These are the stories that were hitting the headlines in the South Wales Guardian 50 years ago on September 17, 1964.

AMMANFORD’S Chief Fire Officer urged a public health meeting to install more petrol pumps at Central Garage to improve access for his engines.

However, officials noted that placing the pumps the requested 20-feet from the shop would mean locating them in the middle of main road.

AN 18-YEAR-OLD playing chicken with an E-Type Jaguar or a Harley Davidson when drunk was just good fun – and a little kinky too, magistrates were told.

“A 13-year-old playing chicken with a moving train was just stupid, though if a 1,650 ton diesel train carrying 27 trucks hits him, he won’t care much about it.”

A 59-YEAR-OLD collier with no friends or family who lived in a shed on Tairgwaith Mountain was fined £2 for being drunk and disorderly.

Magistrates told him: “Pull yourself together and stop acting like a sorry excuse of a man.”

A ROYAL Navy colonel claimed his presence in Ammanford was not to enlist young men.

Rather, he was in the town to “show those interested the different work the Navy was involved in”.

A CWMTWRCH farmer only realised he had been burgled when he went in search of his blackberry pie.

A 17-year-old later arrested for the crime admitted: “I stole money and a gold chain, and yes, I ate the pie. I was hungry.”

Penybanc residents demanded bus company bosses teach their drivers to recognise a bus stop.