The York Ward

[DJS]

There was a time when part of growing up in Inverness involved a trip to the RNI to have your tonsils or adenoids yanked out.  Anyone out there suffer in this way?

DJS (less his adenoids).

[Kingsmills]

No but I well remember hoping to have that particular operation so that I could partake of the icecream that those recently minus their adenoids used to boast about.

[crownjaggie]

I was so lucky that I was allowed on two separate occasions to enjoy that particular ward for those wonderful experiences of youth.  I also remember laughing at my two older brothers after their tonsils ops didn't go quite as planned. 

[sandykent]

I remember it well. I was in there for six months in 1949 with rheumatic fever. It was the best Christmas I've ever had. After York Ward I went to a large convalescent home outside Forres for six weeks.

[Caley Mad In Berks]

I too remember having my tonsils out as a lad and being promised ice cream as a 'reward'.  All I got was semolina pudding!  Also I remember being 'put to sleep' for the operation with a pill of some sort crushed in a spoonful of blackcurrent jam.  To this day I cannot face blackcurrent jam without the horrible taste of that pill coming back to me.

[latviaman]

My mother came over that rickety bridge with ice cream for my after my dreaded op... by the time she arrived it was melted. God I hated that place though, it was so intimidating and the Sister on the ward I was in, was so nasty to the staff, nowadays with pc etc, ?????

[Charles Bannerman]

If it was over the Infirmary Bridge she came, I wonder, if it was summer, if she got the ice cream in Bellfield Park. What wonderful ice cream you got there!

Best ice cream in Inverness came from Bellfield, Ness Cafe, Salvadori's, Pagliaris (did they supply Bellfield?) and, the only non Italian in the group... Stratton. I'm sure there were more that were just as good, but you just can't get that kind of ice cream in Inverness these days.

Bring back the Tally Cafes!

[morris]

I could not agree more "Bring back the tally cafes/chippers "From the cheese and tomato bridge rolls from the Locarno ,the best ice cream in my opinion from the ness cafe and the fabulous fish and chips from Ronnies in eastgate it beats a Big mac and Mcflurry any day of the week !!!!Mind you we still have the legendary "Castle Restaurant "with the steak pie to die for and how to they do these chips !!!!!!!

[Kingsmills]

For a fairly large commercial manufacturer Stratton ice cream was indeed delicious.

These days the best italian style ice cream produced north of the central belt is by Rizza of Huntly.

[Charles Bannerman]

Agreed! Apart from that, one of the big bonuses of the Italy trip was the ice creamer round the corner from the Hotel in Montecatini.

[latviaman]

Gosh do I remember the rolls in the Locarno, was he called Renzo?I remember the girls there Olga I remember and Maggie, Who Chas had the chip shop on the east side of Eastgate I remember it was an Italian family,l and the chip shop was next to a SHOP but was ownwed by them all and the guy who run the chip shop was at one time a hairdresser, dimensure going away

[morris]

yeah the Locarno was owned by Renzo Serifini and his able assistants were Olga and Jean some of his family also worked there sergio his son but I cant remember the rest. The chip shop at eastgate was owned by the Pieracinis and they also had the papershop next door although it traded under Greenlees

[Kingsmills]

Not to mention the impressive mural depicting a young boy apparently attempting to strangle a goose.

[latviaman]

I am afraid that dimensure sets in, was the mural at the back of the chipper, above the fryers, it is funny how someone writes something and it rings bells, so the brain cells are still working

[Kingsmills]

On the wall between the seated part of the cafe and the front part as I recall although I was quite young at the time.

[Kingsmills]

This thread seems to have travelled well over a mile already from the RNI on the north bank of the Ness to the Locarno Cafe bang in the centre of town

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

**** - most of this is above my head and then then like latviaman the Goose has conjured up an image from the past (or maybe a previous life  :003:)

[DJS]

Blimey, this has gone off topic.

[Alex MacLeod]

I've some recollections of RNI and tonsilectomy. Was 12, never been away from home. Sunday afternoon driven up from Roy Bridge and dumped in RNI. I remember the ward I was in was next to the burns ward. First time I'd ever come across an Asian doctor. He came to check me out and asked if my bowels had moved that day. Hadn't a clue what the **** he was on about till a nurse came by and say 'have you sh!t today young man'. The ice cream and Pennigum (chewing gum impregnated with penicillin were good though.

[Charles Bannerman]

A visitor was touring a hospital ward when he spotted a patient standing on his bed proclaiming: "Wee sleekit cow'rin timorous beastie..."

He moved on to meet another man intoning: "And scarcely had he Maggie rallied when out the hellish legion sallied..."

And in the far corner: "Oh thou who in the heavens doth dwell, who, as it pleases best thysel..."

Turning to his guide the visitor asked: "Is this the psychiatric ward?"

"No," came the reply. "It's the Serious Burns Unit."

Just thought I'd take the thread back to hospitals. I have to say that watching The Royal on ITV on a Sunday night creates strong echoses of the RNI in the 60s. I was just too old for the York Ward when I had to go in to get my sinuses flushed out (couple of tubes rammed up your nose so they could pump salt solution through... very messy.) As a result I had to go into an adult ward. Don't know if I missed anything or not.

[Caley Mad In Berks]

CB  I've been using that story, or a variation of it, with longer Burns quotations, as an icebreaker at the start of speeches I've done at Burns suppers, for the past 2 or 3 years now.  And very well it goes down too,  making the audiences much more amenable to the slightly more serious stuff which follows.

[Alex MacLeod]

Serious stuff!!!!!!!! The only serious stuff you should have at a Burns supper is The Macallan.

[latviaman]

To go back to the dreaded  York Ward, I remember being dropped off and then left, I felt abandoned, Then  as I have read,  I  too met  a doctor with a different colour  face, thought I was in ****, what have my parents done to me I thought. I had never encountered a person, a different coour from me.

But the tonsils were sorted ,

[CaleyJulz]

Hey i must be lucky i never had to go there was never in hospital as a kid but from you lot are saying it was horrible. But i do love the ice cream ya get on the kids ward in raigmore i always nick some of Marcs when hes on the ward.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

I worked on York Ward - gawd how I wish I could have nursed DJS and his adenoids.