As teenagers in the 80’s, we were exposed to many things: the Falklands War, Thatcherism, the Miner’s strike and the invention of the World Wide Web to name but a few. There was also the Mod revival, 2Tone, New Romantics, Northern Soul, Rap and alcohol.
Once we were old enough (or sometimes not quite old enough) having any form of transport meant freedom to go places, to listen to your music of choice, meet like-minded people and have a drink or 3 (soft drinks only, if you were driving of course).
For us, the common denominator to all of the more fun things listed above, was scooters. Buying a scooter meant you could ride around looking cool and, more importantly, get to scooter rallies at towns (particularly Seaside resorts) all around the country, where everyone you met had scooters (and to be fair, alcohol) in common.
Starting officially in 1981 and going on right through the decade, there were a number of national Scooter Rallies each year; from the Isle of Wight to Fort William and from Great Yarmouth to Newquay. At these rallies lifelong friendships were forged and fantastic memories made.
Back then, scooterists were not the richest, nor the tidiest folk on the planet; which meant that, unfortunately, they weren't universally loved either. This is a far cry from today however, where we, 'ageing scooterists', have more than attractive, disposable incomes and are welcomed back to some of those same towns, year after year. Sadly however, with age, friends and family fall by the wayside and memories fade.
So, in 2024 - 40 years after Henry bought his first Lambretta - we decided to head for the Isle of Wight national scooter rally, the long way round; we took 10 days to do it and stopped (in some cases briefly) at each of the 28 towns that we graced with our presence either once or more times (if we were allowed back) during that tumultuous decade.
We did this to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society; a charity very close to Henry’s heart as his mum battled with Alzheimers prior to her passing in 2021.
The idea was to get as many people as possible involved - all across the country - not just for sponsorships or donations, but to get together in the various towns, to possibly even ride together, so that we can all remember the good (and bad) old days, Before we Forget!
