Kenneth Brannan continued his reminiscing by naming other friends of his father and uncle.
“Some of the other pals my father and Uncle Albert had in those days were George Brady, Tam Fleming, Eddie Greenan and another man called Joe, whose surname is unknown to me.
“I loved the stories and there were hundreds of them.
“My favourite and it must be true because I heard it told consistently from several different sources over the years was that, one Saturday night, some of the Boys from the Burn went out drinking together.
“Closing time was at 10pm in those days and, after the pubs closed, they went to a bachelor friend’s flat in Lawrence Street with a carry out.
“Their mate’s flat was on a ‘plettie’ in Lawrence Street, so they all went there to drink their ‘kerry oots’.
“After a while, they decided to head for their own homes, so one of them, Joe, was sent to fetch a taxi.
“Joe went to the nearby telephone box in Milnbank Road (as very few people had home telephones in those days).
“The story is Joe was told by the taxi operator to ‘stand ootside the closie as the taxi man won’t toot his horn at this time of night, nor will he go upstairs for youse. He’ll no’ be lang’.
“So, Joe did as he was told.
“However, either the taxi did not appear or the driver drove off when he saw the state Joe was in.
“When Joe didn’t come back upstairs, my father, Uncle Albert and their mate Tam Fleming went down to look for him.
“Joe had fallen fast asleep on the pavement and was lying in the crucifix position.
“Tam, a world-class wind-up merchant, then went back to the phone box and phoned an ambulance, telling the operator Joe had ‘fell ower the plettie and landed unconscious on the ground below’.
“When the ambulance arrived. Joe opened his eyes only to be told by the ambulance man . . . ‘Dinna move son, yer back might be broke’. So Joe shut his eyes again and remained absolutely motionless while the ambulance men skilfully lifted him on to a stretcher and then carefully carried him into the van.
“The ambulance men then asked if any of the others would like to accompany Joe to the DRI?
“All replied ‘no’.
“So, Joe was taken to hospital and, on arrival at DRI, the ambulance men opened the back doors and Joe promptly leapt off the stretcher, jumped out the ambulance then legged it at high speed out of the hospital grounds and into Dudhope Park, displaying superb athleticism as he disappeared into the night.
“Incidentally, Tam, who sadly passed away in 2006, disliked any personal involvement in just about any kind of physical activity.
“Tam never played the beautiful game.
“The only football ‘skills’ Tam ever exhibited was when he did the fixed odds at the bookies.
“Happy days.”
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