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GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN



As my little band of TT followers grew, we had a few who were regulars. We often walked along Strand Street to a small shop in which was installed a studio where you could get photographs taken wearing silly hats, to keep these photographs as souvenirs of your visit. We went annually, and could compare hairstyles and fashions (!) and we could see how we were growing up...Oh yeah !

Above are three consecutive years in the 1960s with overlap of my pals - Roger and Richard were regulars, Roger the avid fan before he came with me so was one of my first group and Richard who came firstly as a person who only wanted a holiday and decided at the last minute to join my group only after I had told him about the Isle of Man.

After just a couple of visits both lads were equally interested and made the annual pilgrimage for a number of years. The other lads had come over on the one day motorcycle club coach trip from Gateshead and I had met them off the ferry, took them to our hotel to shower and have a good breakfast. The next year they came for the whole two weeks. The girl is Julia, my girlfriend at that time. She was very much one of the group and the lads accepted her even though it was an unwritten rule that motorbikes and girls didn't mix in those days...How things have changed !!!



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