91 thoughts on “ALL OUR YESTERDAYS”

  1. Pic7 is the repellent Hughie Green (Double Your Money, etc), as, unfortunately is Pic12 with some contestant who was, no doubt, “a character”. Pic14 – SS Nevasa, initially a troopship and later used for educational cruises – built at Barclay Curle’s yerd in Glesca. Pic15 is, I think, Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnston, British singing duo late 50s, early 60s. If memory serves they were Eurovision entry for the UK but didn’t win.

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    1. Too hard for me this week, but like andimac I recognized Hughie Green in Pic 7 and 12.

      Oh, and the same picture shows up as Pic 8 and Pic 17 – I suspect the car is not all it seems to be.

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  2. Aye Andi, Pearl Carr and Teddy Johnson and not long left us either of them, she in 2020 and he in 2018, both at 98 years old!
    They were one of these acts who were on almost every programme on TV in the earlier years, only missing out on the weather forecast…
    Weren’t the worst, it must be said.
    I remember “Sing Little Birdy, Sing” back when Eurosong was taken seriously and the top acts were chosen to participate, unlike today when if you can play the spoons or paper-and-comb you’re well in the running for the gig…

    Get the impression you don’t overly remember Hughie Green with great fondness – and I mean that most sincerely, folks!

    Pic11 is very interesting, yet another US street scene, complete with a late 1950s Studebaker Transtar pick up, a button-nose 1950 Ford Custom Deluxe approaching with what looks like an early-1940s Chevrolet Master Deluxe in the far lane.
    Where it is I shall leave to those better versed in matters cityscape across the pond…

    Pic18 has a duo of Victors.
    Nearest the camera is an F-series from the late 1950s and Vauxhall’s first really American styled model, based largely on the then-current Chevrolet Bel Air produced by the parent company General Motors.
    The wrap-round front screen meant that the bottom of the frame intruded into the passenger area and you had to be careful not to catch a knee when sliding into the bench seat!
    I had a few bruises to show for it in my time…
    Behind is the successor, the FB from 1961 to 1964, less Detroit like and generally well regarded as a family car. Still popular with classic enthusiasts today.

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    2. When I checked up on it, that Eurovision had 12 entries. The winner was Netherlands.

      It sounds like it was Paris’s turn to host it.

      It’s all very different today.

      I’d be surprised if anyone had fond memories of Hughie Green.

      He said he was Canadian, but he was born in England and his father was Scottish and his mother English. Although he spent some time in Montréal.

      The nearest Victor is pretty ugly (in my opinion), the farther away was was a big improvement.

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      1. The nearest Victor is pretty ugly……!!!!!!
        Well, only slightly ugly maybe Tris, but it’s all in the eye of the beholder.
        Fortunately however, you won’t see many of them for they rotted away at a prodigious rate (as did the bigger sister model, the Cresta PA) – the successor FB was much better in this regard.
        The joke at the time was that it was named the F as when you lifted the mats you wondered where the F the floor had gone!
        In the late 1960s a pal had a Suzuki T10 motorbike – 250cc two-stroke twin – which he thrashed until it seized and broke a connecting rod – no roadside repair then – somewhere north of Loch Lomond.
        Another pal ran an old F-series Victor at the time and trundled round to tow the Suzy back but when he got there thought better of that idea, took the wheels and petrol tank off and lifted the bike and parts into the boot, which on the Victor was very spacious.
        Arriving back, he noticed something strange about the boot - it was about six inches closer to the ground than it had been before setting out!
        The chassis was so rotten that the whole boot floor had bent under the weight of the bike…
        Thereafter the car was known to all and sundry as “The Bananamobile”!
        I can’t think why chassis condition was later included in the list of items to be inspected during MOT tests…

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        1. They seem to have done a lot to reduce if not eliminate rust on cars compared to the 70s and 80.

          Did the bananamobile continue to work OK albeit at a different distance from the ground?

