Water, water everywhere.

[Ken Byng]

Tell you what Mr Bling, happy to swap last page of my bank book for yours.

The McMiser Savings Account would be much healthier than mine Malcolm. I spend what little cash that I have. I have only got 2 gigs and 5 lessons this week, so its baked beans on toast for Sunday Lunch.

Maurice
I must get Ivor Greenwood to pipe up with your racing references. Ivor used to race motorcycles, and is still participating in racing cars.

[WineRider]

Ken That name rings a bell...was he anything to do with the Southamton Motorcycle clun that used to meet in Bitterne????

I've got some pics being put on my site and will send you a link when the job is done...that's when the sh't hits the fan and all can see just what I looked like at 16.

Maurice

[Ken Byng]

Maurice
Ivor comes from Northern Ireland, and still races there.

Ironically I live in Bitterne village. I am amazed that you know the key areas of Southampton.

[WineRider]

Ah Ken,
You are talking to a man that was helped in his early days by a great stalwart by the name of Neville Goss, who got me out of more trouble than enough. I lived in HIghcliffe as a youngster and to say I was a troubled youth would be an understaement. I worked for a short time for the Rickman Bros at New Milton and I don't think with my temperament I was the ideal employee, but Neville saw something in me that others didn't and along with 'Uncle' Sid Lawton along with a guy called Louis Carr some how stopped me from being an out and out thug. Road Racing was my saviour, with their help and guidance, they kept me from myself. Next time you speak to Ivor ask him about Tom Herron or Ray McCullough, they were two of the best for me in 70 when because of carrying my friend who was dead, I had forgotten how to screw my engine back together properly. They both came into my garage and told my wife Yvonne to take down to Douglas and they would screw the bike back together, which they did. My eyes well up at the thought of one gravel scarred face of McCullough and the spirit of Tom (who is no longer with us) speaking with the rich Irish brogue...more f words in one sentence than you could think of.

This is why I think the fraternity of the Steel Guitar pickers is so close to me, the same rants, the same repartee, it brings back many memories of faces passed.

Bitterne Village is somewhere, where I found refuge from myself, with people who had so much time to give me at the clubhouse of the Southampton and District MCC. and who always made me feel a king at Thruxton in my oversized leathers, with a cockiness that must have made them take bets on weather I would stay on or crash.

Will you all excuse me for being so nostalgic about something that happened so many years ago...but to me sitting here typing it as if it was yesterday...memories and dreams are more real than fact.

A very wet eyed Maurice