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The auld farts thread


John Findlay

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John Findlay

Back opened end buses. Now those were the days and if you got away with not paying your thruppeny fare you were made. You never gave a second thought to jumping off or on whilst the bus was in motion. Especially when going round corners.

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Aye they still went out. After forementoned video was removed from the machine and confiscated. There was no hanky panky as her dad was the Chief GI (gunnery instructor) onboard our ship HMS Intrepid. Chief GI's were commonly referred to as God To say I was S h I T T I n g myself is an understatement.

Ah, too bad.  After such a promising start to the evening.

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John Findlay

Ah, too bad. After such a promising start to the evening.

Aye. Still I was only 17 at the time and starting out on life's big adventure. The thing is I would go back and do it allover again tomorrow if given the chance.

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punkrockcroc

The summer of 76, feckin roasting

Tar bubbling on the road and poking it to burst it when no cars on the road (obviously).
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The Real Maroonblood

I remember our neighbour had a TV that you put money in it so you could get it to broadcast.

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John Findlay

I remember our neighbour had a TV that you put money in it so you could get it to broadcast.

Probably one from any of these shops. Granada, Radio Rentals, or Vision hire. I am sure there are more but I think they were the big three. The tellies took 50p pieces.

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Jambo-Jimbo

Probably one from any of these shops. Granada, Radio Rentals, or Vision hire. I am sure there are more but I think they were the big three. The tellies took 50p pieces.

 

Our first TV was from British Relay, 3 channels and about 3 or 4 radio stations, slot in the side where the money went and the guy came and emptied it every week or two.

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luckyBatistuta

Our phone had a little padlock on it, to stop my sister running up massive bills. Also remember going to school and loads of folk in my class all laughing and discussing how funny 'The Addams Family' was, as it was on this new 'CHANNEL 4' which had just launched. Couldn't get it in our area at first, bloody annoying.

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the stone rose

The coal man and the Barrs truck that went around and swapped your empty glass bottles of juice with full ones.

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Best fall. Dunno if you played it up here but, in North Wales a load of you would run down a hill and get "shot" by a pal and fall. Person who fell best got to be the shooter.

Sounds mad dunnnit? It was the 70's and we hand nae money

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The White Cockade

the man who came every week to collect your Vernons or Littlewoods pools

and we had another guy who came to collect insurance money every month or two

door to door salesmen selling encyclopedia's

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alwaysthereinspirit

the man who came every week to collect your Vernons or Littlewoods pools

and we had another guy who came to collect insurance money every month or two

The Prudential man.

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John Findlay

 

the man who came every week to collect your Vernons or Littlewoods pools

and we had another guy who came to collect insurance money every month or two[/quote

 

Or the Leith Provident man]

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The White Cockade

ice cream vans

fish and chipps vans

mobile grocer

fishmongers who sold fish from the back of their wee white vans

scaffies

lived in a multi storey flat and my mum used to chuck coins down wrapped in a bit

of paper with her shopping order written on it

the cub's gang show

poor oots at weddings

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the man who came every week to collect your Vernons or Littlewoods pools

and we had another guy who came to collect insurance money every month or two[/quote

 

Or the Leith Provident man]

my grannie waiting on the pools guy[littlewoods] after getting 8 draws, he was ever so late, like 4 days ,everyone thought he had done a runner, turns out there was about 15 draws that week and he turns up with a cheque for ?17 , doh grannies eh god love them

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Dagger Is Back

The party telephone line, you would go to use your phone and one of your neighbours would be on the feckin line so you couldnt make a call but you could listen into theit conversation :lol:

I remember that. Brilliant

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ice cream vans

fish and chipps vans

mobile grocer

fishmongers who sold fish from the back of their wee white vans

scaffies

lived in a multi storey flat and my mum used to chuck coins down wrapped in a bit

of paper with her shopping order written on it

the cub's gang show

poor oots at weddings

I still get a fishmonger coming to my street and selling out the back of it. They have a family boat landing at Pittenweem and Anstruther. His prices are extortionate to be honest. But the fish is obviously no bad.

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Phew.Thank **** people are talking about growing up in the 70's. Means I'm not an auld fart, just a middle aged one.

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joondalupjambo

Our first TV was from British Relay, 3 channels and about 3 or 4 radio stations, slot in the side where the money went and the guy came and emptied it every week or two.

 

My Mum was the manageress of the British relay shop in Clerk Street, opposite the Odean.  Sometimes I used to go and sit beside her at her work when I was younger on a Saturday morning.  Customers would come in an pay their weekly TV rent.  They had a book, like a cheque book, and I would pull out the week number, take their payment which was not a lot, perhaps 50p? and stamp the back of their book.  Others would come into to rent a TV and my Mum would show them all the latest models and how they worked.  Some of the models had slots in them to take their payments.  Cannot remember if they were pre or post payment books because folk used to love having the payment books and coming into the shop to pay.   One night she locked up the shop and we walked over to the cinema to go and see a Beatles film, Hard Days Night I think.

