Edinburgh History

[Maroon Sailor]

51 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

It was all change when it went Bingo. Crime increased quite a bit, instead of the back of the cinema we spent more time in the backgreen as local thieves used the time with so many empty houses to climb drain pipes and through windows to empty gas and electric meters.

 

Forgot it was pay as you go lecky. I remember putting money in to my Grandad's television set and hoped it was enough to see the end of the programme !

[FORTHCLYDE]

17 hours ago, Radio Ga Ga said:

George Square

 

[Sharpie]

20 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

 

Forgot it was pay as you go lecky. I remember putting money in to my Grandad's television set and hoped it was enough to see the end of the programme !

You could either pay your bill by receiving it in the mail after a man, (not sexist it was always men in those days) had checked your meter. The alternative was a cash box at the meter where the normal coin was a shilling  put in for a period of power. It was fine until the power went off and you realised there were no shillings in the  house  and change had to be gathered up so somebody could go and get some. As well as being an inconvenience at times, thieves had an idea when the meter man was due to empty meters, they would get in before him. It didn't take a high i.q. polis to figure when he saw a known housebreaker with his jacket pockets down to his knees that they were full of shillings. Bingo another bad one in the pokey.

[Sharpie]

Its amazing in a way when you read items on this thread, and as have I reached high senior years just how different everything is in these days compared to your own. People, places, things we do by rote are completely changed. Things, such as electric irons, radios in cars, phones you can carry with you all different, in fifty years someone may even say something like, in the old days when we had things called web pages I remember a real old man talking about how dramatic the changes were in his life, he has been gone for a long time now, but I can remember what he said then, and I am experiencing it now.  I guess it happens to us all as time progresses.

[Jambo-Jimbo]

5 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

Its amazing in a way when you read items on this thread, and as have I reached high senior years just how different everything is in these days compared to your own. People, places, things we do by rote are completely changed. Things, such as electric irons, radios in cars, phones you can carry with you all different, in fifty years someone may even say something like, in the old days when we had things called web pages I remember a real old man talking about how dramatic the changes were in his life, he has been gone for a long time now, but I can remember what he said then, and I am experiencing it now.  I guess it happens to us all as time progresses.

 

I've told the grandkids about the good old days when you watched movies on VHS Video Tapes, they just stare at you thinking what's VHS Video Tapes. 

[luckyBatistuta]

3 hours ago, Stuart Lyon said:

Owned by the De Marco family - the grandfather or maybe even great grandfather of the current crop was well known snooker and billiard player in Edinburgh long before they created Marco's and the one at Craiglockhart now flats.

And yet again you learn something new every day. I never knew that, know one of the sons well, will have to ask him about that.

[maroonblood]

10 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

Its amazing in a way when you read items on this thread, and as have I reached high senior years just how different everything is in these days compared to your own. People, places, things we do by rote are completely changed. Things, such as electric irons, radios in cars, phones you can carry with you all different, in fifty years someone may even say something like, in the old days when we had things called web pages I remember a real old man talking about how dramatic the changes were in his life, he has been gone for a long time now, but I can remember what he said then, and I am experiencing it now.  I guess it happens to us all as time progresses.

It seems like the pace of change has accelerated in recent times but maybe that is just me getting older too!

[Jambo-Jimbo]

48 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

 

Forgot it was pay as you go lecky. I remember putting money in to my Grandad's television set and hoped it was enough to see the end of the programme !

 

We still had a slot TV well into the '70's, probably mid to late '70's before you had an account with British Relay.

[graygo]

2 hours ago, BarneyBattles said:

 

I'm the same age and can remember going to see a re-run of 20,000 leagues under the sea at the Playhouse in Dalkeith. Apart from the big squid, my biggest memory of being there was the clouds of smoke billowing across the theatre. Must have been around 1980.

 

Rank. Mind you go now (it's now a snooker centre) and the the biggest memory is seeing the local young team queuing up to powder their nose in the bogs😀

 

I saw Jaws and Grease in the Dalkeith fleapit. Used to also go to see the Saturday morning kids films before then. 👍

[Maroon Sailor]

18 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

Its amazing in a way when you read items on this thread, and as have I reached high senior years just how different everything is in these days compared to your own. People, places, things we do by rote are completely changed. Things, such as electric irons, radios in cars, phones you can carry with you all different, in fifty years someone may even say something like, in the old days when we had things called web pages I remember a real old man talking about how dramatic the changes were in his life, he has been gone for a long time now, but I can remember what he said then, and I am experiencing it now.  I guess it happens to us all as time progresses.

