Didnae know you went to Leithy?Yup!
I skipped school to be there with a few mates and I don't think any of us had any money!
The most memorable bit was we were all in Leith Academy blazers, blue, and quite a few Hibs supporters thought we were dodgy huns! How Hibees didn't know we were from the school down the road I don't know!
Leith Academy pre dates Hibs by around 300 years. So I can understand why it wasn't the green of Hibs. If I recall correctly the original Leith trams were black and white, perhaps Shrink can confirm?
It was only then I wondered why Leith Academy wore blue and I've never found out since. Probably something to do with the sea but the Firth of Froth is rarely blue!
I don't think it's ever been brought up in conversation before so there's never been cause to mention it.Didnae know you went to Leithy?
I always thought it was to do with the colours of the saltire. St Andrews being the house I was in.Yup!
I skipped school to be there with a few mates and I don't think any of us had any money!
The most memorable bit was we were all in Leith Academy blazers, blue, and quite a few Hibs supporters thought we were dodgy huns! How Hibees didn't know we were from the school down the road I don't know!
Leith Academy pre dates Hibs by around 300 years. So I can understand why it wasn't the green of Hibs. If I recall correctly the original Leith trams were black and white, perhaps Shrink can confirm?
It was only then I wondered why Leith Academy wore blue and I've never found out since. Probably something to do with the sea but the Firth of Froth is rarely blue!
Yup!
I skipped school to be there with a few mates and I don't think any of us had any money!
If I recall correctly the original Leith trams were black and white, perhaps Shrink can confirm?
There was definitely a game on one midweek during the day. I was at Leith Academy and at that time you went to the Norton Park annex behind the main stand for first and second year. There was a game going on while we were at school. That building closed that year and we all moved down to the main school at the foot of Easter Road. We used to see the players going into the stadium a lot.Did we play Partick Thistle on a midweek afternoon when new stands behind goals were getting built mid 90s? Got a vague memory of attending this game.
I went to Leithy when it was Norton Park Annexe,1974/75,we could stand at the entrance and get players autographs at play time.Still got Des Bremner's somewhere.There was definitely a game on one midweek during the day. I was at Leith Academy and at that time you went to the Norton Park annex behind the main stand for first and second year. There was a game going on while we were at school. That building closed that year and we all moved down to the main school at the foot of Easter Road. We used to see the players going into the stadium a lot.
I was at Leith Academy when that booklet was published, 1960, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the school. The school played a large part in the Leith Pageant that year. I just happened to show that very booklet to a coupla mates a few weeks ago, and so you making it available on line is a great asset, for which I thank you.FAO Jack
Don't know how to copy and paste a pdf but it tells you in here page 26 that it is the blue and white from the coat of arms.
Yeah it was the same when I was there. I’m pretty sure the ticket office used to be where we did woodwork and technical drawing. I was only there for 1 year as they closed it down at the end of my first year. Funnily enough they closed the main school the year I left as well as they moved to the new school.I went to Leithy when it was Norton Park Annexe,1974/75,we could stand at the entrance and get players autographs at play time.Still got Des Bremner's somewhere.
Fantastic!FAO Jack
Don't know how to copy and paste a pdf but it tells you in here page 26 that it is the blue and white from the coat of arms.
Aye the ticket office was the old techy block.We were taught,woodwork by a Mr Wood, who also took PE,he was an ex Hun goalie,who made a point of pulling down the laddies shorts to see if they were wearing pants,dirty fucker!Yeah it was the same when I was there. I’m pretty sure the ticket office used to be where we did woodwork and technical drawing. I was only there for 1 year as they closed it down at the end of my first year. Funnily enough they closed the main school the year I left as well as they moved to the new school.
Aye the ticket office was the old techy block.We were taught,woodwork by a Mr Wood, who also took PE,he was an ex Hun goalie,who made a point of pulling down the laddies shorts to see if they were wearing pants,dirty fucker!
I was at Leith Academy when that booklet was published, 1960, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the school. The school played a large part in the Leith Pageant that year. I just happened to show that very booklet to a coupla mates a few weeks ago, and so you making it available on line is a great asset, for which I thank you.
