Kempes and his chain smoking, where it was reported he would smoke half a packet of ciggies at half-time in the changing rooms and of which I’m sure he wasn’t alone in doing so.
The reason I remember this is that I enquired from my mother who was a smoker at the time if she could match that and she, a veteran smoker even then, shuddered at the thought of actually doing so. We all wanted to be Kempes, fags and all, and when we scored in our World Cup replays on the well worn park pitch, more gravel than grass and which left a painful reminder that it needed resurfacing when you fell on it. Sliding tackles were a no no, we celebrated by imitating smoking a ciggie and shouting gringos - the innocence of it all. The other reason being Archie Gemmill and the Dutch game. I remember the '78 world cup and Scotland's opening game against Peru very well. The Iran game not so much. It was before their win against the Dutch and Gemmill's great goal.
We were only kids and sitting on the play park fence trying to catch our breathes and verbally abusing the girls who dared to cross our path. We were just after replaying the Dutch game in the park in which we all vied with each other to be Archie Gemmill when one of the boys noticed a British army foot patrol that were heading towards us....actually they were just walking past the park! One of the boys with us said that they were a Scottish regiment and as they approached we could see their head gear marked them out as such - no helmet but a bonnet of sorts. Actually, it may have been the Black Watch, not sure, but they were definitely Scottish. Well, when they got within ear shot one of the gang shouted Archie Gemmill. The lead soldier responded with a smile and a thumbs up and the same kid then shouted is a homo. Don't ask me why for I have no idea but in those days ‘homo’ was an insult. Another term widely used to inflict insult on a person’s character was ‘tube’ - one politically incorrect and the other an old and out-of-date term now.
We were only kids and sitting on the play park fence trying to catch our breathes and verbally abusing the girls who dared to cross our path. We were just after replaying the Dutch game in the park in which we all vied with each other to be Archie Gemmill when one of the boys noticed a British army foot patrol that were heading towards us....actually they were just walking past the park! One of the boys with us said that they were a Scottish regiment and as they approached we could see their head gear marked them out as such - no helmet but a bonnet of sorts. Actually, it may have been the Black Watch, not sure, but they were definitely Scottish. Well, when they got within ear shot one of the gang shouted Archie Gemmill. The lead soldier responded with a smile and a thumbs up and the same kid then shouted is a homo. Don't ask me why for I have no idea but in those days ‘homo’ was an insult. Another term widely used to inflict insult on a person’s character was ‘tube’ - one politically incorrect and the other an old and out-of-date term now.
We then began chanting Up Peru. Within a few moments every kid in the park from our estate and all the adjoining estates joined us and the foot patrol lost the head and pulled out their batons and attacked us. Luckily we were all on the other side of the fence. Next thing, a brick flew over and clocked one of them in the chest.
Well, all hell broke loose after that and a riot ensued. There were only five of the Brits and they were quickly surrounded and swinging like mad. Within a few moments of the chaos out came the 'mums' and they berated the soldiers for attacking kids. Then when it was all settled down the Brits left, funnily they never called for reinforcements the whole time, perhaps it was because they didn't want to seek help to deal with kids!!! Anyway, once they were off out of the way the mums all turned on us and gave us a right scalping for bringing trouble. Now, looking back they were probably more scared that one of their 'wee darlings' could have been seriously injured. So, I always remember that game for this reason. We just went back to replaying the Dutch game again, oblivious to what had just happened, hardened by the conflict and of course we vied to be Archie Gemmill - the homo!
Little did I realise that in less than 10 years AM and my paths would cross . . . it was all down hill from there on in😁
Little did I realise that in less than 10 years AM and my paths would cross . . . it was all down hill from there on in😁
⏩ Cam Ogie is a Gaelic games enthusiast.
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