{"id":9814,"date":"2016-09-14T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-09-14T11:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etims.net\/?p=9814"},"modified":"2016-09-14T08:56:56","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T07:56:56","slug":"tonic-for-the-troops-more-memories-from-tom-campbell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etims.net\/?p=9814","title":{"rendered":"Tonic For The Troops-More Memories From Tom Campbell"},"content":{"rendered":"

They couldn’t have arrived at a better time, more wee stories from the past from Tom Campbell<\/strong> to put a smile back on your face…<\/em><\/p>\n

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ON THE BUSES<\/span><\/p>\n

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My father let me travel on the Penilee & Cardonald CSC when I was a wee boy because he knew (and worked beside) the bus-convenor, a man called Big Hughie.\u00a0 He was indeed big, and had a grim sort of face \u2026 but I never heard him raise his voice or even put on a threatening look.\u00a0 Hughie used to sit at the front of the bus, and I always at the back<\/span><\/p>\n

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My first real trip was to Aberdeen, and the bus left Penilee at 7 o\u2019clock Saturday morning for a 3 o\u2019clock kick-off, with a stop at the Halfway on Paisley Road West to pick up the Cardonald contingent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It used to take about six hours to get to Aberdeen along slow roads and through all sorts of towns and villages.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe past is a different country; they do things differently there\u2026\u201d \u00a0That\u2019s how a famous novel begins, and it\u2019s true.\u00a0 Back in the 1940\u2019s there was no television, and no taped music either.\u00a0 It was no great hardship because we could listen to the radio, and always the BBC.\u00a0 So, a full bus of Celtic supporters heading on the long trip north would listen happily enough to \u2018Housewives\u2019 Choice\u2019 (a request programme), \u2018Mrs Dale\u2019s Diary\u2019 (a long-running radio soap), \u2018Music While You Work\u2019 (a cheerful, up-beat fifteen minutes) and my favourite \u2013 an hour-long version of \u2018Dick Barton, Special Agent\u2019, introduced by the frenzied music of \u2018The Devil\u2019s Gallop\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sometime in the first half-hour Big Hughie would make his rounds to collect the fares.\u00a0 I seem to remember that it should have cost me 2\/6d (12.5p) for the trip to Aberdeen, but a routine evolved.\u00a0 I would hand over the money, and Hughie would make his way to the front; he would huddle with a couple of committee members for a minute or two, after which he would return to the back, and growl:\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve got a wee bit extra the day; so here\u2019s two bob back.\u201d \u00a0And my trip to Pittodrie cost me 6d (2.5p).\u00a0 For every away game we always had \u201ca wee bit extra\u201d, but the ritual had to be carried out: to Tynecastle, Easter Road, Starks Park \u2026\u00a0 For some strange reason, we didn\u2019t have a bus for home games.<\/span><\/p>\n

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That first trip to Aberdeen has stayed in my mind.\u00a0 It was the first time I had been there, the first time I visited Pittodrie, and (at the age of 12) the first time I had been in a pub.\u00a0 That was on the way home, at a village called Lawrencekirk.\u00a0 The bus pulled up about 6 o\u2019clock on the village\u2019s one street, a couple of committee\u2013men got out, went into the pub, presumably had a wee talk with the owner, and we all left the bus, and piled into this country pub.\u00a0 We stayed for an hour; I had an Ir\u2019n Bru and watched Celtic supporters and locals mix, and talk, and eventually leave on the best of terms.\u00a0 Even at my tender age, I felt impressed\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

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Actually, it was always a very well-run bus.\u00a0 Nobody was allowed to carry any beer or spirits on to it.\u00a0 On one trip, probably on the way back from Dundee, the bus was stopped by the police at the Kincardine Bridge, and a search was conducted by three officers.\u00a0 No alcohol was found, and I remember the sergeant call out just before leaving:\u00a0 \u201cWell done, lads!\u00a0 Clean as a whistle.\u201d\u00a0 Somehow or other, the Penilee & Cardonald always were given a state-of-the-art bus called, I think, a Northern Star and it was immaculate.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Another memory sticks in my mind from that trip to Aberdeen.\u00a0 After the stop at Lawrencekirk, the mood was jovial and we had a little concert with everybody expected to do their party-piece \u2026 but a discussion broke out.\u00a0 It puzzled me at the time (and still does).\u00a0 Somebody wanted to give a rendering of a song called \u2018Kevin Barry\u2019 but the committee vetoed it, because it was \u201ca rebel song\u201d and so it was shelved (and with the general approval of everybody).\u00a0 Think about it for a minute: a Celtic Supporters\u2019 Bus, filled with fans \u2013 and the driver was one too \u2013 trundling through the dark, Scottish night, in the middle of nowhere, and agreeing it was inappropriate to sing a rebel song\u2026 \u201cA different country\u201d, indeed; and different times.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I was well-looked after: somebody was always delegated to be beside me on those packed terracings, somebody always squeezed me through the 1\/6d gate usually without paying\u2026 often, as a club, we had \u2018High Tea\u2019 after the game and I don\u2019t think I was ever allowed to pay my share.\u00a0 Once at Leven, there was Willie McNaught and Alec Colville of Raith Rovers being studiously ignored and left in peace to enjoy their tea at an adjoining table.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Celtic supporters, but also men who knew and enjoyed their football.\u00a0 In 1952 the Penilee & Cardonald ran a full bus to the Scottish Cup final between Motherwell and Dundee.\u00a0 For what it\u2019s worth, I think the attendance for that final was one of the highest ever.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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And sportsmen too.\u00a0 Celtic had just lost a thriller at Tynecastle in 1949 by 4-2 to a Hearts\u2019 side making all the headlines with their \u2018Terrible Trio\u2019 of Conn, Bauld and Wardhaugh. \u00a0This was before the M8 made things easy, and the buses trundled along side roads.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Somehow we had picked up four extra passengers in Edinburgh, all Hearts\u2019 supporters and planned to drop them off somewhere near Whitburn.\u00a0 During the short trip, everybody praised \u2018the Terrible Trio\u2019, admired the positive play of Hearts, and wished our \u2018hitchhikers\u2019 well.\u00a0 No sooner had they departed, the game was analysed:\u00a0 \u201cBauld was over-rated \u2026 their second goal was offside \u2026 it was never a penalty \u2026 Bobby Evans was the best man on the park \u2026 Hearts won\u2019t beat Rangers on that form\u2026\u201d\u00a0 And not one word like that had been uttered while our guests were on the bus!<\/span><\/p>\n

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It may be a bit late, well about sixty years later, but thank you, gentlemen of the Penilee & Cardonald for looking after me so well.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Years later, on holidays to Scotland from Canada, I travelled more than once on another supporters\u2019 bus, one that left from a pub in George Square right beside the City Chambers.\u00a0 Sometimes I think that my life has been punctuated with the dates of Celtic matches; for example, I was married on a December 26th<\/sup>\u00a0in Toronto (and Celtic beat Motherwell 2-0 that day) and years later my wife and I separated a few days before Celtic won the Scottish Cup by beating Rangers through an Andy Lynch penalty.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Punctuation?\u00a0 Dates?\u00a0 I think back to the Scottish Cup final of 1984 between Celtic and Aberdeen and I was on that bus along with Pat Woods, Kevin Macarra and Peter Burns, SJ.\u00a0 In the pub I was given an impressive Jesuitical version of \u2018the Conspiracy Theory\u2019 by Father Burns, an account enhanced when Aberdeen\u2019s first goal, clearly offside, was allowed to stand and Roy Aitken was ordered off in the first half.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Another interesting moment from that day:\u00a0 the bus was moving slowly around George Square, caught up in the Saturday lunch-time traffic\u2026 a man and his wife on the pavement were accompanying their daughter obviously heading for her First Communion \u2026 the man, seeing the bus and noting the green-and-white, nodded and gave us a thumbs-up\u2026 somebody was quick to react:\u00a0 \u201cCome on, boys; let\u2019s chip in for the wee lassie!\u201d\u2026 a cap was passed around quickly, money poured in, the bus-convenor raced down the road, and came back a minute or so later beaming:\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s a Tim, alright but he couldn\u2019t miss that family occasion.\u00a0 Quite right, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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I went on that same bus to Dundee once with my sister, on holiday in Scotland from her position as Mistress of Ceremonies at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.\u00a0 On the way there some members felt an urgent need to relieve themselves, and the bus pulled over at the side of the road.\u00a0 Quite a few others joined in the exodus, probably just to be sociable.\u00a0 So, you get the picture: about fifteen men all standing with their backs to the bus, staring happily into space as they relieved themselves of the beer they had rented about an hour earlier.\u00a0 My sister was vastly amused at this, even more so when she spotted the sign at the entrance to the lay-by — a P.\u00a0 (and to think that some people thought that meant ‘Parking’!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Celtic at Dundee?\u00a0 Celtic won by 2-1 that night, and Paul McStay, that most gentlemanly of players, got ordered off after carrying a Dundee player on his back for some twenty yards. \u00a0Presumably the advantage rule was being applied. \u00a0I seem to remember that some bottles or cans were thrown in the direction of the parked buses after the game, and also little clusters of other locals stood at some corners to cheer us off back to Glasgow.<\/span><\/p>\n

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And then, of course, there\u2019s the Edinburgh No. 1, a club I joined when I lived in Edinburgh between 1994 and 2010.\u00a0 I\u2019ve written in the past about Archie Wright, Francie Larkin, and Charlie McFadden but a couple of other incidents come to mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I had always wanted to visit Cuba, especially while Fidel was still alive and the country was in a time warp still suffering from the American embargo.\u00a0 Some of my friends had told me things were in short supply there and so, as a former teacher who wanted to visit Cuban schools, I got together a mini-care package: pens, pencils, erasers, some English text books\u2026 I had mentioned this to people in the Edinburgh No. 1, and I was pleasantly surprised when Michael Duff, the club\u2019s treasurer, approached me and gave me \u00a3100 telling me, \u201cUse it where you think it can do most good over there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0A splendid, generous gesture.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Over the years I also had invited several friends and relatives to Celtic games and to travel on the Edinburgh bus including Bill Murray, author of \u2018The Old Firm\u2019, and they were all treated with respect.\u00a0 Charlie McFadden, always the diplomat, spoke to other members of the \u2018One Foot in the Grave Gang\u2019 when he heard that my Canadian daughter was coming to the next game:\u00a0 \u201cTom\u2019s daughter will be here next week, and she\u2019s never been to a football game in her life.\u00a0 It might be a good idea if we tone down our language a little bit too\u2026\u201d\u00a0 The others promised to behave, and to watch their language \u2026 and they were as good as gold, gentlemen every one.<\/span><\/p>\n

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I should tell you about the rabbi\u2019s daughter at this point.\u00a0 It\u2019s not the start of a joke.\u00a0 A mutual friend told me about Ruth, a young English lady whose father was a rabbi and her mother a doctor.\u00a0 Ruth was 17 years old and had just finished High School and had been accepted into Oxford.\u00a0\u00a0 A brilliant young lady, and apparently well brought up \u2026 but she was a football fan, and a keen supporter of Newcastle United and she wanted to see Celtic at Parkhead.\u00a0 I felt this was a special case; so, I rose in the pub the week before to explain things (just in case):\u00a0 I reminded the lads of the past visitors I had brought into the club, and how well they had been treated\u2026 I mentioned Ruth was young (at 17) and had probably led a somewhat sheltered life \u2026 I reminded them she was Jewish and of a different culture, and assured everybody I was confident she would be treated perfectly\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

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Understanding, and acceptance all round.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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At that moment one of our members was returning from a visit to the toilet, and asked what was going on.\u00a0 It was explained to him, probably by Archie:\u00a0 \u201cNext week, if Eyal Berkovitch is having a bad game, we\u2019ve to make sure we call him an Orange bastard!\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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POST SCRIPT<\/span><\/p>\n

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On Saturday last Celtic thrashed \u2018Rangers\u2019 by 5-1, and all of us at the Ottawa CSC enjoyed it thoroughly \u2013 even though we had to gather downtown at 7:00 a.m. to witness it.\u00a0 We welcomed a new member, and of course there\u2019s a story behind it.\u00a0 A week earlier I had been having trouble with my laptop and had to go into the Apple Store for advice, if not repairs.\u00a0 The technician assigned to me was a pleasant young man, about 30 years old, and infinitely patient.\u00a0 During a lull in the proceedings we made small-talk, and he had noticed some odd-looking files on the desktop.\u00a0 I explained that I wrote books about football, and he (confessing to be a Manchester United fan) was interested.\u00a0 I told him I supported Celtic, and he was agog; he showed me his phone, and there were images of the Green Brigade with their Palestine flags and of Arab children with Celtic strips collecting money to help Celtic pay their probable UEFA fines \u2026\u00a0 He provided further information about himself: he had been born in Lebanon of Palestinian parents, and had emigrated to Canada\u2026 he had been touched (profoundly) by the display of flags, and by the solidarity shown by thousands of Celtic supporters to his people.\u00a0 Well, to cut a longish story short Walid Abdou Hamde turned up at the James Street Pub at 7:00 a.m. last Saturday, and bearing gifts \u2013 a ton of mini-donuts and a portable container of enough coffee to keep us awake for a week.\u00a0 He\u2019s one of us now, and he\u2019ll be back.\u00a0 \u00a0What goes around, comes around.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0In the reply columns, if you have any wee tales , past or present about travelling on supporters buses, please feel free to add them. Tom has started the ball rolling, lets keep it going and cheer ourselves up.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They couldn’t have arrived at a better time, more wee stories from the past from Tom Campbell to put a smile back on your face……<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/etims.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/tally-ho-hamilton-csc-brake-club.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2J7If-2yi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9814"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9816,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9814\/revisions\/9816"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etims.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}