84 thoughts on “ALL OUR YESTERDAYS”

  1. Ronnie Wycherley, a.k.a Billy Fury third from last there!
    Saturday job? Friday after school I delivered Vernon’s football pools coupons, played in a covers band in Dundee’s working men’s clubs, and spent Saturday and Sunday working for my dad’s microscope servicing company in the electronics factories of Glenrothes!

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      2. I played guitar in a band called “Edge”, Tris – an old Wilson Rapier 22, bought second hand from Anderson’s in the Hilltown for £25!
        We played a lot of 12-bar boogie, Chuck Berry, Status Quo, the Beatles – but started every gig with the Eagles “Lyin’ eyes”, a song I hated for years afterwards. I can now listen to it with fond memories.

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    2. Billy Fury was one of a stable of singers managed by someone whose name I can’t quite recall but whose artistes all had the same kind of dramatic stage surname – Billy Fury, Marty Wilde, Duffy(?) Power, Frankie Furious, Ivan Incandescent (OK, I made the last two up).

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    2. Andi……I’d not seen that picture before, but I instantly knew that it had to be Bobby Kennedy……or an absolutely amazing lookalike.

      Turns out that a colorized version of the picture is also on the internet. Bobby was JFK’s campaign manager, and this was during the 1960 presidential campaign. This is reported to be at Lynn’s Drive-In in Brushfork, West Virginia. However, the sign seems to say “Bluefeld Drive-In.” Brushfork is about 2 miles from Bluefeld, which is the center of a 100,000+ people metro area. The sort of place you would be if you’re campaigning in West Virginia.

      https://rebrn.com/re/bobby-kennedy-stopping-for-a-bite-to-eat-in-west-virginia-while-1339070/

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        1. Yes Tris…..It’s common that restaurants will have a fish dinner on the menu, sometimes as a featured item, often on Fridays (presumably a hold-over from Catholic fish Fridays.) The dinner will consist of battered deep fried fish (usually haddock or cod……maybe a dollar extra for cod these days), french fries (chips), often with an extra side item (cole slaw is popular with fish and chips, and my personal favorite), and a slice of cornbread dripping with butter. I love cornbread…….a quick bread made with cornmeal…..which was somehow MADE to go with fish. I’m usually not that much of a fish eater, but I do like fish and chips. The Brits finally did something right in the food department. 😉

          And if cornbread has not yet made it across the Atlantic, you should definitely look into it. (It began with colonial settlers in the American South, who adapted maize recipes from the Native Americans……including baked items from the ground maize meal.)
          We have a favorite restaurant that serves cornmeal muffins with their fish dinners. That’s good, but it’s not quite square cut corn bread baked in a black iron skillet.

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            1. Cornbread is awful stuff IMHO. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy 😀

              Maybe its a love/hate thing but apart from a couple of Texans I don’t know any USAians who like it either….

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              1. OH Vestas! I’m absolutely appalled at such calumny about cornbread. (Coming from the land of haggis…..just sayin…….)

                When I said it was from the South and is made from corn (maize) meal, I think you must have confused cornbread with ANOTHER southern thing, found on EVERY southern breakfast table, made from coarsely ground corn which is then BOILED to produce a hideous tasteless grainy white porridge called “GRITS.” Grits are hideous and should be banned by law. Hard to believe that something as different as cornbread and grits are both made from cornmeal.

                There are by the way different kinds of cornbread. I grew up on the old fashioned southern variety which uses only cornmeal, along with buttermilk and other ingredients, and little or no sugar.

                Northern cornbread on the other hand is often made from one half wheat flour, one half cornmeal, sweet milk and other ingredients, with sugar added for sweetness. Northern cornbread is more cake-like….with a smoother texture and sweeter taste. Cornbread mixes in grocery stores tend to be the northern variety. In fact my first taste of sweet cornbread was made from a commercial mix.

                I must admit to having developed a taste for the sweeter smoother northern variety, but I also retain some fondness for the “hard stuff” from down south. 😉

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                1. No I know the difference between cornbread and grits 🙂

                  Also I don’t actually know anyone who likes haggis – the only people I’ve ever seen eating it are English/Unionist types celebrating Burns Night. My (Irish-born) uncle ate it on Burns Night too but he ran as a tory MP in Glasgow twice in the 70s and ended up with a CBE/was on various quangos/BBC board etc so he falls under unionist.