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          1. It ran around for a while after that until it would run no more.
            It has to be remembered that the original age for MOT testing cars was ten years old, then.
            If memory serves, it was a 1958 registration and so still didn’t need an MOT, in spite of being rotten from end to end!
            If Vauxhalls had a terrible problem with rust they also had good engines and as long as they lasted, the car stayed on the road.
            Those were the days when you could legally have the canvas showing through the tyres – which was not at all uncommon, they weren’t checked in the early days of the MOT – and pumping the brakes to get them to work (failed master cylinder seals letting air in) was seen regularly.
            The police would watch out for the brake lights flashing on and off as a car approached a junction, which was a real give-away.
            The only legal requirement was that the brakes should be “efficient”, however that is interpreted.
            I once saw two policemen pushing a car along a flat road to test if the brakes worked!
            The glory days of motoring…

            As for the Suzuki, it needed a new crankshaft and conrods, which were built up in a unit at the factory and couldn’t be dismantled.
            Cost about a week’s wages but it ran fine after that.
            I know, as I bought it some years later.
            About ten years ago, I read in a classic bike magazine which featured a T10 that it was the only one still registered in the UK and worth a lot of money.
            I sold mine on for about £50 and never heard of it again.
            Wonder where it is now?
            Sell your old bike in haste and repent at leisure…. Mmm

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            1. Morego, did Vauxhall change the earthing on their cars to help cure the corrosion, from a +ve chassis to the now usual -ve chassis?

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              1. Aye Alan, negative earth was one of the things Vauxhall did to improve the rust-proofing of the bodies but mostly it was the use of better coatings using electrophoretic treatments, which made the primer paints adhere much better to the bare metal and also reach hidden, awkward hard-to-reach areas missed by just spraying.
                It might have cost a bit more to do, but it would have produced a much better quality, durable chassis.
                A hard lesson for Vauxhall to learn.

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              1. The MOT test was introduced by Minister of Transport Ernest Marples in 1960, under Harold MacMillan’s Tory government, Tris.
                Barbara Castle introduced the breathalyser in 1966 and made the 70mph limit on motorways permanent the following year.

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                1. Thanks, Morego. I knew she did something that was sensible but largely unpopular.

                  To be fair having a car tested for safety was also a sensible thing to do…amazing given they were Tories.

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                  1. True Tris, she didn’t court popularity amongst the motoring press in particular, who seemed to be of the mind that people should be allowed to drive at any speed and in any condition of sobriety they saw fit.
                    The fact that she didn’t drive herself rendered her unfit to be in charge of transport, went the thinking…
                    She also introduced the fitting of front seat belts in cars but it would be many years before they had to be fitted to all seats (1987) and even longer before their use became compulsory – 1983 for front and 1991 rear passengers…

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                    1. Seems to me that all of that was sensible.

                      I wonder how many transport ministers can drive a bus, a train, or a helicopter, much less a jet plane.

                      How many health ministers are nurses or doctors?

                      And how many Defence Ministers have served in the forces?

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                    2. Ineluctably true and a point well made, but now you’re making the mistake of applying logic to it, Tris…
                      Sure to cause confusion amongst the hard of thinking.

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      2. Thanks Danny, that’s good to know.
        Obviously somewhere in America but there’s nothing in the photo which gave me an idea of which city.
        The cars on the other hand spoke of the time being the fifties or early sixties.
        Great to see…

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  3. #12 isn’t Hughie Green, it’s Michael Miles presenting Take Your Pick, which ran on ITV from 1955-68. It was famous for its ‘Yes-no Interlude’, where a contestant had to answer quick-fire questions from Miles without saying ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. There was a wee guy called Alec Dane standing by with a little gong to ‘gong’ someone out if they said either word.

    There was a joke that, when Miles died, his funeral was interrupted by people shouting, “Open The Box!”, “Take The Money!”, “Open The Box!”, etc.

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    1. Sorry, Nigel, I’m with Andi and DonDon – that is definitely the odious Hughie Green in an episode of Double Your Money. At the left-hand edge of the photo you can see the list of question subjects the contestants could choose from for their questions. From what I remember as a wean, Michael Miles was a more affable host than Green – and didn’t need to tell folk how sincere he was…

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      2. Auld Toons is right (again!) about Pic12 being Double Your Money and also about the categories on the left of shot.
        The standard show had contestants starting with £1 for the first question, then £2, £4 etc., up to £32 maximum.
        They could then go on “The Treasure Trail” with a maximum of £1000 at stake, answering the £64, £125, £250, £500 questions correctly on the way.
        This is what was shown in the second half of the programme with the contestant sitting in a soundproof booth and Green communicating with a microphone.
        The categories you see on the wall were the choices of subjects for Treasure Trail contestants to answer.
        Complete with the cheesy theme song and cardboard sets, typical ITV fare from the 1950s…

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        1. I guess £1000 was a lot of money in the 60s.

