Gary says: "What started out as fun, turned into a life-changing hobby.

"Roughly four years ago, Dave Wheeler, aka "Rosey", and I aka "Cookie", found out that we had a great interest and love in common ... Viet Nam.

"We'd been to a few 'militaria' events and saw people dressed in period uniforms and costumes and thought; "WOW! We want a slice of this - we're not the only nutters on the planet after all"!

"So we got ourselves some Jungle Utilities, Tiger Stripe uniforms, webbing, equipment and what we thought we needed ... and I emphasize the word 'thought'. Also, we decided that we'd badge our uniforms as 101st - (We'd been watching 'Hamburger Hill' ) - as it was a unit that we both liked.

During the course of one of our excursions at a 'militaria' event, we were approached by a guy dressed in German uniform, wanting to know where we were from? (We were dressed in Tiger Stripes as 5th Special Forces at the time). He was as surprised as we were to find out that we lived a few short miles from one another in North East Lincolnshire. He'd always been interested in 'Nam more than the forties, but as there was no niche for it, he'd settled into the WWII period.

"This guy turned out to be Brian Siddle aka "Kelly"!

"Finding events that catered for this period was, (and still is), pretty difficult.  The "girls", (our wives), were never as enthralled by the Viet Nam period as we were, they felt the call of the '40's.

"As we'd dragged them around the country to different venues, we felt it only fair that we should support them as they'd supported us - so we cobbled together a '40's look, just to please the girls! At first it was civilian, but boys being boys, we wanted uniforms ...

"Of course, as we'd started out as 101st, we decided to remain 101st. (It had nothing to do with "Band Of Brothers". None of us had seen it at the time). So, that's really were it all began - the friendship and the 'brotherhood'.

"Now ... the girls run a '40's style store, we've taken dance lessons, met people we'd never have otherwise have met - and gotten into a fascinating and absorbing hobby!

"So .. along with the evergrowing stall, we are now able to portray:

• Viet Nam: 101st troopers / MP's / Class A & Class B walking out uniforms / Special Forces.

• WWII: 101st troopers (M-42 jumpsuits) / MP's / Class A walking out uniform / 8th USAAF /Civilian (Spy / Undercover Agent)?

The girls, as they always seem to be 'on the stall', dress as British civilians.

And that's about it! The remainder of the story and 'past' history, is yet to be written ...........