Ohh Hampden In the Sun

Brian Lilly

Anyways, back tae the 7-1 gemme, my da and uncle were there but I was round
at the Millburn Park watching the Vale of Leven Juniors, that's when the
juniors used tae get a good crowd, sometimes bigger than Dumbarton who were
the nearest local "big" team.  As far as I can remember it was a beautiful
sunny late Autumn day.  A "big boy" had a portable radio there, portable as
opposed to transistor which probably hudnae been invented then.  It was
feckin huge, similar to what would be called later a "ghetto blaster".  Must
have run off a car battery.  He was a hun as tims couldnae afford something
like that then.  This was at a time when the home internationals were played
during the season and Wales were playing England.  There were no commercial
radio stations apart from Radio Luxembourg which you could only get when it
was dark, the only alternatives to the BBC were Athlone and some yankee
forces station from Europe, AFN I think it was called.  The Beeb broadcast 3
stations, the light programme which was light music, the home service and a
localised home service which was BBC Scotland for us.  The second half of
the Celtic/hun and England/Wales gemmes were broadcast on both home
services.  A nice wee crowd gathered round this punter more out of curiosity
at his radio than the gemmes being played, every time Celtic scored this fat
fecker turned tae the international gemme and then would turn back again,
same scenario happened 5 times.  As the whistle went I heard my mother
shouting on me, she'd come round fae my granny's tae pick me up, I recall
running along the terracing screaming that Celtic had beat Rangers 7-1, she
was laughing and nodding her head thinking that somebody was kidding me on.
I told her about the boy with the radio and when she asked him the score his
heid was doon as he replied "rangers lost 7-1".  That night was the first
time I ever saw my da' drunk.

Brian Lilly