                  Dispelling other myths, I’ve never seen anyone Scots sing Auld Lang Syne at hogmanay 🙂

                  Maybe I’m unusual?

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                  2. Vestas, Tris…..I would be disappointed if I didn’t encounter all five verses of Auld Lang Syne on Burns night. As for haggis, it might be that its physical appearance is its worst attribute. (I’ve seen pictures.) I would hope that I could bring to a Burns night some other suitably Scottish named food, such as a McDonalds burger and fries.

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                  1. Tris…..In fairness to the southerners, even northerners have a disgusting white porridge made from oatmeal. I’ve heard that grits is what oatmeal would taste like if you threw some sand in it.

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                1. Tris….Nice quote! An English breakfast looks OK as breakfast foods go, but I’ve never liked the taste of any form of sausage. And although eggs and bacon are OK, nothing is really good enough to be eaten in the early morning. And at other times of the day more conducive to consuming food, there are better options…..like a 1o oz slab of filet mignon, cooked well done and served with french fries for dinner.

                  The best thing I know about Donald Trump is his distaste for alcohol, love of plain tasty food like cheeseburgers and fries, and beef cooked well done. All things that the liberal elite make fun of…….from wine snobs (who think that red wine at room temperature is drinkable,) to steak snobs (who prefer their beefsteak bright blood red.)

                  On the English breakfast, I’d have to take a pass on the black pudding and white pudding. 😉

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                  1. I used to love a good Scottish breakfast, but I seem to have gone off them recently.

                    There’s a café in a supermarket here which does a very reasonable one.

                    I once took a Hungarian friend there and he fell in love with them. Over there, it’s probably some toast, cold meat, cheese and fruit. Much more healthy, but not so tasty.

                    He demands Scottish breakfast at almost every meal when he visits.

                    Oh… I must be a liberal elite, Danny. I think red wine at room temperature is superb. I’d not thank you for a steak at all though.

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                    1. Tris…..My basic problem with red wine is probably that I don’t really like the taste of any form of alcohol, and I only like chilled drinks. If I must have wine, a light not-very-dry white wine is the least objectionable, and it has the added advantage of being served chilled.

                      I have a European (Norwegian) friend who orders plain water in a restaurant and makes a big deal that it must not have any ICE in it. What’s more disgusting IMHO than room temperature alcohol? Room temperature tap water! My American view is the more ice the better when it comes to beverages. Europeans on the other hand seem positively averse to ice. 😉

                      I wonder if the American love for a big slab of beef steak comes from the early American cattle industry in the open range West. It seems to me that British BBC dramas about upper crust aristocrats having dinner tend to show them eating lamb chops a lot. Lamb must be eaten a lot by posh English people. Also sometimes fancy fish. BBC dramatists serve filet of sole a lot. All kinds of sole! Has anyone in a posh upper crust BBC drama EVER dined on a big sizzling half pound of beef steak?

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                    2. LOL.

                      I agree about iced drinks. My drink of choice is iced water, but I enjoy a glass of red. All the time I spent in France maybe.

                      I can’t abide warm beer!

                      I’ve always thought lamb chops to be a right swizzle. Half a mouthful of meat and a load of bone.

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  4. Talking about All Our Yesterday’s, has anyone witnessed the latest Morrison’s Supermarket/British Legion/Battle of Britain advert? It’s on that uncertain cusp between side-splittingly hilarious and deeply tragic.
    One fault. None of the Britishers in their PPC is wearing a poppy. Traitorous Scum!

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  5. Was it a Decca? Cannae remember.
    I can still smell my sister’s identical record player – a worn electric motor and hot vinyl. The sound was by modern day standards terrible, mono speaker, crackles and jumps. Yet… braw! The Stones, the Who, and especially, the Beatles. Being young in the sixties…

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    2. Don’t think it’s a Decca, which had a prominent grille front and was quite an upmarket machine for a portable (our music teacher used one to play bits of classical LP’s in class). It couldn’t be the autochange version of the legendary Dansette by any chance ?

      Incidentally, reconditioned Dansettes are on sale for silly money now, even the basic single play versions.

