Memories of Olde Sneck .. it's that time again!

[Charles Bannerman]

Look folks... it's December 15th already.... anyone want to start off this year's epic?

[clacher_holiday2]

i remember earlier this year you could see the inside of la scala's south wall from struthers lane, which always made me laugh.  its gone for good now

[gerx13]

I remember, in August, Hibs earning their first point in Inverness.  :001:  And the opening of the Ironworks, the long overdue music venue that this city has been screaming for.  :022:

[Charles Bannerman]

Maybe it's the ambiguous way in which I entitled the original thread (which I've changed) but it's usually rather OLDER memories than the current year that we have on this thread.... such as roller skating in the Islands... Frankie Jew's....the Suspension Bridge etc etc....

[caley100]

I rember the frustration of going to school (Crown) and just getting used to Pounds Shillings and Pence, then they go and change it to decimal... now you look back and think what the feck was LSD all about?

[beachcomber]

seems like nostalgia isn't what it used to be

[latviaman]

In my youth I used to ring the bell at the Crown, that was the trouble of living in hill street, keep these memories coming , I do enjoy reading and reliving old memories

[Guest Atholl]

This is the problem with History threads... it's just one thing after another..  :006:

Does anyone remember Rosies Cafe at the foot of Stephens Brae...? at lunch time a lot of us (in the early 80s) would pile in there... Legend has it she spat in the fat to check whether it was hot enough to put the chips in.... Can anyone verify?

[Charles Bannerman]

I think it's an apocryphal tale. There seems to be this "spitting in the fat" myth which seems to hang around various chippers in Inverness - and very possibly other places too - as an implication of seediness. By Rosie's Cafe do you mean the Eastgate Chipper? Favourite lunch time stop off place wih IRA pupils and presumably Millburners as well. Doesn't say much for the counter attraction of school dinners!

[Guest Atholl]

I think it's an apocryphal tale. There seems to be this "spitting in the fat" myth which seems to hang around various chippers in Inverness - and very possibly other places too - as an implication of seediness. By Rosie's Cafe do you mean the Eastgate Chipper? Favourite lunch time stop off place wih IRA pupils and presumably Millburners as well. Doesn't say much for the counter attraction of school dinners!

Might be where the Chipper is now CB but was certainly a cafe back then with seating in areas in the back and the counter on the left as you went in... on the subject of spitting I can exclusively reveal that in Charlies Cafe the fat was never spat in (I used to work there 1979-80) ..  Pupils would more or less self serve and it was a bit of a dive to be honest.. (Rosies not Charlies... :014:)

[gerx13]

I remember during the power cuts of 72. When I was on duty at the Playhouse, that when the scheduled power cuts happen. We would pop next door to the Clachan and have a pint by candle light, while waiting for the power to return. I also remember a game getting played at Kingsmills with the flood lights power by a generator to beat the cuts.

Used to love the lamb burger suppers you used to get at Eastgate/Ronnies chip shop? hav'n't tasted one in over 30 years.  :019:

[Heilandee]

There seems to be this "spitting in the fat" myth which seems to hang around various chippers in Inverness - and very possibly other places too - as an implication of seediness.

Reckon yer right there Charles,eh mind back in the late 60's kids in my primary school in the Hawkhill swearing blind they saw "auld Johnny" gobbing in the fat to see if it hissed.....Best tattie fritters eh ever tasted though,never put me aff.

[absent friend]

My memories are not of Olde Sneck...Culcabock was not yet in the town.

The lane up the side of the Fluke allows me a couple of favourite memories.

Jock McLean on his way to his small holding at Inshes, walking with his flock of sheep, just bought at the sales, found the work thirsty so he just opened the golfcourse gate at the top of the Fluke lane and put the sheep in there, along with the dogs. It was sometimes the following day that the sheep made the last part of their journey, I suppose dictated, no doubt, by the money made at the Mart and the friends willing to celebrate a 'good' deal done!

The other memory, in the same lane, was the tinkers having a real (or should that be reel) knees-up with their own piper supplying the music and the men folk paying a penny for their favourite tune to be played. Donnie McKenzie giving the piper tuppence to play 'Bonnie Anne' because he was so proud of his daughter. The proceeds were watched over by the then owner of the Fluke, John Hay.

Health and Safety  -  Entertainments Licence  -  Animal Welfare  -  Policing

I do not think any of these were too important back then - the craic was excellent, the animals well looked after, the locals all fed and watered, no aggro....Happy Days indeed!

[Guest Jock Watt]

Playing "Cowboys" on the Carse by chasing Willie the Carse's highland cattle.

Willie had no nose - remember - said to have been shot off during WWI.

Was that true ?????

Is the Carse still there ????  Or has it by now been all built out ????

[Scarlet Pimple]

Dunno about that Jock .