 

It worries me how quickly time goes when kids today don't know how to use a rotary phone !

[Stuart Lyon]

34 minutes ago, Sharpie said:

You could either pay your bill by receiving it in the mail after a man, (not sexist it was always men in those days) had checked your meter. The alternative was a cash box at the meter where the normal coin was a shilling  put in for a period of power. It was fine until the power went off and you realised there were no shillings in the  house  and change had to be gathered up so somebody could go and get some. As well as being an inconvenience at times, thieves had an idea when the meter man was due to empty meters, they would get in before him. It didn't take a high i.q. polis to figure when he saw a known housebreaker with his jacket pockets down to his knees that they were full of shillings. Bingo another bad one in the pokey.

I'm sure that when the man came to empty the gas/electric meters in the 50s and 60s that the householder got some kind of rebate there and then. I often benefited from this situaton.

[graygo]

14 minutes ago, luckyBatistuta said:

And yet again you learn something new every day. I never knew that, know one of the sons well, will have to ask him about that.

 

I remember Bert Demarco well, was a top player in Scotland along with Murdo McLeod (not that one), he coached Stephen Hendry for a while.

 

Wiki page has some good info.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Demarco

[Jambo-Jimbo]

15 minutes ago, Stuart Lyon said:

I'm sure that when the man came to empty the gas/electric meters in the 50s and 60s that the householder got some kind of rebate there and then. I often benefited from this situaton.

 

Yip remember that as well.

[luckyBatistuta]

12 minutes ago, graygo said:

 

I remember Bert Demarco well, was a top player in Scotland along with Murdo McLeod (not that one), he coached Stephen Hendry for a while.

 

Wiki page has some good info.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Demarco

Old Bert loved his billiards. Murdo is back at the baking. Bakery next to the Silver Wing. 

[Jambo-Jimbo]

23 minutes ago, graygo said:

 

I saw Jaws and Grease in the Dalkeith fleapit. Used to also go to see the Saturday morning kids films before then. 👍

 

My dad told me that they used to collect empty jam jars and you got in to the Saturday Matinee if you had one or two.

[Jambo314]

1 minute ago, luckyBatistuta said:

Old Bert loved his billiards. Murdo is back at the baking. Bakery next to the Silver Wing. 

I remember Bert from his playing days, always looked grumpy lol

 

Use to see Murdo in the Angle club (think it was called) in Morningside practising and giving some of his friends a start playing for money.

[The Real Maroonblood]

3 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

My dad told me that they used to collect empty jam jars and you got in to the Saturday Matinee if you had one or two.

That’s correct. My Dad told me that as well.

[NANOJAMBO]

23 minutes ago, graygo said:

 

I remember Bert Demarco well, was a top player in Scotland along with Murdo McLeod (not that one), he coached Stephen Hendry for a while.

 

Wiki page has some good info.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Demarco

Did Bert Demarco ever run a boozer - I have a feeling my dad was acquainted with him but it wouldn't be through snooker. 

[Radio Ga Ga]

21 minutes ago, Stuart Lyon said:

I'm sure that when the man came to empty the gas/electric meters in the 50s and 60s that the householder got some kind of rebate there and then. I often benefited from this situaton.

Worked in the SSEB and that was very common, for example if the electricity was 4p/kWh you could get the meter set at 5p/kWh and if you used 1000 units in the quarter you’d get £10 rebated. It was a good way for some people to save up. 
 

The TV rental companies had a similar set up with their slot TV’s 

[Jambo-Jimbo]

Just now, The Real Maroonblood said:

That’s correct. My Dad told me that as well.

 

Don't know when it was, probably in the '30's and during the war.

[graygo]

6 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

My dad told me that they used to collect empty jam jars and you got in to the Saturday Matinee if you had one or two.

 

I seem to remember crouching under the kiosk counter to avoid paying then sneaking up the stairs to the balcony.

[The Real Maroonblood]

1 minute ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

Don't know when it was, probably in the '30's and during the war.

Probably in that time frame.

[The Real Maroonblood]

2 minutes ago, BarneyBattles said:

 

Yeah, my granddad would have been 10 in the mid 30s and he often told me about getting into the pictures for a jam jar.

