Our music & Dick Barton & Snowy

Early 50's TV hadn't made an appearance up the Gibby, we lived by the wireless as we called it, not radio as today, the wireless ran off an Accumulator, which we had to get charged up in a shop in town, it didn't last long, now I was a great fan of Dick Barton, who's show started at 4:30 pm every day, and the antics of Dick and his partner Snowy always finished on a knife edge every night, I used to run from school which closed at 4:00pm then, so I had 30 minutes to get home, ran my heart out, how many times I heard " Nae Chance, the accumulator is flat " I knocked on every door up the close, and next if I had to, till I found someone who was listening to " Dick Barton Special Agent and his faithful Snowy, or it was " Dick Barton my arse, I've nae bread, git doon the Co-oP for a loaf ", now the Co-oP was down at Broadston, and there were a couple of dodgy gorillas at the end of East St who didn't like me, only for the reason I came from Poplar St, we were very territorial then, so either I diverted or took a chance, but mother always got her bread

I wish I had our Gramophone now, big horn sticking out the top, and a winder on the side, every time we put on a record we had to wind it up, Vinyl Records, if we could afford what we knew as a Long Player, which was a 33RPM, ( Reves Per Minute ), you had to wind it up half way through, caused it got slower and slower, kids today think nothing of paying £70 or £ 80 and more for games for x-boxes, I-players, I don't know the names, I used to be over the moon, and feel like a millionaire if my mother or father , or even a relation bought me a " Diamond Tipped Gramophone Needle ", this enabled me to play more than one record without changing the needle

We never used the Gramophone to the Famous Sinclair Parties in Irwin St, every week-end, too much trouble, so we had a piano in the front room, or as we called it then , the Kitchen, and what we now call the Kitchen we called the Scullery, any way for by the Piano we had the accordion, which my Brother-in-Law, Jimmy Neill from Cobham St would play to the early hours in the morning

I remember the first TV I ever saw, it was announced in the Tully that a shop in West Blackhall St, would have one in the window, switched on for all to see, the crowd, I hardly got a look in