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Our phone had a little padlock on it, to stop my sister running up massive bills. Also remember going to school and loads of folk in my class all laughing and discussing how funny 'The Addams Family' was, as it was on this new 'CHANNEL 4' which had just launched. Couldn't get it in our area at first, bloody annoying.

 

You could still make calls with those padlocks on.  You just had to tap the phone cradle a corresponding number of times for each digit of the phone number, (with ten taps for a zero), and you'd get through. 

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Stuart Lyon

My brother used to work for Multibroadcast who were quite big in the TV rental business. One day he phoned me to ask if I would accompany him to Niddrie to recover a TV as he wasn't happy going on his own. We  got to the house and in fairness the guy just shrugged his shoulders and let us take the TV. What we did notice was the guy had made his own hatch in the mutual wall between the living room and the kitchen and had made a very crap job in doing so. It looked as if he had just taken a sledgehammer and then cleared the rubble.

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Dagger Is Back

You could still make calls with those padlocks on. You just had to tap the phone cradle a corresponding number of times for each digit of the phone number, (with ten taps for a zero), and you'd get through.

Brilliant

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The Real Maroonblood

You could still make calls with those padlocks on.  You just had to tap the phone cradle a corresponding number of times for each digit of the phone number, (with ten taps for a zero), and you'd get through.

 

Same as the telephone in the boxes.
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luckyBatistuta

You could still make calls with those padlocks on.  You just had to tap the phone cradle a corresponding number of times for each digit of the phone number, (with ten taps for a zero), and you'd get through.

 

Yeah, but how many times did you phone the wrong number :lol:

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SectionDJambo

As already mentioned, Rag and Bone men giving you a balloon, or some other crap object, for old clothes that your mum had to find in a hurry.

Telly going off around 10 or 11 with the National Anthem telling you it was bed time.

Waiting to see the newspaper in the morning, to find out the Hearts score from the previous night. No coverage on radio or telly.

Playing football in the street. Little or no cars, but the local polis on his bike appearing at the end of the road, causing us to scarper until he had gone.

Sunday School. Murder!

Some of the posh shoe shops had a contraption that, when you stood with your feet, in new shoes you were trying on, into a hole at the bottom, it showed an x Ray type view of your tootsies to let your parents decide if they were a good fit or not.

My old man told me that him and his pals, pre war kids, used to curl up in old tyres and roll down hills until they stopped by hitting something.

The same film being on at big, one screen cinemas like the odeon or ABC, for weeks on end, with long queues to get in.

Saturday matinees at the Bonnyrigg Regal and, when a bit older, every Saturday night at the Dundas Hall picture house in Arniston. Absolute mayhem most weeks.

We were easy pleased, it has to be admitted.

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Same as the telephone in the boxes.

 

I wasn't a youngster but when in the army stationed in London I used to call a girl from a payphone. You had to enter a number in the dial and physically turn it back and do this through the full number and you got it free, I was doing it one night and saw a policeman watching me with great interest so I concluded immediately and wandered of, was not approached but I am sure he knew what I was up to.

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You could still make calls with those padlocks on.  You just had to tap the phone cradle a corresponding number of times for each digit of the phone number, (with ten taps for a zero), and you'd get through. 

:lol: forgot all about that

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Playing Rounders, the precursor to baseball, in the street using lampposts and jackets as bases.  An old tennis racquet and tennis ball were all the equipment that was needed.

 

To score a run, you had to get all the way around the bases without stopping, which is a home run in baseball.  If a batted ball was caught without hitting the ground, the whole side was out.  To get a runner out, you had to hit them with a thrown ball ... I think baseball would be improved if they adopted that rule.

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Free school diners over the summer for us tramps.

 

Free school milk.

 

Flying pigeons in the back green.

 

First colour telly in 1970.

 

Putting money in the Telly/Gas meter/Lecky meter.

 

getting money back on the juice bottles.

 

Tap door run.

 

Creamola foam.

 

Chopper bike and space hoppers.

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Forza Cuore

Playing Rounders, the precursor to baseball, in the street using lampposts and jackets as bases. An old tennis racquet and tennis ball were all the equipment that was needed.

 

To score a run, you had to get all the way around the bases without stopping, which is a home run in baseball. If a batted ball was caught without hitting the ground, the whole side was out. To get a runner out, you had to hit them with a thrown ball ... I think baseball would be improved if they adopted that rule.

Used to love a game of rounders.

 

I broke my nose playing though, as the guy in front of me threw the metal tennis racket behind as he hit the ball.

 

No recollection if we won that game.

