109 thoughts on “ALL OUR YESTERDAYS”

  1. Thanks, tris, I’m glad you put this AOY up. I just wish I had more to say about the pictures.

    Pic 1 is spoiled a bit by the wheelie bin.

    Pic 8 is interesting. France was pretty much the first country to adopt the motor car.
    This became apparent to me when I read Robert Harris’ novel about the Dreyfus case, “An Officer and a Spy”.

    Pic 12: Until recently I had a telephone very like that, probably the last dial phone in Germany.
    Incidentally, my mother is probably the last person on the planet to put an apostrophe before ‘phone.

    Pic 14: Regretably, I cannot name the plane type, but it is British registered, and that looks like the Highlands in the background.

    Pic 20: I remember Nesquik. Awful stuff.

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          1. Not an ultralight, it’s a group A aircraft on a permit to fly.
            We used it to fly to Bodo in Norway, into the Arctic Circle.
            An Italian design based on the Falco.
            Powered by a Rotax engine built in Austria.
            Retractable undercarriage and cruises at 130 Kts.

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            1. Not exactly on topic, but I hear CAA licensed pilots will no longer be able to fly European registered aircraft without a EASA licence (and presumably further training and expense). Aircraft maintenance engineers won’t be able to maintain European aircraft either. What an utter slap on the face, considering how much time and money it takes to acquire such qualifications.

              Yet another example of professional people being screwed over by a bunch of idiotic Tories who wouldn’t know the meaning of the word ‘professional’.

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              1. I read a tweet yesterday from someone saying that a friend of his, a German doctor, has had a letter saying that his qualifications may not be recognised from January 1.

                Presumably the guy has been working ion England for years, why would HIS qualifications, achieved at a time when the UK was in the EU suddenly have qualifications which are not acceptable?

                Mad.

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                1. If this is a widespread phenomenon, the problems will manifest themselves very early on. I get the feeling the whole thing was a bad idea.

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                  1. I wonder if the Scottish Heath Service will simply (sensibly) recognise qualifications for the EU, and in that case, retain their EU medics, and probably gain some from England.

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          2. Well, I’m sure they have to pass a safety test, but, I wouldn’t trust doing anything in anything I’d built, unless it was garden oriented.

            I’m not even sure I should eat anything I cooked!

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          1. I found it, Cairnallochy. This one was lurking on the naughty step. Why? You’ll have to ask WeirdPress. I suspect his sprouts were soggy yesterday. Or worse, he’s getting left over sprouts today!!!

            Good story though. 🙂

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          2. After a dinner in her honour in Castle Douglas, Moira was presented with a CD of her famous recordings with Pavarotti and the Sex Pistols. Moira was thrilled by the gesture but enraged that the B side wouldn’t play!
            She laughs about it now, of course, but poor Stewart had to listen to Moira’s vitriolic condemnation of Colonel and Mrs Bowman-Swift who had organised the event. Once Moira realised her error, she sent Aggie Bowman-Swift a beautiful bouquet. A typically generous gesture.

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          2. In 70s in Portree a friend of mine had a phone with no dial. You just lifted the receiver and waited for someone at the exchange to connect you. His phone number was Portree 6.

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      2. They got there by the end, sort of “nearly,” they hadn’t quite grasped that phone has no memory of their actions. Handpiece to the ear poised for action, before dialling, sitting on an all too small, uncomfortable seat in the unheated lobby, chittering. And predating 5g conspiracy, I was convinced that the pulsed dial ‘phone (in solidarity with Don Don’s mum) had some kind of diuretic or laxative effect on the human. As soon as I had started the call in the cold privacy of the lobby, brothers, aunties, parents and grand parents would have to visit the toilet upstairs beyond the lobby.

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        1. Good ol days! Bring on 5g, I say.
          Tiny Faroes have 5g coverage, right out to their fishing grounds, “Because the fishermen are Faroese and should also enjoy the benefits.” Some people here struggle to get dial up speeds.

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            1. Watched the video on Faroe again, same feeling of anger. They do get a subsidy from Denmark of £75m. For Scotland that equates to £750m but look at their infrastructure, what they have managed, all from basically £75m and fish.
              Scotland: Too wee, Too poor and Too stupid.
              If we don’t take independence when we have the chance we will have proven that last part correct.

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    3. Well, DonDon. That was quite a bit of recognition.

      I love the ‘phone thing. I have to admit I’ve never seen it done.