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      1. Hadn’t picked up your 2204 posting so my guess postdatés your revelation. Had the fingers working on the iPad to get Dansette Viva by enlargement.

        I once smoked Embassy for a substantial period to contribute coupons that my girlfriend collected (also a smoker herself) and eventually cashed in for a Dansette. Occurred to me on mature reflection much later in life that it would have made more sense just to buy her the damn thing for her Christmas. But then the relationship might not have lasted so long …..

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        1. LOL… Indeed, then what would you have done with it?

          Cigarette Coupons…

          Now there’s something worth putting in the blog next time.

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          1. I cashed in my parents Embassy coupons when I was around 14 years old and plunking off school. Went to a wee shop in the Seagate that gave you cash for them, then down to the train station for a day out in Glasgow.
            My dad wasn’t too happy to have to go down the train station at night to pay for my fare back from Glasgow!
            That was the start of my itchy feet. I had to know what was over the horizon. Despite being a grandad, I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, or where I want to be!

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            1. He he Jutie.

              I bet your dad was thrilled. Train fare back from Glasgow and the loss of his coupon money!!!

              I hope one day you discover what you want to do when you finally grow up 🙂

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          2. Tried to track down the famous quote from “Just another Saturday” Billy Connolly defending a seventeen year old Jon Morrison. It went something like:
            “Well yer gonny huv tae save up a yer Embassy coupons fur a Daktari gun, ‘coz that’s the onny way yer gonny get near him”

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    1. Tris…….absolutely hilarious! The Queen seems to be trying her best to show him how to inspect the troops.
      Can it be that all the other countries are so pissed off at him that no one up to now had ever given him any troops to inspect? LOL!

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      1. He’s a complete loser. He can’t even walk up a line of troops.

        That said, I’ve always thought it was a strange thing to do, y’know, inspecting troops.. And in his case what would he know about troops, what, with his bone spurs?

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        1. I always thought it would be funny if a president or king or what not were to stop while walking down the line and start upbraiding a soldier for un-shined shoes. 😉

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  7. The english police have found a bottle of nerve agent.
    I suppose it is well labelled and has the ingredients and the use by date included.
    Who could believe anything Trump, Maybot or Boris have to say.
    Saw our mundell being escorted to Prestwick, police outriders and big 4×4 BMW’s , all to protect a nonentity.

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    1. He must be feeling VERY important. Did you notice if he had his teasmaid with him?

      I hope he’s not charging Scotland for this carry on.

      I’d have told Trump to get a bus.

      Amazing, though. Where did they find it?

      Somewhere convenient. I suspect that all the writing is in Cyrillic script…and that the MI6 agents that put it there were bright enough to wear gloves?

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    2. He must be feeling VERY important. Did you notice if he had his teasmaid with him?

      I hope he’s not charging Scotland for this carry on.

      I’d have told Trump to get a bus.

      Amazing, though. Where did they find it?

      Somewhere convenient. I suspect that all the writing is in Cyrillic script…and that the MI6 agents that put it there were bright enough to wear gloves?

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  8. The picture of the shop reminded me that because of the Retail Price Maintenance the cost of items were the same in every shop. That is why there were corner shops everywhere. Once RPM was abolished the big supermarkets started to thrive and the small shops started to go.

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  9. The first pic looks remarkably like the 1930s BMW Le Mans cars, going by the grilles, mudguards, etc. Is this by any chance a “British” model based on the plans/prototypes/models we took as war reparations?
    Yep, I had an out-of-school job, delivering morning rolls. I was up before 06:00 every day (Sunday incl.) and had to bag the rolls, delivered on a bread board, into 4s, 6s, 8s, 12s, and then trundle them around 3 housing schemes to “customers”, before they set out for work each day – and all for 10/- (50p) a week. Few customers tipped, some pretended they weren’t in when you went for payment on a Friday (I still remember their names) and I learnt a lot about people doing that job, believe me.
    I like the Singer love story. I remember the Singer factory in Clydebank and Clydebank Museum has an interesting display for anyone who happens to be in the area: well worth a visit.
    Billy Fury – Britain’s Elvis, I always think. I remember, as a kid, going on holiday to Ayr with some neighbours (their youngest son was my pal) and their Da had a portable radio, on which I heard Billy Fury singing “Halfway to Paradise”. I’ve never forgotten it: never will.

