Cornwall Writers BSA road rocket 1960s Cornwall and Pink Floyd Led Zeppelin

Cornwall Art and Culture from genius loci

IT COMES TO US ALL? by Clies Stevens

I WAS 60 THIS AUGUST!! A landmark in my life because years ago I never expected to get to this age, like most young folk who think 30 is very very deeply old! Now today I was at a car boot sale, great fun. Behind me on their own pitch were two young women full of life and energy, and thoroughly enjoying the whole deal, and the admiring glances of the young men who passed by. The sun was shining and threatened to warm the day for me, yet here were these two young women in mini skirts!

Now that set me thinking and no not what you could be thinking but the first time I ever saw a mini skirt in the flesh; so to speak! It was back in the last century (bet that gotcha) around 1967 or so, I was driving my new BSA road rocket (a British motorbike) around Penzance and as I drove past the old floating dock there she was, a dark haired beauty wearing a skirt so short well I just drove into the old weighbridge wall and both the bike and I hit the steel weighbridge with one mighty thud! I was not hurt but angry that I had crashed my new bike. I got my helmet off and focused on a pair of legs that seemed to go on forever and at the top was the girl who I could not take my eyes off. The bike was dispatched to Blewett and Penders and I was dispatched intro the dock tavern complete with admiring female.

Music! Now back then we had real music, groups like the WHO and PINK FLOYD, ELO Manfred Mann the MOODY Blues and yet to come was LED ZEPPELIN, probably the greatest rock group I ever saw. We had all kinds of solo artists and groups who seemed to be having a great time on stage and off. So why have I mentioned all this? Because I went for a walkabout (nature called) and stopped on the way back to look at some CD’s 0n a stall. Why do all the American coloured artists scowl? And why do they seem to talk through the music? She who shares my life and who will be obeyed says it’s my age, and to get with it! HOW? What are they scowling about? Have they not been paid, and from the way they strut on the TV they must have the worst ever case of piles imaginable!

And yet, all the time around me where my fellow Cornish folk, walking on the Hallowed turf of Hayle rugby club under a blue October sky with pure white balls of cotton wool blowing over us. I could see ponies grazing contentedly in the fields just the other side of the club, and I could hear the dulcet tones of Camborne and St.Ives mixed in with the other harder vocals of other counties. All in all it was a great day, I still like the Glenn Miller sound and Count Basie, and may Led Zeppelin and Mini skirts live forever in the country of my heart, Cornwall.

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