      Munguin asked me to g4t that bin moved… but even Munguin, who can move mountains, was unable to insist on that bin shifting! 🙂

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    4. DonDon, I thought Pic 1 was about the wheely bin…. I wondered why someone had parked an Austin 7 in front of it. In the dim and distant past of the 1960s I remember being taught to use an apostrophe when writing phone (or ‘phone). On the subect further, influenza should be correctly spelled ‘flu’ (apostrophe at both ends!) in its common abridged form. The phone in Pic 12 has the number Whitehall 1212 which was the number of the old Scotland Yard until the 1960s and was used regularly in crime programmes and films of the era. The handset looks too new to have been from that time. Probably used the old baekelite model with the braided cord in those days.

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    5. Your mother sounds as lovely as she is correct in persisting with the use of the apostrophe.
      It’s less the rotary mechanical dial, or indeed the modish avocado colour that drew my attention , but the ‘phone number.
      Famously in popular fiction of the time, Whitehall 1212 was number that connected to the British Secret Service.

      I seem to remember there was a company that printed reproduction rotary dial inserts, either for those nostalgics who had repurposed the gubbins of these telephones converting pulse to tone, or for those ( as I suspect in this case) for witty comic effect.

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  2. I think Pic 3 may be the Busby Babes, the Man U team who were involved in the Munich air crash of 1958 – manager was Matt Busby and some of the players were Jackie Blanchflower, Eddie Colman and Roger Byrne?
    Pic 7 – Is that Jimmy Hill in the ad?
    Pic 9 – Diana Ross, formerly of the Supremes.
    Pic 13 – Embra – Shandwick Place?
    Pic 19 – The Searchers but not the original line-up.

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    1. Done it again, Andi. That is indeed Matt Busby and the ‘Busby Babes’, the Manchester Utd side of 1957, taken from the 1956-57 Eagle mag’s sports annual. If you can enlarge the photo you will be able to read more.

      Early in 1958, shortly after the book was published, the Munich air disaster took its dreadful toll of the ‘Team of the Decade’ as they were already described by the Eagle book. Busby survived life-threatening injuries but eight players wee among the 23 fatalities from the 44 on board.

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

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      1. Always find it interesting how players from different eras are represented in photographs, in this case on the follow through to long kicks. Wonder if these were staged poses with no bal involved.

        Makes them look like a Folies Bergères tribute act.

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        3. Yes, Cairnallochy. Thinking back on the football cards of my (our) youth, they were almost always in action mode, swinging a leg or rising for a header, or at full saving stretch if a goalie. Occasionally posing with arms folded and one foot on the ball. There was a much-sought Willie Woodburn, from the days before he became the first (and only,I think) player to be banned sine die. Also first (and probably only) introduction to Latin for many of us wee boys.

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          1. Sine die known, as you say, to all small boys of our generation – while “abeyance” was a term known almost exclusively to junior football supporters from the habit of clubs often taking a year out due to financial or other difficulties. Often step on the way to folding but left them breathing space to try to sort things out,

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  3. #16: Seemed to me that the single prominent stars in the Christmas decorations might suggest a town in the Lone Star State of Texas, as much as the Christmas star. So I Googled.
    I was wrong. This is Johnson City, Tennessee, c. 1958.
    (Not to be confused with the Johnson City that IS in Texas near Lyndon Johnson’s “LBJ”ranch that was called the Texas White House.)

    More AOY Johnson City pictures, including a similar B&W photograph without the Caddy in the foreground:

    http://www.stateoffranklin.net/johnsons/photos6.htm

    The orange Caddy BTW has signature 1950’s fins on the rear and “Dagmars” on the front grillwork.
    Information on the “Dagmars” Cadillac grille styling of the 1950’s:

    CAUTION: This automotive styling information contains (slightly) “mature” content (by straight laced American standards at least. UK/Europe, probably not so much.) Anyway, parental guidance is suggested.

    https://www.curbsideclassic.com/design-3/design-history-cadillacs-dagmars-an-intimate-look-at-their-origins-development-and-namesake/

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    1. Does Ed know about this? (Outrage)

      I see what you mean about adult comment. I had to avert Munguin’s eyes. At 11 he shouldn’t be subjected to that kind of material!

      🙂

      Some really nice cars there though.

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      1. Dagmar was the RS’s mum’s name, not that I ever knew her. She died while the RS was still at school. But she only learned today that Mum had such a famous namesake, or a car association. So an MNR schoolday for both of us.