          The lower sums were also worth a lot more than they are now…

          I mean who would play a game on tv for £32 nowadays?

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          1. In the late fifties £32 would be near on a month’s wages for a manual worker and it was mostly working-class people who appeared on the show, so although not riches by any means enough to keep most viewers interested.
            £1000 in hard cash would have seemed like a king’s ransom by comparison.
            (who in their right mind would waste money ransoming a king? Useless creatures, the lot of them…)

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                1. Ummm… and I’m equally sure, from the burst of laughter when he read that, that he in NOT.

                  Also, he wants to see you in his office Monday morning!

                  🙂

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    2. Sorry to disagree, Nigel – it is Hughie Green. In the background to the left you can see the list of subjects to be quizzed on. I like the old joke about Miles’ funeral 😃

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          1. Since you asked so nicely…

            One morning, while employed by Ferranti Edinburgh, I was approached by a colleague who enquired whether I had heard that Michael Myles had just died.

            Now, I know not why, but my immediate response was, “In that case I’ll be taking the money”.

            At this he looked surprised and spluttered “Eh? What??” (or words to that effect).

            “Well” I continued, “I’m certainly not going to open the box!”. At which point he wandered off looking confused. Perhaps he was thinking “That’s not in the script!”.

            Later, quite some time later, I realised that he had probably been hoping that I would respond yes or no, at which point he would have gone “BONGG” and spent the rest of the day congratulating himself for his cleverness.

            This instance sticks in my mind because generally, I am more esprit de l’escalier than that. As evidenced by some of my multipart postings here on MNR.

            That would have been 1971,(February according to Wikipedia) I suppose, because ’72 ’73 ish I escaped from Ferranti’s. (Just about decimal coinage time was it not?).

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            1. LOL Thanks for re-sharing that. Bound to be people who didn’t see it before.

              I believe, btw, that decimal coinage came in in February ’71. But of course the two systems operated together for a while.

              Can’t imagine how complex that would be for shops…

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        1. LOL You should just have a guess. No one here shames anyone when they get it wrong… well Munguin stops my pay, but it’s not like I’d notice!

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  5. Hi, Tris.

    I didn’t see it until yesterday, but tell Munguin he had me stumped with Lindores during the week – bad luck to have a local amongst his many followers, though!

    No. 19 today is a good bit easier. A nice shot of Elgin in the late 1960s? You can just make out the muckle market cross in front of the east end of St Giles church on the High Street. I also see one of those quaint half-timbered motor cars ((c) Dame Edna Everage) on the left… ;-D

    No. 13 is a nice bit of aviation history – the graceful cantilever support arch of the 1954 terminal building at Renfrew Airport – Glasgow’s air terminal until it was superseded by the larger Glasgow Airport in 1966. There’s a big Tesco store on the terminal site now, but anyone travelling to Glasgow Airport along the M8 these days is running alongside the line of the main Renfrew Airport runway as they go between junctions 26 and 27 of the motorway.

    No. 2 is a bit of modern feudalism – the photo seems to be the dismantling of the old Waterloo Bridge in London in the 1930s, but the big white building in the centre of the rear of the shot and the wee one to its left are Brettenham House and Savoy Place respectively, both parts of the Duchy of Lancaster, providing money to the Crown since the time of Henry IV. Nice job if you can be born into it…

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    1. Well, he’ll be pleased to know that he stumped our Touns expert… although it was be a stretch to call Lindores a toun!

      I don’t think I’ve ever been to Elgin. It looks really nice and clean. I love these shooting brakes.

      Is that arch still there?