He must have been born about the same time as my Dad.

[Jambo-Jimbo]

3 minutes ago, The Real Maroonblood said:

He must have been born about the same time as my Dad.

 

Mine's was 1931.

[The Real Maroonblood]

4 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

Mine's was 1931.

Mines was 1922.

[maroonblood]

The jam jar entrance fee was certainly a real thing https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13200693.jam-jars-queue-entertainers-and-flea-pits-project-uncovers-glasgow-cinema-memories/I and not just in Scotland either http://goingtothepictures.org.uk/exchanging-jam-jars-for-cinema-entrance/

[The Real Maroonblood]

4 minutes ago, maroonblood said:

The jam jar entrance fee was certainly a real thing https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13200693.jam-jars-queue-entertainers-and-flea-pits-project-uncovers-glasgow-cinema-memories/I and not just in Scotland either http://goingtothepictures.org.uk/exchanging-jam-jars-for-cinema-entrance/

Thanks for posting that.

I can relate to piece regarding the time spent in cinemas.

My Dad would visit 2 cinemas a day and quite a few in a week. 

His family must have loved jam.

[luckyBatistuta]

27 minutes ago, Jambo314 said:

I remember Bert from his playing days, always looked grumpy lol

 

Use to see Murdo in the Angle club (think it was called) in Morningside practising and giving some of his friends a start playing for money.

I pretty much lived in the Angle Club. I was in there almost every day from the age of 11. Old Bert did have a grumpy look to him, but he was a nice bloke (not to be confused with young Bert). I always thought Brian Blues behind the bar (manager) of the Angle Club was a better player than Murdo, but as soon as he got in a competition, the nerves got the better of him and then it was on to the Bacardi and cokes.

[maroonblood]

1 minute ago, The Real Maroonblood said:

Thanks for posting that.

I can relate to piece regarding the time spent in cinemas.

My Dad would visit 2 cinemas a day and quite a few in a week. 

His family must have loved jam.

 

My mum was saying just the other day about a holiday spent in Kinghorn where she and her sister went to the cinema one day and sat watching the same film about 3 times before my gran came and pulled them out! That was getting your money's worth!

[The Real Maroonblood]

Just now, maroonblood said:

 

My mum was saying just the other day about a holiday spent in Kinghorn where she and her sister went to the cinema one day and sat watching the same film about 3 times before my gran came and pulled them out! That was getting your money's worth!

A&B movies as well then.

[Maroon Sailor]

1 hour ago, graygo said:

 

I remember Bert Demarco well, was a top player in Scotland along with Murdo McLeod (not that one), he coached Stephen Hendry for a while.

 

Wiki page has some good info.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Demarco

 

Nobody under 18 could use the Jubilee billiard hall according to that wiki link

[Jambo314]

7 minutes ago, luckyBatistuta said:

I pretty much lived in the Angle Club. I was in there almost every day from the age of 11. Old Bert did have a grumpy look to him, but he was a nice bloke (not to be confused with young Bert). I always thought Brian Blues behind the bar (manager) of the Angle Club was a better player than Murdo, but as soon as he got in a competition, the nerves got the better of him and then it was on to the Bacardi and cokes.

Ah Forgot about Brian Blues being behind the bar. I use to just go down now and then for a bit practise as I played in the Edinburgh h/cap snooker league can't remember the proper name of it. It was mostly clubs and work places who played in it. From memory I think it may have been run by the Edinburgh City Club in Leith Walk but I may be talking crap lol

[Jambo-Jimbo]

26 minutes ago, maroonblood said:

The jam jar entrance fee was certainly a real thing https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13200693.jam-jars-queue-entertainers-and-flea-pits-project-uncovers-glasgow-cinema-memories/I and not just in Scotland either http://goingtothepictures.org.uk/exchanging-jam-jars-for-cinema-entrance/

 

I'd bet that a lot of young folks today wouldn't believe this used to be common place.

 

[luckyBatistuta]

4 minutes ago, Jambo314 said:

Ah Forgot about Brian Blues being behind the bar. I use to just go down now and then for a bit practise as I played in the Edinburgh h/cap snooker league can't remember the proper name of it. It was mostly clubs and work places who played in it. From memory I think it may have been run by the Edinburgh City Club in Leith Walk but I may be talking crap lol

Never played in that league bud. So many names from behind the bar back in the day there. Jimmy was the other manager. Old Johnny Thomson way back in the day, his daughter Angie was deeelicious😍 There was Debbie,Joan and Angie. The latter married Jimmy Rankeillor, who took over the Shandon with Muncher. 