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Brian Whittaker's Tache

Excited about getting the Christmas Radio Times to see what the big Christmas movie was going to be on BBC and STV!!

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Craig Gordons Gloves

Playing football on the big green area outside Mauricewood primary for hours on end, pretending to be Zico or Socrates after the 1982 World Cup.

Wandering around the woods at Mauricewood where there was an old mine which was the scene of a disaster years and years previously. Not a care in the world that we could fall into an old shaft etc.

BB football in Penicuik public park, getting all excited when you got to play on the pitch with the smaller goals close to the High School.  Excited because we were 6 and 7 years old playing in full size goals. 

Going exploring up the river in West Linton for an entire day and not falling down the steep hills or drowning.

Making jumps for our raleigh strikers and grifters out of a few bricks and a plank of wood and positioning it on the edge of a high kerb so you went even higher - and no cycling helmets either. 

10p Mix bags from MacKays supermarket.

The excitement when Beeslack opened and IT HAD A SWIMMING POOL so we didn't have to go to Peni high anymore. 

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Hearts strip in a box for your christmas.

 

Getting big league and painting the Hearts colours on the players.

 

Butlins for our summer holiday.

 

Spud u like.

 

Trying to skive on the bus and avoiding the condutors eye.

 

All the men drank McEwan's export .

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The White Cockade

red cola

American cream soda

school milk in wee triangular cartons

bazooka joe's

Berwick cockles

aztec bars and supermousse

penny chews

spangles and toffos

those packets of wee soldiers - midges we called them

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Crisps with the wee blue packet of salt.

 

Horse and cart delivering the store milk.

 

Hammer house of horror and hoping for a wee flash.

 

Scud books passed around in the playground.

 

Saturday night and the open line with Andy.

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Quarter of Toffee doddles and a quarter of Kola cubes

 

 

Edit

 

I remember you could half a penny dainty on the kerb to share with your pal

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Maiden Gorgie

Playing Out Run on a Spectrum 128k and thinking, video games can't get any better than this.

 

Someone has mentioned Cameron Toll - I lived near there when it was getting built and couldn't wait to go, I thought it was the coolest building ever. A ******* spaceship near my house? Yes please.

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World in Action. :)

 

The old B&W TVs with the dial which you could pick up the police frequency on.

 

GSTQ playing when TV "closed" late at night.

 

The wee lass with the chalk board when BBC was off air.

 

Actually having to phone mates to arrange a pint.

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alwaysthereinspirit

Crisps with the wee blue packet of salt.

 

Horse and cart delivering the store milk.

 

Hammer house of horror and hoping for a wee flash.

 

Scud books passed around in the playground.

 

Saturday night and the open line with Andy.

The best Andy one I ever heard went something like this

"we have Bob on the line, go ahead Bob"

"Andy you have to help me, I  don't think I can take any more, I just want to end it"

"Bob what is it that's bothering you, I'm sure we can discuss it and put you in touch with the right people, its never as bad as it first looks"

"its to late Andy, theres nothing you can do. I just need to be away from this crazy world, they don't even care about us, its so obvious" 

This went on for easily 10 minutes till Bob finally confessed he was mad that they had put the price of Mars Bars up again.

Andy absolutely flipped out on him on the air. Obviously a wind up by Drunk Bob late on a Saturday night.

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Crisps with the wee blue packet of salt.

 

Horse and cart delivering the store milk.

 

Hammer house of horror and hoping for a wee flash.

 

Scud books passed around in the playground.

 

Saturday night and the open line with Andy.

Salt and Shake, they're still on the go.
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The Prudential man.

Ours was a woman. I remember hiding behind the couch with me Mam cos she never had the dough to pay her. Man we were po!

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cb radios.

 

Going to Galls for the old dears balls of wool. They all had a drawer with your name on.

 

Green shield stamps.

 

Your store number.

 

The ticky man. Don't answer the door.

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I wasn't a youngster but when in the army stationed in London I used to call a girl from a payphone. You had to enter a number in the dial and physically turn it back and do this through the full number and you got it free, I was doing it one night and saw a policeman watching me with great interest so I concluded immediately and wandered of, was not approached but I am sure he knew what I was up to.

Aye Bob, we've all seen those cards in London phone boxes. ;)
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Salt and Shake, they're still on the go.

Strictly speaking, salt'n shake were a re-issue of the original packets that all contained the wee blue bag. When s&'s were introduced, ready salted crisps had been introduced many years before.

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Boston Jambo

A rhino's head sticking out of the wall near Parker's store?

 

Am I remembering or imagining it ?

 

Bob Sharpe, over to you.

 

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A rhino's head sticking out of the wall near Parker's store?

 

Am I remembering or imagining it ?

 

Bob Sharpe, over to you.

  I honestly can't think of it and I worked that area quite a lot, including the day the store burned down.

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