      The good old Dutchy that pays Snarls around £25 million a year to keep Mrs Parker Bowles in cigarettes and crowns. 🙂

      Well worth the money, I’d say. Her face lightens all our days, and who’d want to feed poor kids anyway?

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      1. Pic19 is Elgin, then?
        Nice looking place, complete with shooting brake.
        Morris Minor Traveller with ash wood frame, based on the pick-up truck version of the Minor.
        Also in shot is an Austin A35, the car replaced by the Austin Seven (and Morris Mini Minor) in 1959.
        Unbelievably small inside when compared to the cavernous Mini in spite of having near-identical external dimensions.
        Space-efficient it was not…

        Pic20 is interesting…
        Is that wagon pulling up outside Baron Ffoulks’ house with his breakfast tipple?
        There’s always change at Agnews…

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        1. It does look nice an d clean and well looked after.

          I saw a Morris Shooting Brake the other day. It was in beautiful condition.

          I think it’s the first of a convoy of vehicles for the old duffer.

          Gotta keep that nose purple!

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      2. Sorry, Tris – I missed your question about the arch.

        No, nothing is left of the old Renfrew Airport for Glasgow; most of it is under housing now, with bits and bobs of other uses – like the Tesco on the site of the terminal and the ATC tower buildings. The latter lasted a good while after the airport transferred to Abbotsinch 3km away, but all gone now…

        Renfrew was landlocked by the 1960s, with no land to expand on, so it was increasingly unsuitable for modern aircraft needing longer runways. It had been a military airfield in WWI and WWII, but even in the 1930s it needed extra space, so land at Abbotsinch was purchased by the RAF to create an overflow airfield. That’s where Glasgow Airport is now.

        Lots of sources will tell you that the M8 runs along the main runway of Renfrew Airport between Junctions 26 and 27, but a careful look at the old maps that the National Library of Scotland put online shows that the motorway was built exactly parallel to the runway, on its south side – probably because it was easier/cheaper to build the motorway on the undeveloped green field beside it rather than on the old runway itself. (The same reason house-builders these days prefer new greenfield sites to “brownfield” ones…)

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  6. Hughie Green issued a record in the 70’s titled ‘Stand Up and Be Counted’, a portentous monologue delivered over appropriately patriotic music, and potential critics were warned that anyone describing it as right wing wd hear from his lawyers (a common threat of his).

    Teddy and Pearl Johnson had a minor 70’s hit with ‘Sweet Elizabeth’, which had an arresting opening, voices coming out of percussion. The opening certainly caught the ear more than usual for MOR of the period. And I really do mean that, friends, and anyone disagreeing with me will hear from my lawyers…..

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    2. Yes, he did a lot of political ranting. He liked Mrs Thatcher apparently, and thought that Harold Wilson was a communist.

      Unlike some others in the establishment who wanted the weirdo Dickie Mountbatten to usurp Wilson, Hughie wanted the Duke of Edinburgh to be prime minister…can you imagine?

      Well, either of them.

      Here’s a wee treat for you, because we really don;t want to hear from your lawyers… and I mean that most sincerely… 🙂

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      1. I had a boss back in the 80/90’s who was very much establishment and by chance I came across an article he had written several years previously for a military publication urging just that – a military coup headed by Mountbatten (aka Battenburg). I couldn’t believe it at the time. Have to say, to be fair, he wasn’t a bad boss to work for as long as you just got on with your job. Loved Thatcher, hated being in the EU even way back then. 

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        1. We’d have had to lock up our daughters and indeed our sons, if Tricky Dickie had got his hands on power.

          https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a29834369/lord-mountbatten-harold-wilson-coup-the-crown-true-story/

          Yes, he was a German Prince. Louis of Battenburg, brother of Princess Alice, Philips mother, I think.

          He was also related to the proper queen. A cousin, I think.

          No wonder they are all quite mad.

          It’s odd that Thatcher actually liked the EU, she saw it as a great opportunity, althoughshe was careful to keep both sides happy.

          NO NO NO…she said in the Commons, but by and large she said YES YES YES when she was in Brussels.

          However evil she was, she was also quite smart. Or maybe the word is cunning.

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      1. Sorry, repeated myself there; that’s what happens when you post from your phone on the bus home from Sainsbury’s and forget you’ve done so when you log in on your PC at home shortly afterwards. Ah, the modern world!

