meeting of the Total Abstinence Society, he announced his commitment to giving up alcohol by saying: “I’ll be reet down-and-out and tee-tee-total for ever and ever.”

No one knows whether he was stuttering, whether he was underlining the importance of his total commitment – “that’s total with a capital T” – or whether he was stealing a word he’d heard elsewhere. But when he died in 1846, it was carved on his headstone that he was “the author of the word teetotal”. No one else in the country has such a wordy claim to fame on their grave.