Was that the same Woods that slippered us for not having pe kit? If it is he didn't look big enough to be a goalie, he looked like an old perv with his trackies and tweed jacket on.Aye the ticket office was the old techy block.We were taught,woodwork by a Mr Wood, who also took PE,he was an ex Hun goalie,who made a point of pulling down the laddies shorts to see if they were wearing pants,dirty fucker!
That was the rumour, that he had played for the huns.Thankfully he's probably no longer with us.Was that the same Woods that slippered us for not having pe kit? If it is he didn't look big enough to be a goalie, he looked like an old perv with his trackies and tweed jacket on.
Thankfully he’d gone by the time I was there.Aye the ticket office was the old techy block.We were taught,woodwork by a Mr Wood, who also took PE,he was an ex Hun goalie,who made a point of pulling down the laddies shorts to see if they were wearing pants,dirty fucker!
Think we drew 1 1 with Celtic around that time. We defo beat hawrts 3-1 in a midweek afternoon game too we were 1-0 down and scored 3 goals in about 10 minutes i think - sure Kevin Harper scored 2 and Keith Wright got the other. Think it was close to the time Celtic pumped us at ibrox in the cup semi final replay? (That might have been a year later )Can mind playing Celtic midweek sin floodlights in the mid-90’s while the South & FF stands were being built, something like a 5pm KO. We beat Hearts 3-1 around then too although that was on a Saturday.
I once shared an elevator with Ted Heath in a hotel in Gorky Prospekt in Moscow. Him, some heavies in suits and me. Thought it couldn't get any more bizarre when at the next floor Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, got in the lift too.I was there against the Hundogs. Was it not during the Ted Heath ' 3 day week'. I think it may have been a 1300 kick off. May be wrong.
BIG G
I once shared an elevator with Ted Heath in a hotel in Gorky Prospekt in Moscow. Him, some heavies in suits and me. Thought it couldn't get any more bizarre when at the next floor Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, got in the lift too.
And it only happened because I'd had to be emergency airlifted from a war zone to Moscow from Yerevan in Armenia because civil war had broken out...
Going to Mordor is a piece of cake by comparison...
Jings that whole fascinating story has to told somewhere G. Utterly surreal.
BIG G8ji
Later that trip, in Leningrad, Reagan and Gorbachev were at the Hermitage museum when we were there too. We were forced by Soviet police to stand and wave the hammer and sickle and cheer like extras in some weird propaganda movie for Kim Jung wotsisname...Jings that whole fascinating story has to told somewhere G. Utterly surreal.
BIG G
Also had the KGB try to entrap us in a currency sting in Moscow, turning up at the hotel room asking for hard currency in exchange for Roubles. Common KGB operation to snare Westerners. Thankfully we knew that and didn't fall for it.
.
Good old Inturist the Soviet national tourist agency. Had to have one of these folk with you at all times. Ours wasn't impressed when one old boy who'd been at the relief of the siege of Leningrad asked why they only ever referred to the Great Patriotic War and not WWII. The two of them had something of a set to over it as the guide insisted it was only a conflict between USSR and Germany that ever happened. Old boy was apoplectic and asked why he'd been in Leningrad wasting his time then...awk-ward.The worst for me, compaired to that, in Leningrad was punters approaching me and offering me rediculous amounts of Roubles for my Levi jeans. A) there was not a great deal to buy with them, worthless outside Russia and B) even if I agreed I would have been arrested immediately walking about in my boxers.
Spent a spendid time with Holly, a US citizen and Kolya her Russia husband, who was a western Rock fan, frown upon at that time, in their Leningrad flat. Nice food and much straight vodka. This would be 1980 I guess. A few months later there was a knock at our door in Musselbugh and low and behold Holly and Kolya. No they were not seeking political asylum. On their way to see Holly's folks in the US, before returning to the USSR.
Meeting genuine punters on this two week trip to Leningrad, Moscow and Yalta was thanks to the Russian speaking Scottish tour guide, Steve McQueen, beleive it or not, who we befriended and introduced us to friends he had met over the years.Splendid young man.
There was a Russian co guide the whole trip, a lady who one day was giving us a bit about the stuff kids learned in school about the history of the Soviet Union. Any questions? Aye pipes up the bold boy, 'How much do you tell the kids about the creator of the Red Army during the Revolution, Leon Trotsky? Silence. I do not know who gave me the dirtiest look, the guide or my wife.
BIG G
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