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          1. The office I worked in for the Depratment for nearly 30 years was on a business park on the outskirts of town, and Sainsbury’s was nearest. All the supermarkets here now are on retail parks and wotnot, or otherwise well away from the town centre, which is a lot of use if you’re dependent on public transport. There is an Aldi opposite Sainsbury’s now, but old habits…

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      2. LOL people could be eating.

        In a way I’m tempted to listen to it, but the combination of his voice and patriotic slush would probably put me off food for a month.

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  7. Who needs the NHS when all you need is a swig of Dr Dave’s Truth Serum and you’re all cured? (No 12). Of course, you might be no more, which is more than likely after a dose of that. Not quite sure what ‘truth’ has to do with it mind. Maybe it was an April fool. As my old Dad would have said when he saw adverts promising all sorts of wonderful results, can it take out your appendix as well?

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    2. Dr Dave’s Truth Serum sounds like an early predecessor of Spike Milligan’s cure-all Snibbo, which was notable for curing/fixing everything from cutting boy scouts from horses’ hooves to giving you Charles Atlas style muscles in a week without any of that tricky exercise nonsense.

      No.1 looks remarkably like the gates to Broughallan House in Kirn where a distant relative of my mother’s family was the groom until motor cars came along and he suddenly became the chauffeur without any experience or tests.

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      2. I could do with some of that… I’ve just been working in the garden, and everything hurts.

        I’ll have to ask Dave where that is. He sent it in last week.

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        1. Dave says

          Can only say that it’s from Glasgow , maybe Queens Park gates. Not sure.

          The car of course is an Austin 20hp, could be 30hp, a huge limo.

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    3. How about a drop or two of Medicinal Compound (copyright: Lily the Pink)? That should do the trick!

      I’m still waiting for the mobile phone that can give me a shave.

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  8. Dave says:

    My recollections, maybe false, was that take your pick and double your money were radio programmes and followed one another on a Sunday evening.

    Maybe your experts will correct me.

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    1. Wiki says:

      The era of the prize-winning quiz show arrived on British TV with the launch of the commercial channel ITV in 1955, when it appeared in the form of Double Your Money . The show was a variation on a Radio Luxembourg series which had begun in 1954, also called Double Your Money and hosted by Hughie Green .

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  9. Dave says:

    Had a look at wiki,

    Seems my memory is flawed.

    Radio Luxembourg, on 208m, was where I heard take your pick on a Sunday evening.

    Wednesday was double your money.

    Both transmitted after 8pm to take advantage of the night propagation on the medium wave, didn’t realise my parents were avoiding the ebc.

    Can anybody remember the pools advert? 

    Horace Batchelor, KEY……..

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  11. The tractor, No6 is a Massey Ferguson. Don’t know the model, but I’d say it is an early one, a Harry Ferguson model badged in the new colours, probably shortly after the amalgamation of the Massey and Ferguson Co’s in 1953. Harry Ferguson won a huge pay out from Ford the year before, a million$ (?), which gave him the money to merge with Massey.

    No 10, a small butter churn. I’ve made butter in a similar machine , just a bit bigger and with simple wooden paddles not metal.

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  12. 19 – It’s good to be able to recognise one of the auld toon photos for a change!

    The RBS on the corner is no longer there, but it still exists in a more modern building at the other end of the High Street.. That corner has been occupied by other financial institutions over the years – National & Provincial, Abbey National, Santander (there were 3 branches at one point after various acquisitions) and Nationwide (?). It’s now an estate agent.

    On the other corner is Hepworth’s, which lasted until the 1980s when it was replaced by Next (much to my father’s dismay). It’s currently occupied by Costa.

    Timpson’s is still around, but it’s now behind the camera in the shop next door to the RBS branch in the photo.

    The High Street is now pedestrianised and Commerce Street on the left has the one-way going uphill instead of down, but the scene in the photo is still recognisable; just add a few “to let” signs!

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    1. I think all towns have changed in that way. High streets are all coffee shops, phone shops, Timpson’s and charity shops.

      You’re lucky there’s a bank.

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