Quote:
Originally Posted by coreseller
I have followed the Isle races since the early 80's and have always wondered what it would be like to live there outside of the race dates.
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Kind of a "Currier and Ives" existence, but with better ale. When I first lived there (Castletown), in the winter they turned the street lights off at 8PM because there was no place to go except the pubs (everything closed at 5:30PM), so you had no reason to need lights. Even the police station closed, but all of the “bobbies” had their home phone numbers listed in the book in case you needed one after normal business hours. When a commercial flight was on final approach to the only airport (Ronaldsway) at night, they would turn on the runway lights until the plane’s landing gear touched down, then switch them off again. No sense in wasting electricity………..
It really was an enormously charming life style when the Southern Hundred or TT motorcycle races were not going on. 16X32 mile island with 56-57K population, not counting the sheep. But when the races were on, the population more than doubled, so you can imagine what that was like.