Solent City Scooter Club

                      
 

End of an Era

 

End of an Era
by Dave Tooley



It's funny how you can map parts of your life by setting chapter milestones within it.

Joining Solent City Scooter Club was one such chapter milestone for me.  Up until that point my circle of friends was limited pretty much by male school acquaintances of a similar age (I went to an all boys school) After the day I joined I suddenly had a huge circle of friends of both the male and female kind from a variety of backgrounds within quite a large age group.  Brilliant…what a difference that made to my life almost overnight.

Immediately I had a social life (something that had been sadly missing during my 'O' level year at Grammar School) but what was better, I knew some girls!  Whoopee.

I now had places to go, people to see, a means of getting there, and my social calendar suddenly started filling up rapidly.

For a period of about 3 years there was always something to do and I was never in, there was never a chance of getting bored.

The end of the Scooter Club came quite rapidly and unexpectedly, and was another milestone for me since it spelt the closure of an era I thoroughly enjoyed.  You can tell what an impression it made on my life because of the way I can still remember many of the characters and events like they were yesterday.  I was coming up for 20 years of age, and the spectre of responsibility and adulthood loomed largely on the horizon.  My Father was bending my ear about saving a good part of my hard earned dosh towards buying a house within a few years.  I knew he was right, but just didn't want to hear it at the time.  Thank God that he did, or I would never have been in the lovely home that I have now.

Saying goodbye to your teenage is always a bit traumatizing, but when it is piled on in spades by suddenly losing something which you held most precious is a lot worse.

I struggled for quite a while to come to terms with the club being no more.  All the members were suddenly scattered to the four winds, and many I never saw again from the day we broke up.

 

 

● Solent City Scooter Club
□ The Clubs Formation
□ My First Scooter
□ The Weekly Meetings
□ Trips to Stoney Cross
□ The Meeting Places of the Club
□ The Club Warehouse
□ The Thorngate Halls Disco
□ The Club Newsletter
□ Miss Solent City
● Scooter Picture Gallery
● Comments on the Site
● Contact Us
● The Member List
□ Members Tales Then and Now
□ Angela Twigg
□ Dermot Omalley
□ David Seymour
□ John Coles Metalflake SX
□ Keith Champion
□ Muriel Rowe
□ Kenny Erridge
□ Mick Estlick
□ Colin Fry and Debbie
□ Dave Tooley
□ Trevor Aspden
□ Phil Blatch
□ Terry Langridge
□ Pete Boyle
□ John Searle and Jackie Catchpole
□ Pete Thomas
□ Marten Holdway
□ John Olde
□ Chris Bracey
□ Mick Platts (Digger)
□ Ken Jackson
□ Colin Thompson
● Articles on Scooter Racing
□ Scooter Racing
□ Crystal Palace
□ Mallory Park
□ Thruxton
□ Lydden Hill
□ Castle Combe
□ Black Death
□ Les Rafferty
● Scooter Rallys
□ The Southend Scooter Rally 1970
□ The Isle of Wight Rally 1970
□ The Comax Rally
● Other Tales to Tell
□ Tales from the River Bank
□ Suzuki Stinger
□ Speed Cop
□ Ned Newman
□ Taking the Mick
□ Memories from Daves garage
□ First Blood
□ Club Party
□ Martens Wildcat Gp225
□ Such a Teaser
□ Braggers and Bullshitters
□ End of an Era
● Other Websites of Interest