KEITH MOTT

‘HER IN DOORS’ BY KEITH MOTT

I first met my wife, Betty, in 1970 and this was through my friendship with her brother, Alfie, who raced pigeons and was a keen on ‘The Impalas’, the band I played drums in. Alfie North was a regular visitor to the bands Sunday night gig at the Swan PH in Kingston and with our mutual interest in pigeons and Rock music, we used to talk ‘shop’ during my mid session break. From time to time he would bring his sister, Betty, to the ‘Swan’ gig and in the end it was mostly her and me talk about her main interest of those days, Speedway racing. I had known this wonderful girl named, Betty North, for a few months in February 1971 and I asked her out for our first date while at the big Gene Vincent gig at the Kingston Coronation Hall, when we were playing on the same bill. I knew she was there that night and I went out in to audience to find her. My life started on that night in 1971 and we got married in May 1972. We had two wonderful kids in Caroline and Mark, and in turn they have given us five brilliant grand children in Sasha, Katie, Ryan, Sophia and Connie. When we married in 1972 she said that it might only last about two years because of my ‘Rock ‘n Roll’ life style and all that entailed, but here we are 43 years later (2015) and still madly in love and still happily married!

Then came pigeons! At that time I thought to myself, well she is from a pigeon racing family, with her late father, Alf North senior, and her brother racing in partnership in the Surbiton FC for many years, so she knew what she was committing to by marring a pigeon fancier. With my massive commitment to the sport she has put up with a hundred times more disruption in her life with pigeons over the year than other pigeon fancier’s wives. She had seen me go away for weeks on end on pigeon matters, sitting at a computer in the ‘factory’ doing pigeon articles and photos for hours on end, had thousands of pigeon fanciers phoning me day and night, and through the years the countless fancier visiting our home in Claygate to have their birds photographed, and leaving all their mess and shaving all over the carpets. A fraction of what she has put up with in those 40 odd years has finished many other ‘pigeon’ marriages!

I will say that, I’ve always known where to draw the line and have always put her and the children first. We always try and get away for an annual holiday with the kids and in our marriage there has never been man’s work or woman’s work, we both worked full time and have always shared the household chores. I definately can’t cook and if she ever left me I would starve to death in a week. Well, looking at me lately, maybe in a fortnight! My Betty is the greatest person I’ve ever met in my life and I must thank her for putting up with a ‘pigeon maniac’ for all those years. Love you, babe!

TEXT & PHOTOS BY KEITH MOTT