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    1. The car in pic1 is a Fraser Nash built under licence from BMW – I still have the Dinky version as well as my Regentone record player bought in 1957 – much superior to cheap Dansette rubbish .

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    2. I’m sure Dave will clear up the car one…

      I’m trying to imagine lads today getting up at 6 am. They’d probably be glued to their phones.

      Here’s a wee reminder of your holiday in Ayr…

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  10. Andimac
    My friday evening job was to collect the roll money, I had rebuilt my big brother’s raleigh bicycle, that was my only reason to get the job. Hail, rain or snow the rolls got through and the cash had to be collected. Still amazed at the thoughts of collecting around £10 in cash every friday, nobody bothered me or the 2 others doing the collecting. On returning to the house the owner’s wife was only interested in WHO didn’t pay out of maybe a hundred or so customers, they wouldn’t get a delivery if 2 weeks in arrears.
    I can still remember that JFK was gunned down on a Friday as it was playing on the BBC tv when I returned, a grainy black and white 9 inch Bush tv, only one of 2 in the street where I lived. Reception was very patchy until the Wolsey Cable arrived, then the clever boys worked out how to break into the system to avoid paying for the service.
    As to the white car, nothing as posh as a BMW, it’s an Austin Seven special, built on the lines of a pre-war BMW.
    A friend has a Bristol, built on the war reparation BMW design, only change is the engine which isn’t BMW but a Bristol in-line 6 cylinder.
    Was at my brother’s house on Thursday, he’s loves the cheap to make tv quiz programmes. I don’t have a tv. Anyway one question was “Which Country Exports the Most High Strength Alcohol”?.
    Surprised to find that it is the UK, not really, seems that Scotch and Gin are the biggest by far exported liquor in the world by a long margin, France is second with Brandy and Germany third with Shnaps. USA a lowly 6th place, they probably keep their’s for local consumption.
    Amazing that we don’t get told about the sale of British/Scotch whisky, Ireland and Whiskey were behind the USofA.

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    1. The problem with most USA whiskey is that legally in much of the world (EU for example) it can’t be called whiskey because it hasn’t spent a minimum of 3 years in the barrel. You only ever see the expensive brands in the UK because the USA can’t export anything else as whiskey.

      No doubt all that’ll change in the ongoing Brexit fiasco.

      OT – I note that Italy is going to refuse to ratify the EU-Canada trade deal.

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        1. Indeed there is a veto.

          Morons in London would do well to note that this its now over 9 years since negotiations began on CETA and 9 months after the EU thought they had agreement. Obviously Canadians must be crap at trade deals given English types think they can do it in under 9 MONTHS. Idiots.

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            1. I love the fact that “cake” has now become EU lexicon for “wildly unrealistic expectations”.

              The Blonde Buffoon has made his mark in history – from now on “cake” in EU lexicon will be his baby 😀

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  11. OT I know. Danny, I came across a paragraph that neatly sets forth the European view of the independence of the judiciary:

    “However, Spain’s legal system is far from normal – it is the only country in Europe to have its senior judicial figures appointed through a politicised process by the party in power, which has previously attracted criticism from the Council of Europe.”

    It is not just a shame but a tragedy that so many countries and governments have forgotten the high ideals and the determination of the European States which in the wake of WWII set up mechanisms which they intended as bulwarks against the possibility of a repetition, anywhere in Europe, of the mistakes of the past.

    The quote is from the following article in the National: http://www.thenational.scot/news/16353710.catalan-prisoners-eye-freedom-after-landmark-german-court-ruling/?lp=15

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    1. To be brutally frank Ed I doubt that most of the entrants post-1980 were looking at anything other than EU cash rolling in.

      Spain swept all the murders/terror/fascism under the carpet with a dodgy “constitution” and did VERY well out of EU funding. I’d argue they should never have been admitted given their “constitution” but it was different times – hell the UK was still murdering/torturing civilians in NI and plotting to kill Eire politicos.

      Poland/Hungary should be suspended from the EU – their blatant politicising of the judiciary/repression of media/racism breaks basic rules of membership. Romania/Bulgaria will always be problematic given their current relationships with Russia, its wait and see there really.

