stoke on trent 1965 - 68

went to study physics in stoke on trent in 65 - lived with paul hamer and stu opposite longton park - the house is no longer there - had a vincent comet (JOT 81)... fell in love with the beatiful sara parker - potter from leeds - she lived with judy ackers and janet strachan... i moved to the bridge pub near the canal near the station in stoke - the landlord was a black bloke called aussie - judy cole had the next room door - fell completely in love with her  - potter from london - stayed with her in her flat in clapham new year ‘66... moved to 66 london road newcastle under lyme - lived there with chris hemstock - he was a goldstar biker and a post graduate potter on the same course as sara - chris met and married sandra lefevre, art student at derby college of art - the photo below shows me, chris and tony ripon at his wedding. Chris and Sandra moved to carlton-on-trent, nottinghamshire where he established a pottery - Chris died in 2017...

hitched around ireland with sara, easter ‘66 - ended up camping in macgillicuddy's reeks - hitched around brittany with sara in ‘67 - sara went to kampala to do vso at makrere university - i visited in '69 - we climbed mount elgon - was on the crater rim on 20 july 1969 about to start our descent around 8 o'clock - the sky was clear - the moon was bright - witnessed the moon landing - got lost on the way down but eventually made it to jesse singh’s farm in kenya...

sara married amir jinha, a lecturer at makrere - they moved to canada when idi amin got going - they had two sons, azim and arif - sara started to circumnavigate africa in 2005 - got as far as tanzania - married to solomon - back in Canada...