Down Memory Lane

Last week I happened to see an advert for Sidmouth Folk Festival which starts today,

Back in the 80's when this festival was at its peek it was the center of entertainment in East Devon and would have made the local TV news, and drew large crowds. Any policeman in the area could expect to be drafted in to spend a shift or two there.

Not that it was a very onerous duty, the crowds were on the whole were very good nature and over the years you got to know people who came every year and often were given free tickets for your family to attend one of the arena shows

The dancers and singers were a very cosmopolitan bunch from all over the world and often you would not get home until the early hours. We often found ourselves pounced on for memorial photo-call.

Whats brought all this on?. Fishing in my desk at home for something lost, like I do from time to time, this saw the light of day after many a year. It was taken by a member of the committee who gave me a copy and if I remember there were a Russian dance troop. I sometimes wonder if copies of this ended up on the wall of these dancers in a little semi in Moscow.

Looking at the equipment today's police officers carry, it is amazing what little we had, a truncheon and a pocket book and a very basic radio (if we were lucky).