But to Absent Friend I wonder if you knew of my mother's family cottage in Culcabock right next to King Duncan's well on that sweeping corner that led up to Raigmore Hospital. I believe that corner has been re-aligned and there certainly will not be a cottage there now. The hedge was  made of holly round the edge of the front garden right on the road.

There were her three  brothers Bob, Jim and Ned (Roderick) MacBean .  My Grandpa Roderick was the farm Manager at the Inshes farm  where Ned and Jim also worked then latterly they  ran the flour Mill close by  the golf course with the huge water wheel and Bob was the Assistant Burgh Surveyor. 

If you don't know of them I am sure your parents would have.

Cheers. :002:

[absent friend]

Hello to Scarlet.

Sorry for my delayed reply.  Indeed I do remember the cottage - still standing as you described it.  This was our gathering point when I was a boy, we all sat on the cottage wall and watched the traffic go bye.  One car an hour back then! I had my bicycle with me one evening and was doing circles on the road, no doubt trying to impress and the one car per hour came along and knocked me for six and then it hit the gravestone of King Duncan that was built into the wall on the opposite corner, across the road from the cottage gate. However, no great harm done, my ego dented and the front fender of the car, made in circa.1/4in steel in those days, absorbed the impact.

Your discussion regarding your uncles was very interesting - I did not know that the brothers had a sister, so I am not sure where the SP came from!  I was so much younger than your uncles, they being my dads age, so whilst I knew them as local personalities within the village I don't remember speaking to them. One stayed in the cottage, the other in the house at the foot of the golf course brae, at the junction with Diriebught Road, looking right up the 10th fairway of the golf course. Did the third brother stay just 100yards down Diriebught Road on the left, below McWilliams sand quarry?  The Mill I had to go to to buy our meal and it was measured out on a big weighing machine that was used for sacks of meal, so my little brown bag looked very lonely sitting on this big scales. My Grandmother lived in the house on the middle of the two braes across from the mill so watching the mill working when I was young was a big event that I witnessed as my mother and Granny enjoyed their 'fly cup' on our way home from the town.

Anyway enough for just now as I need to know where SP comes into this picture! Thanks for bringing back memories!

[Scarlet Pimple]

Hullo Absent Friend

Well, well, it is a small world and no mistake. Sorry that I did not access this thread more recently but it is great to hear from you  about this.

My Uncle Bob the architect lived in the family cottage in Culcabock with Uncle Jim until Jim had to be re-located to Craig Dunain hospital due to  memory loss (probably Alzheimers) until his death. He was as fit as a fiddle and walked for miles daily on his hospital jaunts apparently.But when I visited him he could not remember me  except that he seemd to understand that I was close to him. Bob lived in the cottage until his death, but what happened to the cottage , or who lived in it subsequently I do not know. I was under the impression that it was demolished to make way for the road widening but you say it is still there...wow. I remember running round in the back garden up to the fence and looking over into the field at the foot of the back garden over to Raigmore hospital with Princey the dog who was a firm favourite with all.

I was born in Dunain Road in 1938  but I did not know my Grandfather who died before I was old enough to understand anything. I do have a fabulous black and white picture on my computer of Grandfather, Ned and Jim standing in a line side by side between about five or six  big clydesdale horses on the Inshes farm a long time ago and one of my mother and father on their wedding day which I can send to you if you like--just ask Scotty or Don to give me your email address please or you can ask them to give you mine which is not a problem .

I was stunned to learn that your Grandmother lived in the house across from the Mill--that must have been the one right on the burn  and I have been inside that house once, as I recall when I was very small, speaking to the lady who occupied it almost certainly your grandmother. Did it not have a platform over the burn from whence you could look down into the water?

The road that led down the side of that house and the burn  housed my Uncle Ned in a wee cottage in about 30 yards from  the main road which  was owned by Colonel MacArthur for whom Ned worked as a gardener. The Colonel lived to the left of the burn (looking across the road from the Mill) just up the brae in the largish garden/estate which Ned tended lovingly. I think he lived in his cottage rent free since the Col. apparently thought the world of him.

I did have another uncle, Duncan, who was unfortunately killed in France at the age of 19 in the first World War so , again, I never met him and that was before your time also.He also lived in the cottage until the War started. I think all of the three uncles were in the Camerons.

SP? He's a figleaf of my imagination and my alter-ego (the one that dared to come out ,ha!), born a stone's throw from the former Caley Park at Telford Street, witness from my bedroom window of the fire that burnt down the stand and many other better memories of Caley and former players. He came to Canada over 30 years ago and found this site by chance and was encouraged to become a member of this "unofficial" site  by Mantis to whom I shall forever be grateful.

Hope to hear from you A.B. --Scarlet has gone off out for the day but I will tell him about you when he comes back, he will be very pleased

Cheers

Roderick :003: :003: