Hogmanay

On his last album John Lennon had a song which included the words:-
"Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans."
Today the plan was simple, first off breakfast, then Tesco for last shop off year, then ash, shave, fall asleep.  Simple and straight forward.
So awakened by a coughing fit before seven am, forced up when half asleep, struggled around to Tesco by 10:30.  The place was busy, many kids wandering around putting things into mums trolley, mum swiftly returning them as she walks.  However as I left the house I noticed one of those Royal Mail 'You were out' type cards scrunched up in the letterbox left from yesterday.  The ratbag!  This meant that after Tesco I had to limp all the way down to the sorting office for this very important and unexpected parcel.

This parcel, unexpected but hoped to be something expensive, turns out to be a picture calendar of 'The Broons' that would not fit through the door.  Thirty five minutes of hobbling, a few minutes with a miserable fat bloke, too fat to deliver mail, and all for this!  Naturally my sister did not mention she was sending this, though she usually does send a calendar, but mention was there none, and I have just finished filling in all the birthdays on the cheap calendar I bought myself.  Bah!
Sadly this interrupted my planned day and now I suppose I will have to sit here and avoid doing the many things I planned.  What were they again...?  Ah, sleep, well maybe I will manage that one...

  Edinburgh Evening News

    
Hogmanay is the Edinburgh word for drunken hedonism.  Not that I would ever had anything to do with that.  In my day it meant gathering at a pub, then near midnight being where the  crowds gather, outside Tron Kirk then.  It appears that these days the Edinburgh toon cooncil wish to make it more appealing to foreigners, foreigners with money, so not only is the Hogmanay celebration packed with fireworks and famous bands the previous evening a torch light parade marches through the toon.  I the late 60's they did not allow us burning brands, the constabulary thought it unwise!  
Anyway, some think the present day show is merely to bring in foreign cash, which it is, and preparations for the event take precedent over everything else.  Even to the extent of cutting down the Christmas tree that stands at the top of the 'Mound' and replacing it with an advert for 'Johnnie Walker whisky.'  The tree ought to stand until the 6th of January but clearly money talks and the tree, with the Christmas spirit, goes with it.  A mistake I feel.
I will loiter in my bed tonight, possibly with John Barleycorn to keep me company, possibly asleep. The hedonistic days are long behind me, although at one shilling and eleven pence a pint (two shillings and  penny on Friday and Saturday nights) there was a lot less hedonism than there is today. 

The year is passing, let us go forwards...

  

Ah, Oor Wullie and the Broons!

I've been doing my teeth no good whatsoever by stuffing, with both hands, into my gob the 'Oor Wullie,' 'Scottish Butter Fudge' that my favourite, best looking and most intelligent niece gave me at Christmas. This combines several Scots habits in one,  there is 'Oor Wullie,' himself, sweets eaten by the ton, and teeth eroding as you eat!  Scots dentists always have work!  The fudge is available in many guises but here is presented as a money maker for D.C. Thomson's, the great Dundee press giant, as they like to be known.  'Oor Wullie,' is a cheeky chappie character developed in the late thirties by the D.C.Thomson Comics editor R.D. Low.  He it was who produced comics such as 'The Hotspur' and 'The Wizard,' in the twenties and thirties.  He also later introduced 'The Dandy,' 'The Beano' and 'The Topper.'  Low introduced an eight page comic section into the 'Sunday Post,' Thomson's 'family paper,' these were the wee rascal 'Oor Wullie,' based on the typical young boy of the day, and the family called 'The Broons.' While 'Wullie stayed with his family in a ground floor of an unidentified town the Broons were tenement dwellers in an industrial city, very like Dundee. The strips began in 1936 and reflected much of Scots life of the day, my family of six emerged from a tenement in 1953 to dwell in a modern flat, allowing me to understand something of the 'Broons' plight.  His cartoonist was a famous man Dudley D. Watkins.   Watkins illustrated and created many strips for the Thomson comics working for them from 1925 until he died from a heart attack at his drawing board in 1969.  His popularity and importance was such that he was one of two only cartoonists allowed to sign their work!   His attitude to Mr Hitler and his expansionist policies were reflected in the strips and it is said he was on Hitler's list of those to be dealt with.  

'The Broons' and 'Oor Wullie,' are part of every Scots kids life, even though most of the other comics have closed down.  As such there is great trade in sending annuals, sometimes facsimiles of old editions, to ex-pat Scots to remind them of home.  Some would say the 'Sunday Post,' is the reason they left in the first place!  These are not cartoons that cause much laughter today for me but the characters enshrined I have known in past times, but the world moves on and the hardships of the pre-war era reflected have been eradicated for the majority.  It could be said many fail to comprehend a family life where both a mum and dad exist, and brothers and sisters dwell in unity, excluding the family feuds!  'Willie,' has parents who care for him and far too many today would not understand this, the majority may but our disjointed and confused society finds happy family life difficult.

My favourite such comic was and remains 'The Beano!'  Their were many others offered to us, the folks encouraged us to read as much as possible, and vast amounts of cash was paid for these.  'The Beano,' is my favourite because of the anarchic outlook and the items at the side.  For example there was the stagnant pond, we knew this because of the broken notice board giving this information and the ducks are all wearing gas masks!  Adverts pinned on the fences in the background told us to "eat more MINCE," and featured a bowl holding mince three foot high! Such absurdity abounded in the past and hopefully still does today, 'The Beano,' appearing to be the only comic left in the UK these days.  Ha! Kids today, they know nothing!

      

Recognise yourself....?

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