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        1. John……I’d never heard the name Dagmar before running into an article about 1950’s TV stars. A cover article in “Life” magazine was apparently a very big deal back in the day.

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            2. German, according to the RS. Apparently her grand=dead liked German names so Dagmar was one one four sisters along with Myra, Edna and Olga. Don’t sound particularly German to me – unless the others have become so common only in more recent times.

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                1. I think I’d be right in saying that Scandinavia really only encompasses Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

                  Nordic would include Finland, Iceland, Faeroes and Greenland, and possibly even Estonia Latvia and Lithuania… and soon Scotland.

                  But there you are… Day Maiden. It’s nice.

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      2. Tris…..Nice that you spotted the Ed connection. The name used without his permission I would say. 😉
        Some really good food is served in such small roadside places, with the menu items advertised in neon.

        Glad that you shielded Munguin from the “adult” fare. Interesting that the Caddys of the 1950’s had distinctive design elements both front and back. The tail fins are more famous today of course.

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    2. Danny: Am I the innocent. I never new any of that, or thought that the Caddy designers would be so, “up front” about their design inspiration.
      Sharp dig in the ribs from spouse, “Stop ogling that woman’s chest.” “I’m not lechering. I’m working on the next car design.” “Aye right.”

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      1. LOL Alan…..Yes, even I did not immediately pick up on the “real” meaning of the Cadillac grille design. Your description of the Caddy designer and his wife is great. 😉

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  4. Pic 15 is a somewhat skewed map of Scandinavia and the Baltic.
    Presumably the landmass at top left is supposed to be Iceland, but the bits of land below that are less certain. The various islands may represent the Shetlands, Orkneys and Faroes, but if the land at bottom left is Caithness, there is not much room left below it for for the rest of the mainland.

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    1. Lorry? And I thought it was a bus! Double-helping for Roddy to give us make, model, vintage, driver’s name etc. I know I’m better with steam trans and sailing ships, but not being able to tell a lorry from a bus… this will take a bit of living down. Another Sunday schoolday and I’m already in the corner with the conical D-cap.

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      2. I’m going to take an educated punt on nos 5 & 11. It’s a Commer mobile workshop-cum-transporter.

        In the early ’50s Stirling Moss competed in events like the Monte Carlo rally in Sunbeam roadsters. As a ‘reward’ he was gifted a £7,000 mobile workshop for his own use. I think this is that vehicle.

        He never competed in single seater events for the Rootes group, but in 1954 he competed in formula 1 events in his own, privately entered, Maserati 25oF, before joining Mercedes in 1955. ( going on to win the 1955 British GP for Mercedes, his first grand prix win).

        So I would hazard that this is Moss in his Maserati beside said transporter, possibly taken during the Gold Cup event at Oulton park in 1954..??

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        1. Very well-educated guess, Roddy. Bang on. Like the Busby Babes, pics from the 1956-57 Eagle sports annual. The story tells us that in Stirling’s early days, his dad had converted a horse-box and used it to tow his car to wherever the young racing driver’s event happened to be.

          In these pre-sponsorship days, no mention of Rootes’ involvement in converting the seven-ton Commer truck to transporter and mobile workshop. But we are told that it could carry two racing cars, support crew, and all the equipment for every need – ‘even down to an engine change!’ (Eagle’s ! showing what an achievement that was considered to be back then.)

          The progress from horse-box to customised truck is described: ‘With his truck and his crew, Stirling was ready to give a good account of himself against the best in Europe. Today he is one of the aces of his sport.’

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        3. I don’t think that it’s a 250F; not enough pipes into the exhaust from the cylinders (looks like 4) and the wheels look like Cooper ones – and they’re narrower than the 250F’s. I think that it might be a Cooper-Climax.

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          3. Yes, it must rather be the Cooper T24 ‘special’ formula 2 car raced by Moss in 1953.

            The Maserati 250F image I found, while visually very similar (at least in grainy B&W) is crucially differentiated by the twin exhausts being on the LEFT hand side of the engine bay, angling up over the rear wheels.

