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Bygone Entertainment


Kingsmills

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What are your memories of entertainment that might be considered unique to Inverness ?

I have in mind such wonders as John Worth's annual summer show at the Cummings Hotel. Goodness knows what messsage that sent to visitors about Highland life and culture !

My own favourite childhood memories of being entertained are both cinema related. Firstly the weekly childrens' matinee at the Playhouse cinema and secondly Jimmy Nairn's wonderful annual christmas grotto there which much have breached much of Walt Disney's expensively obtained copyright at one fell swoop.

Later on therewas the Teneriffe Trio at the Caley who began to sound pretty good after two or three blue agoons.

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The front stalls in the La Scala only cost 1 shilling on a Saturday afternoon when Caley were away. Kingsmills... do you mean "The Kilt is Our Delight"?... I believe it was even more cringeworthy than the Proclaimers! And the Tenerife Trio... Tom Anderson, Les Munro and the guy Walker on the drums. They sounded equally decent after a few Carlsberg Specials.

Ice Skating in the Islands? Browsing round the public library when it was a portakabin on King St? MacLeay's model shop? MacKay's Library?

We Dalneigh kids also made our own entertainment such a nicking the Minister's apples and then throwing the cores at front doors before running away. Then there was football at the back of St. Valery Avenue with 3 hour games at 20 a side with jackets for goals - can't see modern kids surviving that kind of thing.  And as a diversion from the football we went into the garages to play "War" where it seems everybody was equipped with a machine gun (contemporary British army eat your heart out!) Ur, ur, ur, ur, ur, ur, ur...!!!!!!!!!!!!

And when we got fed up of that we would trawl round the scrubland looking for discarded Parade magazines. That of course was before the days of Men Only so not all that daring really.

Then there was the BBs (almost worth a thread of its own) which were huge in Inverness with 12 companies at their peak in the 60s and everybody was scared of the Ferry Boys from the 4th. Pillbox hats, white haversacks, leather belts... all to be scrubbed up for Inspection. Battalion parades starting at Washington Court, all organised by Scoobies. I think the BBs have shrunk these days and I don't know of they still do Drill competitions, PT competitions etc.

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O/T i know as its not unique to Sneck but got this e-mail the other day which brought back a few memories of a different age,and yes,before the PC folks get on meh case ,i'm aware their was a lot of bad s**t going on as well,but these are some of the happier things.

Just for a minute, forget everything stressful and read this...............

Close your eyes and go back in time...

Before the Internet... Before semi-automatics, joyriders and crack....

Before Wii or XBox...

Way back........

I'm talking about Hide and Seek in the park.

The corner shop.

Hopscotch. 

Butterscotch. 

Skipping. 

Handstands. 

Football with an old can.

Fingerbob. 

Beano, Dandy, Buster, Twinkle and Dennis the Menace.

Roly Poly.

Hula Hoops, jumping the stream, building dams.

The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass.

Bazooka Joe bubble gum.

An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune.

Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe Neapolitan or perhaps screwball.

 

Wait...... 

Watching Saturday morning cartoons, short commercials or the flicks.

Children's Film Foundation, The Double Deckers, Red Hand Gang,

Tomorrow People, Tiswas or Swapshop?, and 'Why Don't You'? - or staying up

for Doctor Who.

When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere.

Earwigs, wasps, stinging nettles and bee stings.

Sticky fingers.

Playing Marbles. Ball bearings. Big 'uns and Little 'uns.

Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, and Zorro.

Climbing trees.

Making igloos out of snow banks.

Walking to school, no matter what the weather.

Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt

 

Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights.

Spinning around on roundabouts, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.

Being tired from playing....remember that?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.

Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.

Choppers and Grifters.

Eating raw jelly. Orange squash ice pops. Vimto and Jubbly lollies

Remember when...

There were two types of trainers - girls and boys, and Dunlop Green Flash

The only time you wore them at School was for P.E.

And they were called gym shoes or if you are older - plimsoles

You knew everyone in your street - and so did your parents.

It wasn't odd to have two or three 'best' friends.   

You didn't sleep a wink on Christmas Eve.

When nobody owned a pure-bred dog.

When 25p was decent pocket money

Curly Whirlys. Space Dust. Toffo's.

Top Trumps.

When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.

When nearly everyone's mum was at home when the kids got there.

When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry

groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.

When being sent to the head's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving pupil at home.

Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs etc.

Parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat and some of us are still afraid of them.

Didn't that feel good?

Just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that!

Remember when....

Decisions were made by going 'Ip, Dip, Dog Sh*t'

'Race issue' meant arguing about who ran the fastest.

Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in Monopoly

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs.

And the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to one.

It was unbelievable that 'British Bulldog 123' wasn't an Olympic event.

Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a catapult.

Nobody was prettier than Mum.

Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.

Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin.

Ice cream was considered a basic food group.

Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.

Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED.

Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their grown life...

I DOUBLE-DARE YOU!

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We Dalneigh kids also made our own entertainment such a nicking the Minister's apples and then throwing the cores at front doors before running away. Then there was football at the back of St. Valery Avenue with 3 hour games at 20 a side with jackets for goals - can't see modern kids surviving that kind of thing.  And as a diversion from the football we went into the garages to play "War" where it seems everybody was equipped with a machine gun (contemporary British army eat your heart out!) Ur, ur, ur, ur, ur, ur, ur...!!!!!!!!!!!!

And when we got fed up of that we would trawl round the scrubland looking for discarded Parade magazines. That of course was before the days of Men Only so not all that daring really.

You've got a year or 30 on me Charles (ok, maybe only 25)....but those are all things that I remember from being a kid growing up in St Valery Ave as well.

Apples and Plums which had been liberated from the manse always seemed to taste much better than those acquired by more honest means.

The most trouble we ever really got into was kids was for playing postmans knock or pinching the wheel of someones bike and climbing the lamppost to hook it over the top and make it near impossible for them to retrieve (one or two gates got similar treatment).  Around about bonefire night we'd have our fire at one end of the street and the kids at the other had theirs....everyone who had windows overlooking the back fields would take shifts to keep an eye on it overnight to make sure nobody from the other end of the road came to set fire to it before bonefire night.

Rope swings were another thing that kept us amused for hours, and resulted in the odd adventure up to casualty.

We'd venture in to the cemetery now and again so we could pretend we were mountaineer's and climb to the top or to dare each other to see who would stand on the fairy ring for the longest,

We'd make our own bow and arrow sets, but the thought of firing them at each other wasn't the plan (although I did put a homemade spear through my brothers hand once), we were going to hunt the pheasant that live out the back or hopefully stumble upon a rabbit.....none of which we ever managed to shoot....and the odd duck got terrorised.

My generation seemed to be the last to partake of these things to any great extent, but the next batch of Johnstones are on their way and we have been known to partake of the odd game of rounders during a BBQ and after the consumption of a dram or two.

I remember 15+ years ago being on holiday at my Aunts in Bristol...they live in St Annes Park and we always used to walk to some Social Club which seemed miles away as a kid.  On the way we passed through a park and on this one occasion we spent over an hour playing football (adults and kids).....without a ball.....we just imagined we had one.  My Uncle chased my mother for a tackle, but they got a bit close to the edge of the pitch and both of them took a tumble down the slope on to the footpath....they must have lay there for about 15 minutes laughing so hard they couldn't get up.  If that happened today people passing by would give you a body swerve, but back then all I recall was the laughter becoming infectious and us recruiting an extra couple of players for the game.

I think part of the trouble these days is that we don't have "communities" in the same sense as we used too.  People don't seem to take the same time to get to know neighbours and the kids seem more intent on knocking lumps out of each other than they do in getting together to do something as a group.  You'd never see anyone in St Valery Ave these days heading out with a ball or a bat & ball and knocking on the neighbours door to see if they were up for a game (kids or adults) and even the kids you do see out playing now seem to stick to their own wee groups instead of all playing together.

Society seems to be (has become) very insular for whatever reason.

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  • 2 weeks later...

What a place Eastgate used to be for wee shops - Mario's, Wards the newsagent, Fraser & McColls, Ronnie's chip shop, Rosie's cafe, Riggs the butcher, Washington Soda Fountain, The Sheiling, Thomson the lady's hairdresser and Thomson the electrical shop (weren't they brothers ?), Jan Zagorski's restaurant upstairs next to Henry's the newsagents, Ernie Mason's electrical shop, the Plough Inn, the post office (very handy), the radio and TV shop and Clubb's shop at the corner which had a Stratton milk dispensing machine outside it for a while.

Quite a place in the 1960s and 1970s.

:014:

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I can remember the Saturday morning matinee in La Scala wi' a penny bag of broken biscuits from Burnetts across the road.  Enough for the three of us usually.

