Sunbeam motorcycle
Who would have thought it....the very first photo I took of a motorcycle. One of the "lost" 1970s negatives found by my Dad, most of which have lain unprinted for the best part of 40 years.
I know within a day or two the date that this photo of a Sunbeam motorcycle was taken, too. Basically because of the stuff on the adjacent negatives.
I had started seeing a girl and her family had a caravan in Wales and they used to disappear off there for the whole summer. Her over protective father (which I can now totally understand, having got daughters myself) said something sarcastic like "so if you are passing, Dave, don't hesitate to drop in". Given that we lived over a hundred miles away and I had no form of transport other than a pushbike, I think he thought that was the last he'd seen of me for a while. Except my girlfriend gave me all the details of where the caravan was and whereabouts the caravan was on the site and I managed to find someone else who had a caravan on the island and persuaded him to give me a lift.
Half way there, down the A55, it came on the radio that sadly Elvis Presley had passed away. I think there is some kind of "syndrome" that makes people recall with great vividness where they were when they heard that someone famous has passed away. The one I hear about a fair bit but don't remember it myself was John F Kennedy. The one that I definitely do remember very well was John Lennon. I was sitting in a big comfy armchair listening to the radio whilst drinking a coffee and eating a piece of toast whilst shivering in front of a two bar electric fire. Well it was December....
(The two bar electric fire actually makes an appearance on one of the other "lost" negatives)
So I arrived at this massive Welsh caravan site in the dead of night and somehow found the caravan. Rat a tat tat. As anyone knows, caravan doors aren't that thick so I heard him say "Who the bloody hell is this?". Ta da ..............
Apart from the fact that there weren't any spare beds in the 'van he made it pretty clear (not that I ever got put off anything by him making something clear) that I wasn't staying anywhere near his daughter. So off we went in his car to a campsite, so I could put my tent up illuminated by his car headlights whilst he stood around, hands on hips looking well pissed off.
It was quite a windy weekend and hilariously the next day my hastily erected tent disappeared over the headland. Predicament time. Still no chance of staying in the caravan so he had a word with an old seafaring type who had a spare bunk in his cabin and I kipped in there for the rest of the week.
So here we are - maybe in Abersoch (but probably not) and I took this picture of a motorcycle which was the start of a lifelong love affair. No not with the girl (who amazingly got ordained and became a vicar!) but with bikes. My Flickr Bikes set has over 1000 of my Bike photos in it which is a fraction of what I've taken over the years. I came across some photos on my old girlfriend's Church website and it seems like her old Mum and Dad are still going strong which was nice to see. Funnily enough, I don't remember her being religious at all. I haven't seen her for 40 years but due to the "wonders of modern technology" I saw a YouTube video of her delivering a post-pandemic message to the parishioners.
Even though we were pretty keen on each other to say the least, it didn't last maybe because of her Dad. So I then started seeing her best mate which didn't go down particularly well with Girlfriend #1 (who started dating a lad from school who looked like a weasel but probably didn't do impromptu things like this - much to her father's delight).
Funny how things pan out isn't it?
And just as a matter of interest, Elvis passed away on 16th August 1977, so I'd guess this was taken on or around the 18th.
Sunbeam motorcycle
Who would have thought it....the very first photo I took of a motorcycle. One of the "lost" 1970s negatives found by my Dad, most of which have lain unprinted for the best part of 40 years.
I know within a day or two the date that this photo of a Sunbeam motorcycle was taken, too. Basically because of the stuff on the adjacent negatives.
I had started seeing a girl and her family had a caravan in Wales and they used to disappear off there for the whole summer. Her over protective father (which I can now totally understand, having got daughters myself) said something sarcastic like "so if you are passing, Dave, don't hesitate to drop in". Given that we lived over a hundred miles away and I had no form of transport other than a pushbike, I think he thought that was the last he'd seen of me for a while. Except my girlfriend gave me all the details of where the caravan was and whereabouts the caravan was on the site and I managed to find someone else who had a caravan on the island and persuaded him to give me a lift.
Half way there, down the A55, it came on the radio that sadly Elvis Presley had passed away. I think there is some kind of "syndrome" that makes people recall with great vividness where they were when they heard that someone famous has passed away. The one I hear about a fair bit but don't remember it myself was John F Kennedy. The one that I definitely do remember very well was John Lennon. I was sitting in a big comfy armchair listening to the radio whilst drinking a coffee and eating a piece of toast whilst shivering in front of a two bar electric fire. Well it was December....
(The two bar electric fire actually makes an appearance on one of the other "lost" negatives)
So I arrived at this massive Welsh caravan site in the dead of night and somehow found the caravan. Rat a tat tat. As anyone knows, caravan doors aren't that thick so I heard him say "Who the bloody hell is this?". Ta da ..............
Apart from the fact that there weren't any spare beds in the 'van he made it pretty clear (not that I ever got put off anything by him making something clear) that I wasn't staying anywhere near his daughter. So off we went in his car to a campsite, so I could put my tent up illuminated by his car headlights whilst he stood around, hands on hips looking well pissed off.
It was quite a windy weekend and hilariously the next day my hastily erected tent disappeared over the headland. Predicament time. Still no chance of staying in the caravan so he had a word with an old seafaring type who had a spare bunk in his cabin and I kipped in there for the rest of the week.
So here we are - maybe in Abersoch (but probably not) and I took this picture of a motorcycle which was the start of a lifelong love affair. No not with the girl (who amazingly got ordained and became a vicar!) but with bikes. My Flickr Bikes set has over 1000 of my Bike photos in it which is a fraction of what I've taken over the years. I came across some photos on my old girlfriend's Church website and it seems like her old Mum and Dad are still going strong which was nice to see. Funnily enough, I don't remember her being religious at all. I haven't seen her for 40 years but due to the "wonders of modern technology" I saw a YouTube video of her delivering a post-pandemic message to the parishioners.
Even though we were pretty keen on each other to say the least, it didn't last maybe because of her Dad. So I then started seeing her best mate which didn't go down particularly well with Girlfriend #1 (who started dating a lad from school who looked like a weasel but probably didn't do impromptu things like this - much to her father's delight).
Funny how things pan out isn't it?
And just as a matter of interest, Elvis passed away on 16th August 1977, so I'd guess this was taken on or around the 18th.