That’s the thing about some T-shirts. It might have
an ‘M’ on the tag but in some places of production
a medium is not the same as what we would call a
medium. Yep, should have bought a large but hey,
it’s brand new and looks nice hanging on the wall.
The one T-shirt I did ensure the right sizing for,
as I was indeed a slimmer chap back in my early
20s, was the best one I ever had, and I should have
kept it. But you don’t tuck away a T-shirt with the
design of the topside of Barry Sheene’s leathers
adorned upon it. He was my hero and I wrote to
some place in the UK in 1977 and bought one.
I loved it, and wore it and wore it and never tired
of explaining to people who came across me
wearing it and said they really liked it that “Oh it
came from England... from the Barry Sheene folks”.
I’d go to some race meeting wearing it, as
that’s what you did back then. If you had a GP-
inspired T-shirt which was slightly more rare
than the usual fodder then you wore it.
Accordingly, I wore it out.
Probably be worth a few bob today if I’d kept it
in its bag. As maybe would be the ones I used to
have of French ace Christian Sarron, American
speedster Wayne Rainey and top Aussie lad Wayne
Gardner... I bought all three at Phillip Island back
in 1989 when the 500cc GP was staged there.
The one I did keep though, and it’s like new,
is the official red-collar, white polo shirt job
with the GP logo of that age upon it.
Oh, and I also have a brand new and never worn
1995 Isle of Man TT T-shirt with a superbly colourful
image of Joey Dunlop upon it. Put it this way, it is so
bright and startling I even get distracted by it so it
remains a valued keepsake... in the bottom drawer.
So I’ve got a few left around the place, and now
my aim is on a factory job. An official one. I am
planning to (finally) get a number 46 one... a
Valentino Rossi one. And like the Sheeney shirt
I’ll wear it everywhere I can and accept the nods
of admiration and quietly just say “Oh it came
from Italy... Valentino’s crew got it for me.”
To which someone will eventually reply that they’ve
got one too, but that theirs was made closer to
here than Italy. “Must be a fake,” I shall snort.
So maybe I’ll just order a size ‘small’ and put it away.
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