            In image 11 the 4 exhaust pipes exit the RIGHT side of the engine, bleeding into a large single trailing pipe, which identifies an Alta 4-cylinder engine.
            Here’s Moss in action in the car, Silverstone, May 1953

            https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/cooper-alta-t24-stirling-moss-international-trophy-race-silverstone-picture-id1181832559?s=2048×2048

            Buses are sooooo much simpler.
            Confusingly, internet searches come up with an entirely different Cooper T24, with higher profile and triangular radiator grille. Although claimed to be “driven by Stirling Moss” my research (!) suggests this was the standard Bristol engined version of the car which Moss never actually drove. The Alta engined version appears to have been a one-off special only ever driven by Moss.
            So, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet. Who would have thought it?

            Now, why the ‘Eagle’ chose to publish a 3 year old picture of a F2 car in their annual rather than a proper F1 car is another question. Perhaps they thought no-one would notice? If so they reckoned without Munguinites. If I was John I’d be asking for my money back….. but then I was more of a ‘Lion’ or ‘Tiger’ reader at that age!

            It’s been a boring old day. 😉

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            1. LOL…

              That’s it, you see. The whole world reckoned without Munguinites, and Munguin respectfully suggests that THAT is half the problem with today’s world.

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  6. The regular appearance, on the same day each week, of the various manifestations of the art and genius of Munguin – history, nature, and cartoons – is a source of great comfort in these difficult times. I think it probably remnds me of a childhood when things (e.g., comics, football matches, TV programmes) were nly available on certain days, rather than being accessible all the time. Thank you.

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    1. You will be pleased to know, John, that Munguin is basking in a warm glow of self-satisfaction.

      I said to him yesterday, “Maybe I shouldn’t do AOY tomorrow, with it being the Feast of Stephen and all?”

      “Nonsense”, replied he, in affronted tones, “AOY goes out come hell or high water. My adoring public expects it. Now chop chop and get on with it… besides which John and Dave sent in all these pics.”

      Just as well that I did!

      🙂

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  8. Regarding the Austin 7 Chummy in pic 1, my brother-in-law and I did a John o’ Groats to Land’s End run in his one; we did it in 20hrs 20mins, second fastest after someone with a full race engine! Ours was merely rather warm…

    Roof down all the way.

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      1. Aye, was good. Ran the car in going north, fixed various niggles up there and it was all happy for going south. By the time we got to the M6, it was sitting at 75 quite happily. The best thing was a French wagon giving us a couple of toots and then pulling in right in front as we started to climb Shap; towed us up to the top! I’d been racing for a bit then and was quite happy slipstreaming… sit in the cone…

        We got to Land’s End before the official photographer, and had to re-enact our arrival for the cameras later on.

        Went to stay with pals in Lyme Regis afterwards.

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  10. I thought no.18 was a fake at first but a short internet search showed that low doses of chlorine gas could alleviate symptoms or, as some claimed, cure the cold. It was reported that President Coolidge had the treatment although I’d have to get through the NY Times paywall to see it. Fifty pence a week was just too much so close to Christmas.

    I doubt that it could actually cure the cold but it is certain that too much chlorine gas would prevent you from ever catching another.

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        1. I felt really sorry for the doctor he addressed his remarks to.

          I mean the correct answer was … What? Are you freakin’ mad?

          But she could hardly say that to the president!

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  11. Between mixing up buses and lorries and AOY with SS, I overlooked comment on 17 which brought back fond memories and has a coincidental link with today’s contributions. Not that I needed a book to learn Gaelic, but one of my dad’s North Uist relatives ran the MacLaren’s shop in Argyle St. We always stayed with her on trips to Glasgow and a visit (or visits) to the shop were always highlights – especially at Xmas.

    I would come away laden with annuals – from Oor Wullie to the Eagle Sports that was the source for Busby Babes and Stirling Moss. Even without trips to Glasgow,there was a;ways a Xmas parcel from Auntie Morag stuffed with books to have wee boys salivating. I think the Eagle’s the only one to have survived.

    Too much cricket in it then for my liking (which Highland schoolboy knew or cared about cricket?) but re-reading this Xmas 60+ years later and having become a cricket fan in between, catching up on what I’d missed was great fun. (I could do with the Gaelic book as a refresher now though, especially having the honour of being Munguin’s Official Translator.)

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  12. No. 6 Miles Davis before the jazz life ravaged his appearance? Incidentally, re the Moira and Stewart tales, I remember Stewart as trombonist in The Delta Jazzband in Glasgow in the early 1960s. A career abandoned when he qualified as an MD

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    1. Yes… the Jazz life…. It escaped me… or I escaped it! One of these.

      I see that Moira and Stuart now live on the Isle of Man.

      Here’s a wee reminder of Moira and Kenneth McKellar.

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