[maroonblood]

3 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

I'd bet that a lot of young folks today wouldn't believe this used to be common place.

 

The way lockdown is ruining cinemas they might start accepting them again.

[The Real Maroonblood]

3 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

I'd bet that a lot of young folks today wouldn't believe this used to be common place.

 

As was outside toilets.

The Grandchildren think I'm story telling about that.

[Maroon Sailor]

 

 

[Tazio]

I remember playing snooker a few times at Manse Road and there was an old bloke (probably about 50 as we were teenagers) played there who only had one arm. He used a small block with cloth on the bottom and a groove for the cue as his bridge to play shots. 
 

[Sharpie]

I was born in 1935, my first memory of a movie theatre was the Salisbury on South Clerk Street. As I got a bit older the stories started about jeely jar entrance fee, so we tried the La Scala on Nicolson Street. No go money or go home, same with the New Palace High Street. The last positively know theatre that took jars was the Palace long closed on the street off Chambers Street.

 The New Vic, the Regal the Playhouse all charged pretty high fees. The La Scala aka Scabby Lala, Blue Halls aka The Blue Doos, the Salon.the New Palace High Street were all known. as low cost kid friendly, regularly given the necessary flea sprays . The cost was around 3d and for that you got a main movie, a second movie, a serial a cartoon and trailers. Most showed their shows from Monday to Wednesday and  new showsThursday Friday and Saturday. The only movies on Sunday were the health films which were free and we went to in the hope of seeing women in the scuddy, no luck.

[Maroon Sailor]

[Jambo314]

12 minutes ago, Tazio said:

I remember playing snooker a few times at Manse Road and there was an old bloke (probably about 50 as we were teenagers) played there who only had one arm. He used a small block with cloth on the bottom and a groove for the cue as his bridge to play shots. 
 

The Manse Road Club played in the league I mentioned. I cant remember the person your talking about unfortunately. It would probably be around the 80's/90's we played against them.

[Sharpie]

12 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

 

 

  I went to that game, knew a few of the players well. Alistair Hood, Dick Dineley Bobby Gray, I played with Gray and Dineley on the Southside Police team. I wasn't selected for the team in that game mainly because I was an awfy fitba' player and got a game for Southside because nobody else could get time off. Jimmy Hall I am sure played for Queen of the South and most of the selected played at a high Junior level and some were signed for Pro teams but preferred the security of police work.

[Tazio]

Just now, Jambo314 said:

The Manse Road Club played in the league I mentioned. I cant remember the person your talking about unfortunately. It would probably be around the 80's/90's we played against them.

It would have been early 80’s I saw him. I doubt he would have played in competitions. Just one of those things that stick in your head seeing someone with a disability overcoming it so he could have his hobby. 

[maroonblood]

6 minutes ago, Maroon Sailor said:

Thought I recognised the name Alistair Hood https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12416297.alistair-hood/

[Jambo314]

2 minutes ago, Tazio said:

It would have been early 80’s I saw him. I doubt he would have played in competitions. Just one of those things that stick in your head seeing someone with a disability overcoming it so he could have his hobby. 

👍

[luckyBatistuta]

31 minutes ago, The Real Maroonblood said:

As was outside toilets.

The Grandchildren think I'm story telling about that.

folk moaning about how hard they’re done by, because they haven’t had a new bathroom suite for the last 5/10 years🙄

[Maroon Sailor]

16 minutes ago, maroonblood said:

Thought I recognised the name Alistair Hood https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12416297.alistair-hood/

 

Quite an  impressive man - bit of a high flyer

[The Real Maroonblood]

4 minutes ago, luckyBatistuta said:

folk moaning about how hard they’re done by, because they haven’t had a new bathroom suite for the last 5/10 years🙄

You're right. 

[Jambo-Jimbo]

1 hour ago, The Real Maroonblood said:

As was outside toilets.

The Grandchildren think I'm story telling about that.

 

Newspaper cut into small squares for bog roll, and then you had wintertime, now that was an experience.

[The Real Maroonblood]

5 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

Newspaper cut into small squares for bog roll, and then you had wintertime, now that was an experience.