Tramps

[Scarlet Pimple]

Fo once I.m speechless!

[Charles Bannerman]

when he performed his kilt revealed the inside of it was caked with faeces

Human or otherwise?

[bauhaus]

Granville also got lifted from the old Boots shop, and told the arresting officer that someone else put the items in his pockets whilst he wasnt looking. He had hair restoring cream and loads of condoms!!

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Granville's party trick was throwing himself in front of tourist cars - the one name that has'nt been mentioned is the one who would give the said tourists a mouthful of nationalistic abuse - Willie Bell - who never ended up the Craig !!

I forgot about Medals - another alleged war hero with shellshock (PTSD today) - who eventually took shelter in the old toilets at the town end of the bridge - and was wrongly arrested for a suspected "George Michael" !!

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Just got hold of a wee book called "Angus McPhee - Weaver of Grass" written by a Joyce Laing - funded by the Scottish Arts council. Great wee read and some great photties of the Old Craig. I recognise Angus from the photties and he was evidently the person would made clothes and shoes out of grass and clippings bu he definitely wasnt "Forty Pockets". I have also been told by a couple of old Craigers that Jimmy Davidson was Forty Pockets - so named because he had kleptomania as well as mania. He used to deliver the Football Times and the evening papers to the wards.

 

There is a phottie in the book which states it is of Ward 18 where Angus McPhee ended up - but it is on the ground floor and my recollection is that Ward 18 was on the first floor - anyone confirm ?

[Kingsmills]

Your memory serves you well Johndo.  Ward 18, more commonly known as Ward K, was situated upstairs at the end of the main corridor to the right of the front entrance. I believe the nurses in charge of each shift at the relevant time would have been Franky Bills and Willie Morrison.

 

I too have read Joyce Laing's book and agree it is a great nostalgic read with some very interesting photos of the Craig but with the odd factual inaccuracy. 

 

I have to say that it is a scandal that the planning authority have permitted the developers to destroy the beautiful grounds of the hospital in the pursuit of profit. Having been open to the public for a century or more there must have been an argument that there should have been a condition that they be preserved for the people of Inverness to continue to enjoy.

 

Finally, there has been mention of Dunain House, until around the late 1970s  Dunain House, although financed entirely by the NHS was the preserve of members of the more well to do and better off members of Highland families who had the misfortune to suffer psychiatric illness. if you came from those classes and had the need of mental health treatment then the chances are your GP would arrange to have you signed into Dunain House rather than the bigger less discreet building along the road where you would be treated, quite often in a single room, to a service more akin to a luxury hotel than a nuthouse. A scandal that went on for decades unremarked upon in the wider world. 

Edited March 12, 2013 by Kingsmills

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

It ended up as an Alcohol Treatment Unit where I worked for a while - please note that I said worked !! It was still like a 5 star hotel. And the main doc was Iain Glen who has sadly passed away recently. The book also mentions Kinmylies and I can recall that working at the Farm was one of the cushiest jobs ever - until Granville scared the livestock.

[dougiedanger]

It ended up as an Alcohol Treatment Unit where I worked for a while - please note that I said worked !! It was still like a 5 star hotel. And the main doc was Iain Glen who has sadly passed away recently. The book also mentions Kinmylies and I can recall that working at the Farm was one of the cushiest jobs ever - until Granville scared the livestock.

 

What or who was Kinmylies House for? I remember in the 80s the residents there seemed quite harmless and contented older men.

[Charles Bannerman]

It ended up as an Alcohol Treatment Unit where I worked for a while - please note that I said worked !! It was still like a 5 star hotel. And the main doc was Iain Glen who has sadly passed away recently. The book also mentions Kinmylies and I can recall that working at the Farm was one of the cushiest jobs ever - until Granville scared the livestock.

When I was a kid the public perception sort of was that if you were in Dunain House you weren't quite as bad as if you were in the Craig itself. It wasn't until I grew up that I realised that Dunain House was for alkies - and I possibly had a better insight than most since for a few years my uncle was Martin Whittet's depute at the Craig before moving on to be in charge of Dykebar near Paisley. Mind you in these days alcoholism wasn't spoken about in polite company - they were just quietly shipped off to Dunain House.

