To do my part, here's my story of how I ended up with the Bopcats. For me it all started in 1980, in those days I had a 27cm CB radio and chatted a lot till deep in the night. One night I spoke with "station Rock&Roll". This Guy (named Rob Michels) breaky break…, invited me to go with him to the Rock&roll café at the Oudezijds voorburgwal in Amsterdam. I wanted that, so we met and we went to the city centre, the café was closed however, the group of rockers met each other in the café next to the rock&roll café, "het Oude Kiekje" (haha thanks Jose…for the name) In there I saw the group for the first time and especially one guy (Bopper) with his blue eyes made a deep impression on me. They were all very friendly and I felt at home right away. They also came up with an invitation to go with them to Eindhoven the next day. Home again I drove my mother crazy, because I wanted to go, but wasn't going in my normal clothes, I had to wear something in style. Quickly we grabbed some things together and soon after my first petticoat, skirt and socks were ready! Rob took me to the home of Willem and Alma were we were supposed to meet the rest.

There I saw the hole group…, and of course Bopper as well. But everybody already had a seat covered in one of the cars, so when we left I saw (a bit disappointed) that Boppers car was full allready, so I stood there a little lost because with who would I go??? Luckily there was Wimpy Cadillac who called me "come along in my car". (well car….wow!!!) As said as done, I stepped in the back of a beautiful black Cadillac. Well the ride was one big happening, and Bopper and Jaap Vonk made a game on the freeway who was driving behind the caddy, and there was a lot of flirting. When we arrived in Eindhoven the spark between Bopper and me flew over and from that moment on we were a pair. As I love to dance, the R&R dance was easily learned and we made a good dancing pair as well, like Jose already wrote we had some great times and were really one with each other. Friend's forever. Often the hole group was at Gonzo and Jose's or with Philip and Joke's house or when someone wanted their hair done we would meet at my mother's house in the "living-room barber shop" We went to see a lot of bands in those days ,one day we went with Gonzo and Jose to see The Platters at the Piccadilly Nightclub on the Rembrandsplein in Amsterdam were we lasted on one drink which costed fl12.50 a glass!!! The Platters stayed in the hotel next door were I worked, then and after a chat and some autograph's this nice meeting was also over. England (Caister '82) was a happening to never forget, as soon as you walked into the bungalow park were the weekendhop was held the '80s just stopped to exist, a real "fifties" world opened before your eyes. A couple of years later Marc Gregoire organised a R&R weekend in Slagharen, which was an enormous success.

The solidarity and the beautiful moments of acapella under the streetlights leave an impression which will never be forgotton. And the Big Big Turner show was in perfection a surprise for everybody. In 1981 Bopper and I were asked by Veronica (a Dutch television company) to serve as a "red line" in a special they wanted to make about R&R in Holland. This was fun to do and they followed us everywhere, to record our way of living. I just had a new job for a couple of day's at Agrihama (I stayed there for ten years) and had to confront my boss with a complete camera team on the job. Luckily mr. Schoemaker wanted to cooperate and his company had a lot of positive reactions . Later on Gonzo even drove around with an advertisement for Agrihama and Jose also started to work there. As you can see on the media page there were more television broadcasts for which the Bopcats were asked to cooperate, like in "Tineke" ,"Herrie" and also with Bart Peters and Shakin Stevens we were there. In 1985 Bopper and I broke up and each went our own way…. Going out every weekend started to fade a little but the Cruise inn stayed our regular place were we always kept on meeting each other, especially D-Day (every year, half of June) brought us al back together. Also privately we kept on visiting each other. By now I have two lovely daughters: Kelly 7 and Dianta 4 years old. Slowly all the old friends are seeing more and more of each other because, as the kids grow older, there is more time to do things outside the family life and especially the internet creates more possibility's for renewed contacts. My feelings over the last 21 years (and for sure for the next 21 years) are: The Bopcats are friends for life, nowhere else did I learn how deep friendship can be. All the love and sorrow are shared, with the one more intense than with the other, but the tie between us is there…, it's a part of us and will never pass.

Norma van Dolen.

Translation: André Kolthek