Also remember when Clach were a half decent team.

What about Rodgers shop in Grant street and Fallons snooker hall downstairs in the High Street, toname but 2 places we wren'tsupposed to go in.

Going to the baths used to be a great way to spend a morning.

Looking back to the first post, this was mostly in the days before TV never mind Sky!

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Sledging at Culcabock golf course... ach those where the days....

You Lightweight......you havent sledged until you have tackled Craig Dunain golf course bunker near the top!

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Interesting to have talk of Rodger's snooker room and bunkers in the same thread. As I recall the snooler tables at Rodgers were the only ones I've ever encountered that featured those particular hazards more often encountered on golf courses.

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  • 3 months later...

'What a place Eastgate used to be for wee shops - Mario's, Wards the newsagent, Fraser & McColls, Ronnie's chip shop, Rosie's cafe, Riggs the butcher, Washington Soda Fountain, The Sheiling, Thomson the lady's hairdresser and Thomson the electrical shop (weren't they brothers ?), Jan Zagorski's restaurant upstairs next to Henry's the newsagents, Ernie Mason's electrical shop, the Plough Inn, the post office (very handy), the radio and TV shop and Clubb's shop at the corner which had a Stratton milk dispensing machine outside it for a while.

Quite a place in the 1960s and 1970s.'

You left out the most important one - my home from home- George Mckay's, Crown Bar, (across from Ronnie's)with Big and Wee Alex dispensing the necessary liquid requirements.  Changed days but how often I heard them say to a family man who was spending maybe too much of the paypacket ''I think it's time to go home now, you've done well'' as they escorted them to the door.  Then, so as not to hurt, ''See you tomorrow Dan, there Will be a pint waiting for you''

How to treat a customer correctly!!

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I remember inventing a game I called Crolis, being a mix of CRicket, gOLf and tennIS.  You needed a hard standing area with a wall.  You drew a line on the hard base about six feet from the wall.  You had to hit a golf ball against the wall with a cricket bat, hard enough so that it bounced back over the line, allow it to bounce once on the hard base, and then hit it against the wall again, and keep going in a form of 'keepy uppy'.  Sounds easier than it was.  I remember becoming quite good at it, but finding a suitable venue often became problematical as the wall owners often objected!

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Ans 6 pence to get into the Caley Park at Telford Street. :021:

Scarlet... you used to PAY to get into Telford Street!? :rotflmao:... yerramug!

The time honoured method was to take the then unmetalled Balnacraig (Bumber's) Road as far as the rear left corner of the Howden End, climb the gate and Bob's your uncle. I'm speaking of an era somewhat later than yours since entry had inflated to 9d (3.75p for those who don't remember pre 1971) but the principle is the same.

It then got better. At the risk of boring longstanding users of this forum, we then used to trawl the ground for empty MacKintosh's lemonade bottles and cash them in at the shop for 3d each. On a good day you could make 1s 6d to 2s which was enough to get you a bag of Smiths crisps with the blue salt sachet inside plus a bar of Cow Toffee or three HUGE penny dainties and STILL have enough to pay you into the front stalls at the La Scala the following Saturday when Caley would be away.

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I remember that gate Charles. From my diminutive standpoint it seemed rather high. But, mostly because I was with someone at each game, I decided to support the club instead of ripping them off.  :012:

:023:

I think adults were one and six pence and it was either 2 and 6 or 3 bob to get in the stand.

I used to mostly stand on the right side opposite the stand with the trees and Telford Street at my back . How the club ever packed in 5,000 fans for a full house I will never know.

Cheers.  Fond memories though. :016:

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How the club ever packed in 5,000 fans for a full house I will never know.

I suspect there were over 6000 for the St. Johnstone game in 1992 although that may not have been made plain to the cops! Certainly there was an official 4950 in there midweek early in 1996 for a rearranged D3 Highland derby and this was a D3 record at the time. I would imagine that games like Rangers (1984), St. Mirren (1987) and Airdrie (1991) would have had similar crowds along with goodness knows how many in days gone by.

For a while when the embryonic ICT looked as if it might fall short on the cash front, I used to worry that my failure to pay my 9d some 30 years earlier would haver been a contributory factor.  :015: However I was by no means solely guilty. One fellow Dalneigh Kid who used to jump over the same gate was one M. Shewan, for many years now a pillar of the ICT Management Committee establishment.

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