[QUOTE=Lincoln 7;1742766]

My first motorcycle..a Lambretta Innocenti moped, 49cc., terrorised the neighbours in our cul-de-sac if they could see me amidst the acrid blue fumes akin to the Red Arrows display….ho hum…Did you ever put Castrol “R” in the two stroke petrol to make it smell like an Isle Of Man TT bike,?. we did.

Lincoln .7

No, not Castrol ‘R’ if I recall, but at that age I’d never have known what a TT bike would have smelt like… I just remember a gallon of petrol was 4/6d (say less than 25P) and it lasted like FOREVER!! Happy days Lincoln!
( couple of years later moved on to a Tiger Cub, then a Thunderbird 750 twin…I’ll post a photo when I can dig it out!)

Anyone remember Horner’s Dainty Dinah Toffees, long gone now but I recall a Radio 4 programme some time back where other toffee lovers reminisced, or drooled over them too.

I can recall the day a Mars bar went up to 4d… crisps? – only Smiths, in a big square tin, flavour?-Potato, (only)with a blue bag of salt ( not for the first time eaten by mistake in the dark of a cinema…yugh!) Spangles, fruit flavoured sweets, like square Polos were 3d a packet and a bag of chips was 3d.

Drinks cans were rare purchases, but no ringpull yet invented…if you had no tin opener the contents were inaccessible.

Sister’s first purchase of a ‘Radiogram’ on the never never from Clydesdale (Scottish chain, also long gone)..her first (and only record) until her next payday..Slim Whitman’s “I Talk to the Waves” at 78rpm played over and over until even at my then young age , feelings of sibling murder were engendered.

First telly, rented from the Co-op – a ‘Defiant’ – their own brand monthly rental 17/6d eventually reducing over the years to 5 bob a month!

My first motorcycle..a Lambretta Innocenti moped, 49cc., inherited from a matelot, soon to be my brother in law, when he was drafted to HMS Eagle from our local Naval air station…two-stroke, mix the oil petrol mixture myself…results and blue smoke effluent depending on my getting the ratio correct. Not yet sixteen, so not able to drive legally on road yet, but terrorised the neighbours in our cul-de-sac if they could see me amidst the acrid blue fumes akin to the Red Arrows display….ho hum…must walk the dog..may continue this saga afresh at some point…;) Brian

Whilst not helping the marking query along, could that be Clostermann sitting on the cockpit hatch? and possibly another French pilot with moustache (note cap styles) behind the cannon?

Thanks Rob, I wondered if it was, I think all the service Gannets had been put out to graze some ten years previously, but I didn’t want to commit myself wrongly! Cheers for that, 😮

Thanks for the update Brian: particularly like the ‘warts and all’ shots, they give those of us who can’t visit frequently a good sense of how things are progressing and changing. Brian S. 🙂

Andy, no photo, unfortunately, but from ‘Fly For Your Life, by Larry Forrester, “Once a bullet had struck his thigh, rattling the loose change in his pocket and stoving a 1921 penny into the shape of a spoonhead.(He still carries this souvenir among his daily supply of coins, sometimes toys with it during conversation.)(March 1956) I too would be interested in it’s whereabouts today: doubt if the above were still true post- decimalisation days, perhaps he had it mounted on a ring with his car keys? 😎

..two Hawks formating on BAE Dolphin XX242 perhaps? 😀 ? ( I thought it amusing, but it doesn’t take much…life’s too short not have a larf…)

…a few ‘umble efforts…wish my photos were as big as yours…:confused: