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60 today - a milestone or a gravestone?

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Hi Janner and max - thanks for your posts. I still have quite a long way to go before I reach 80, but if I am still posting on the Forum I'll have no complaints! My mum, bless her, lived to the age of 87 and was mentally as bright as a button. To the day she died she was making sure I ate my sprouts and telling me off if I didn't clean my shoes.

 

I've actually often thought of taking up fencing but never done so - maybe it isn't too late; I'd certainly enjoy the travelling! In any event it's clear there are plenty of things we oldies can do in our so-called retirement!.:)

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Hi Royston - I did actually once have a 175cc Bantam (YWA 32G -why do I remember such things?!) but this was a BSA 250 Starfire. With a race-bred engine it went like the clappers. One morning in 1971 my dad overlaid and I took him to work at Firth Browns. With 14-stone dad on the pillion it went up Rutland Road in second gear at about 50 mph. Well, maybe it was 29 or so....;)

 

Lovely bike the starfire,i had the C15 but really wanted[well still do] the starfire.

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Hi Gazza58 - I actually wanted a 441cc Shooting Star but I couldn't find a dealer who had one and BSA weren't turning them out in mid-1970 (I took delivery of the Starfire on the first day of the 'J' registration, 1 August 1970). I liked the bottom-end torque and companionable throb of a big single (my dad had a Velocette Venom) but the Starfire made up for the smaller engine with its performance. I had it for two years and took it to the Isle of Man, Lake District etc. In fact Harry Simpson of Leather & Simpson thought it was overgeared and I tended to agree. So I fitted a bigger rear sprocket; while this slightly limited the top speed the gearing was better, for example, for motorway riding and it gave better acceleration. A lovely bike - I wish I had it now!.:)

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Oh yes,the shooting star,another lovely bike,did look very similar to the starfire.All my mates in the mid 70s were buying the japenese 250s but they just didnt do it for me.Taking ya starfire to the isle of man,sounds great.

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Well, another five years have passed (where did they go?) and I'm 65 today. So I'm an O.A.P. - bloomin' heck!! But as they say "every cloud has a silver lining" and having paid taxes all my life I'll begin to receive a pension. As one of the kind contibutors to this thread in 2008 remarked "it's just a number" and that's the best way to look at it. I hope I'm mellowing and not getting grumpier as I get older - but that's for others to judge. Maybe I'll be like the Forum, and improve with age..:)

 

I don't feel any different. Another milestone may have been passed but I'm blessed with good health and the gravestone seems just as far away. And despite having "retired" I get busier - I just published a little book on a very abstruse subject (the Trans-Siberian postal route to [/size][/color][/size][/color][/size][/size][/size][/size][/color][/size][/color][/size]<br /> "]China in the early 1900s - honest!). As far as the Forum is concerned I still contribute snippets of information on the history of Hillsborough, Rivelin etc. In fact Marion (Mrs hillsbro) and I have just had a few days at our "holiday home" in Wadsley - it was too cold for picnicking but we had some bus rides in Derbyshire. Marion - bless her - gave me a lovely card and a big kiss this morning, and we're going to our favourite watering-hole for a pub lunch, then a walk in the grounds of Normanby Hall where we were married in 2007.

 

I feel better already....

 

P.S. Belated birthday greetings for yesterday, PT!.:)

 

aww thanks for your update..is it really 5 years...I posted then on this thread so that means Im now nearly 52 :( glad your still enjoying good health and a good life :)

my life has changed beyond comprehension since this thread 5 years ago, all for the better :)

see you on here again in 5 years for your 70th and my 57th :o

Happy belated birthday x

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Hi shaznay - nice to hear from you again. Yes, (as Ms Macbeth also observed in post #53) I guess I'll be resurrecting this thread every five years until I fall off my perch! Health considerations are of course a major concern in later years but Marion and I are still healthy and active. We never notice the passage of time and devote our energies to the house and garden, walking (Lincolshire Wolds & Derbyshire), doing a little charity work, taking 3 or 4 short holidays a year (we're off to Devon for a week on 4 May, staying with an old friend) and busying ourselves with various grandchildren-oriented activities. I also help Forummers with family history research - never been busier!.:)

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Hi Janner and max - thanks for your posts. I still have quite a long way to go before I reach 80, but if I am still posting on the Forum I'll have no complaints! My mum, bless her, lived to the age of 87 and was mentally as bright as a button. To the day she died she was making sure I ate my sprouts and telling me off if I didn't clean my shoes.

 

I've actually often thought of taking up fencing but never done so - maybe it isn't too late; I'd certainly enjoy the travelling! In any event it's clear there are plenty of things we oldies can do in our so-called retirement!.:)

 

It's never too late to take up fencing as these two vids show: Connie, the Olympic Torch carrier and

.

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Hi max - well, Connie is certainly an inspiration! Love her Norfolk accent. Must look into the possibilities for fencing. Oddly enough, last night I was sorting out some stamps that were donated to a charity I help with, and I found this one!.:)

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Guess I am a nipper here at 45 ha ha!!

 

Just one question Hillsbro, if you could have met up sooner with your partner i.e. less than the 37 years, would you?

 

Is love as good 2nd time round?

mumsy

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Just one question Hillsbro, if you could have met up sooner with your partner i.e. less than the 37 years, would you? mumsy
It's an interesting question mumsy, and the background needs explaining. Marion and I went our separate ways in 1968. We really wanted to plan a future together; it was simply that we lived too far apart and we saw no possibility for this to change. In 1975 I began doing family history research in St Catherine's House in London, using the General Register Office indexes that could be consulted there. And while doing this I looked in the marriages index for 1968 onwards, from which I learned that Marion had got married in 1971. So I thought "Well, that's it then". Marion and Pete were married for 33 years, and it was only after Pete died, and Marion acquired an interest in computers (thanks to her computer-technician son-in-law) that the link via friendsreunited.co.uk was made.
Is love as good 2nd time round?
It's every bit as good, if not better, but circumstances are of course very different. We're older, and being retired we have time for each other without the stresses and strains of work, raising a family etc. Like everyone else we've had good luck and bad luck in our lives, but it's nice when things come right..:) Edited by hillsbro

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Hi Hillsboro,Iam 71 now and still riding a Harley softail and a BMW but only on high days and fair days now but still enjoy it even though they are getting a bit heavier now,i may have to take some of the chrome off ehehe.The thing that change for me was that I remember Hillborough in its heyday and every time we go down which is roughly once a week I drive my wife mad grumping and mumping about how its gone down the nick.I am always looking through my 1960 eyes and remembering all the coffee bars we went to on our Triumphs and all the nice shops and people who used to be around.We were in the Java Lounge last week and I said to my wife,I could come down here a few years ago and bump into loads of people i knew now I am lucky if I see one, quick as a flash she came back well at your age they are either in wisewood or a nursing home or live at Skeggy so that made me feel a lot better.seriously theres no differance its how you cope with age ,if you want to sit down and vegitate to a slow demise so be it,but theres too many things for me to do yetand the devil is trying to delay our meeting as long as he can.

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