I certainly remember being in DH once in the mid 70s to see a colleague at Millburn who ended up there but even then it was never really said what he was there for. Palatial indeed though.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Dunain House initially was very akin to a private facility and only changed to the Booze Cruise in the late seventies. I can recall doing a couple of shifts prior to the boozers and it was more like being a butler than a nurse. Even the staff were hand picked. I recall that I never got another shift after a punter complained to me that his toast was not browned snuff !!

Kinmylies was practically a working farm and provided produce for the hospital. The patients were all low risk and most of them had farming backgrounds anyway. Their payments were bed and board, cigs and pocket money - plus a dram and a bottle of Mackeson stout instead of night sedation - and the staff had to model the manner of taking the medication !!

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Charlie - also recall that we had to sign a very legalised confidentiality disclaimer when we worked there. It certainly was a hideaway detox for quite a few well known Highlanders and other upper echelons from all over Scotland. In retrospect I am surprised that the media were not more intrusive and monitoring the comings and goings. The only media attention that I can recall was Scoop plying me with voddie in the back bar of the Gellions !!

[Charles Bannerman]

Kinmylies was practically a working farm and provided produce for the hospital. The patients were all low risk and most of them had farming backgrounds anyway. Their payments were bed and board, cigs and pocket money - plus a dram and a bottle of Mackeson stout instead of night sedation - and the staff had to model the manner of taking the medication !!

That rather reminds me of "Margaret" the patient who was in effect my aunt's cleaning lady etc in the massive house which came with the job at Dkyebar until the early 70s. She was clearly low risk and went about the place keeping this huge establishment spic and span for some kind of pittance.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

That is why the grounds at the Craig, the golf course and the footbal pitch were always immaculate. There were paid gardeners but the bulk of the work and toil was done by the patients. Most wards also had their patient domestic who would do any job requested. That backfired on me once when I was asked to clean out one of those old stainless steel spitoons. The patient who was using it was full of a cold and the spitoon was full to the top of green gob and a couple of fag ends floating on the top. I nearly puked at the sight so asked Angus - the patient skivvy to get rid of it - well I feckin did puke as he put it to his mouth and swallowed it in one !!

[PullMyFinger]

Toich is a name that just sprung into my mind, might just have been a worthy as opposed to a tramp.

[Kingsmills]

Toich was indeed a worthy. Never a tramp.

[rytenuff]

I remember when C/N J.M. was moved to a small ward with women. His previous experience was only with male patients. First day he was giving out the breakfast when a female N/A approached him and said Mrs.B needed Tampax.

J.M. exclaimed "Tampax! She'll have cornflakes like the rest of them."

[tm4tj]

[IainMacLean]

In the late forties I recall Clayuck and Forty Pockets. There was also a fiddler who often played at the Greig Street Bridge but I cannot remember his name.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Who the feck could this be the great grandfathers of ?

[+bughtmaster]

James Dean at the front

[Scarlet Pimple]

Just to jog your memory IHE ...was that picture taken in  South Carolina during the American Civil war of 1864? I think that barrel was Hooch and look at the double barreled rifle--looks awfully like the one I dug up at Gettysburg.

 

Permit me, as an aside, to  tell you how much I envy your past life  which seems to have been unparalleled in terms of variety , narrow escapes, general mayhem and exciting meetings with  genuine worthies all..

When, and if,  you arrive at your dotage and I am still alive can you come over here and we can entertain the  worthies down at our Legion on Swallow-it-Quickly Street.

 

Please allow me to ask just one question, though, about your past escapades--were you ever importuned by advances from any of the patients of the female persuasion who were very enamoured by your scintillating wit, your debonair danderings and your inescapable intelligence not to mention yer baggie breeks and yer impressive calves?

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Pervert and it is a piccie of Highlanders.

[Scarlet Pimple]

      :lol:      Had you going there Itch. Ha! Ha! 

 

Well, I've been told recently from my life -experienced car mechanic that the girls like intelligent and witty  men and you must admit you have something going for you --- even if it is only baggie breeks and shaved legs.

 

By the way, I am still laughing at your pic of the three Moose in my alleged Vauxhall Viva.   Or maybe they are  the3 stooges....?

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Here is a cracking photo of the Old Craig as I remember it

[Scarlet Pimple]

That Big,      huh!