As a Kid I was a keen motorcyclist who owned a large vincent motorcycle.

So what has this to do with this post ? well in this life many things die or become obsolete or simply dissapear! So no surprise when a past aquaintance (friend) whom I had the pleasure to work with dissapeared off to foreign lands and I never saw him again until now, 28 years later! His name won`t mean much to most, but to me and other motor cylists and children of the 50s, he is "A Great"! His Name is Tommy Messham, he was the worlds Greatest Wall of death rider like his Father before him, and his son Tommy Junior, who followed in his footsteps. http://www.albanycom.co.uk/editorial2.htm

Last week I was on a business break to the Canary Isles, more specifically, Tenerife and having spoken with Tommys step daughter more than twenty years ago and finding out that he had moved to the islands, I had always, rather half heartedly, for what ever reasons, tried to find him on past visits, without knowing which Island or where he might be (sure they told me, but 20 plus years had passed and I had forgotten) on my last visit in October last, I was unsuccessfull and so I turned to the internet only to find that Tommy Mesham had died two years ago! So I wondered if I could perhaps at least look his widow up? as I was feeling even more guilty now that I hadn`t been succesfull over the years and now it was too late.

So on the way from the Airport to our apartment I promised myself that this is what I would do! So where do I start? On the previous visits I had checked out the phone books but with no luck so this time I thought that maybe there would be an electoral register, Anyway, as we got to our apartment. I noticed that the prefecture address was "Silencio" which I thought was somewhat interesting. Over the next few days as ever, I made half hearted attempts to check out his wheabouts, but none of the phonebooks of this Island( Tenerife) referred to other islands and so I resorted to asking about in a couple of English Bars. The first one I questioned a scottish lady from Edinborough, who after much deep thought, came back to me and said that she thought that she might know Tommy and Jenny Mesham, and described her (Jenny) perfectly but didn`t know her wherabouts and reccomended that I tried another English Bar across the way from our Apartment.

In the meantime I visited another Bar "Marilyns" also an english bar! and asked the lady behind the bar if she had heard of them which she said that she hadn`t after a couple of moments and that I should try the same bar reccomended by the scottish lady! as I bought some more drinks, a beer and a cofee for me! I asked the lady serving if I could perhaps jog her memory a little and started to fill her in on more details, as the very same moment a guy about five foot nothing, who turned out to be the Bar owner, called to me from the end of the bar saying "listem Pal! you asked her once and she said that she didn`t know them OK! so what are you asking her again for?" I took a little exception to this sort of rebuff and asked him to "stand up when he talked to me" (I thought that he was sitting on a low stool, Yeah right!! ) and pointed out that I had no wish to offend his lady, to which he replied "I know what you were trying to do" so I guessed I was forgiven, sort of. During this interchange the lady came back and said that she may know of them and that the other bar was the best bet! We didn`t go in to "Marilyns" again! as I have no time for L.M.W.A.B.M.T.T.G.O. (little men with a big man tryng to get out) syndrome! so he will just have to go broke now, due to the loss of my two daily cofees for the rest of my time there!:o))

So on the Wednesday I wandered into the Reccomended "English Bar" and spoke with the Lady behind the bar, who informed me that she would ask me to speak with a gentleman in the other bar (across the counter) who duly came across and quite guardedly asked me who I was looking for and why? which I explained, and was then subjected to a grilling whereupon I duly answered all his questions (there were many, and mostly anybody who didn`t really know Tommy, wouldn have been unable to answer them) I commented to him that I knew that he was dead and had died two years ago and that my intention was to look Jenny up and apologise for not doing so earlier! to which he replied! "Dead? he might play Golf like he is! but he`s not dead! at least he wasn`t when I played with him on wednesday last! Do you want to speak with him and duly dialed his mobile and handed it over to me!

I couldn`t believe what was happening! jenny answered, we exchanged pleasantries as if we had only just seen each other a week ago, and I was duly picked up outside the bar within five minutes by Jenny and taken back to their beautiful, seaside home,overlooking the Atlamtic Ocean, where a very emotional (for me) neeting and greeting took place Tommy is now 89 and plays golf several times a week. I spent some time with them and found out that the Tommy Messham that had regrettably died, was in fact his son Tommy junior who I also knew as a child!

Given that I had no Idea which Island they were living on or the name of the prefecture or if they were still both alive (in fact quite the opposite I believed Tommy to be dead!) what are the chances of my being successfull in my search 1,000,000-1 or more maybe? and to find them living withing a five minutes walk from where I was staying! who says that good Karma doesn`t exist? it was simply meant to happpen!

I never rode the wall but would have loved to. Tommy had three travelling Wall/shows and an ill-fated "Globe of death" with its three dimentional opening bottom. One rider (I believe he was the ofiginal owner) fell to his death from the top of the Big top in the 50s circus of Bertram Mills at the Olympia!

Tommy looked well, and has survived the past rigours of being a wall rider for fifty years plus as well as teaching most of the riders around today! of late he has had to cope with being knocked down and injured badly last year (only Tommy would have survived the severe injuries that he recieved) I always remember him telling me that the safest place to be in the wall of death was on the top of the box in the middle when the riders started to fall off (the existing centrifugal force keeps the bikes and bodies close to the wall until they have lost some momemtum, and eventually end up on the floor of the wall!) I often wondered how they had managed when Tommy was a young man on the Wall, and a rider in a model "T" ford or race car and sidecar with a loose fully grown male Lion riding on the back, and several other riders on the wall too, fell? there wouldn`t be much room! not to mention what the rather pissed off, by now, Lion might have done????

I had a lovely re-union and promised not to leave it another twenty eight years before I visited again. Will he and Jenny go back to the UK I asked? Go back to England! says Tomy, not a chance in hell! so I guess that he, as a born and bred Showman, and great traveller in his early years, has finally found his home.

May I wish you a long and Happy life Tommy and Jenny, and take a moment to say that the World is a better place thanks to characters such as you!