      With Junckers pissed half the time & all the vetos, once someone is in the EU then they can do what they like. The EU can’t even cut off funding as that’s subject to QMV & the Visigrad nations vote together.

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      1. Oh and with the recent troubles in NI flaring up I have to say I smell MI5 provocateurs all over it.

        Classic English tactics – I hope to hell someone catches them red-handed and then Eire vetos everything to do with Brexit 🙂

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          1. Aye and the police are blaming the “New IRA” for stuff in Derry.

            I think this is the UK govt’s “backstop” – stir it all up again & say “we have to have checkpoints, nothing to do with customs/hard border its for justifiable security reasons”.

            It stinks.

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            1. I’m not entirely sure that the IRA would particularly target Gerry Adams.

              It is notable that this is the Mad Season over there. All these Orange people burning pallets and wishing they were catholics.

              But the UK will probably try to use it to their advantage… They are so inept it probably won’t work.

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        2. One thing has to be said of the Eastern European States that started moving towards joining the EU and NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Wall is that in economic terms, they had a huge need for the help the EU to give in turning them into the modern States that they wanted to be after decades of economic madness and mismanagement.

          Politically, the occupation by the Soviets, with Russian tanks stationed on their territories as much to quash internal dissent as to “protect” against any military incursion from the West, was a – bruising – experience, to put it very, very mildly, and the puppet regimes the Soviets installed were to many, if not most, people, a source of deep shame and embarrassment. We here in Scotland live too far away from Russia to truly understand what it is like living too close to the Bear.

          Putin’s interference in Western democracies, over and above handing the 2016 presidential elections to Trump, in Europe extends beyond the boundaries of the old COMECON: even France and Germany have been targeted. In such a context, and in addition to the other economic and social forces at play, it is not really a surprise that Poland and Hungary have fallen to fascist / authoritarian / right-wing regimes. Perhaps Italy as well, now, and as for the UK…

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          1. That’s an interesting thought, Ed.

            I think we are living in quite scary times.

            Putin played an ace getting Trump elected to the White-House. He rendered America a laughing stock.

            I’m sure he would be happy to see the EU disband so he could take back control of Eastern Europe and leave Western Europe in the hands of an orange balloon.

            The way to supremacy lies in that direction, even for a pretty broke country like Russia.

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    2. Ed….I am sympathetic to the problem of a “politicized process” for selecting judges, since I live in the ONE country in the world that has come up with the WORST POSSIBLE way of selecting judges. Unlike the federal courts, the states of the USA mostly ELECT their judges by popular vote. The judges of the high state courts (called the “Supreme Court” in 48 of the states) are selected by popular vote in 38 of the 50 states.

      Click to access fact_sheet.authcheckdam.pdf

      An article in the Times about the American system that is sometimes considered to be akin to madness by most of the world. Contrast the American system to that of France:

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      1. Interesting, Danny.

        I think the French system is a bit on the harsh side, but selection by academic/legal prowess seems to be not unreasonable. Maybe set the bar a tiny bit lower though?

        I can understand that in some of the States they want the judge to reflect the attitudes of the populace, but, I think on the whole I’d prefer them to be capable in a legal sense,

        It is the law that they must uphold as written by whichever legislature they are (state or federal) . Not the wishes of the public.

        Still, as the article says, there is no perfect way to select judges.

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        1. I agree Tris. Popular election invites corruption and doesn’t being to adequately address the issue of academic and legal prowess.

          Actually, the system in Missouri for selecting judges to the high court seems pretty good to me. The “Misssouri Plan” involves selection by the state governor from a list drawn up by a non-partisan commission. The voters at the next general election, after the new judge has one year of service, vote to retain him or not. If rejected by the voters, then the selection process starts again. If retained, he serves a 12 year term on the high court. He can be retained in subsequent 12 year terms by yes-no retention elections.

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

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  12. Austin 7 with a BMW/EMW/Frazer-Nash lookalike grille; also, the background’s full of 7s… The green car down from that looks like a Holden. Can’t remember the letters for it; EH, perhaps? I had an HD for a while.

    As for Dansettes, I’ve not long since acquired one from a skip. It’s a free-standing one, too. Got a pair of big wooden 70’s stereo speakers from the same source.

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