![]() He regaled me with stories about legendary Celtic, Scotland and Old Firm games/teams/players, and of course in 1968 the Lisbon Lions, were still at their peak. He was a big football fan and Celtic were his team. The reason for this was that my biggest football influence at the time was my Grandpa, my Mum’s Dad. Strangely, and this may shock some people who know me, but I was quite happy to get either a Celtic strip or a Rangers strip in 1968. I was Ten in 1968 and had just started getting into football so I desperately wanted a football kit for Christmas. My Dad was a busy man, plus he’d had a pretty tough upbringing, so he was from the “you’ll get what you’re given and be happy with it” school of presents, so no point in wasting my efforts there. I now knew all about the big Santa swindle and had decided to focus my attentions on my Mum for future Christmas gifts. I don’t remember any drama in 1967 but by 1968 I was a bit more worldly wise. They say you don’t know a man till you walk in his shoes and having been under similar pressure to buy my own kids the bestselling and rarely available ‘toys of the year’ I now understand the strain they were under and I forgive them. To them it was just another novelty gun and to be fair shooting around a corner may be lame, but it is pretty novel. Of course, I look back now and realise that my poor parents probably visited every toy shop and department store in Glasgow in search of this best-selling toy and were only trying their best with the back-up option. The unfortunate gun that shoots around the corner. In the urban warzone, shooting around corners wasn’t a thing, whilst Grenade Launchers, Tommy Guns and Anti-Bunker Missiles definitely were. “I bet no one else has a gun like that!” blah, blah, blah. “What a lovely gift from Santa”, “Ooh it can shoot round corners, that’s good”, My Mum, upon seeing the crushed look on my face tried to rally me round. ![]() How could Santa have got it so wrong? Was he mocking me? Did he want me to be a laughingstock? Had I been such a bad boy that year? Imagine my distress and utter shock then, when I discovered upon ripping the Xmas wrapping off the box like a demented Tasmanian Devil, that no Johnny Seven Gun lay await, but instead, something called a ‘ Gun That Shoots Around the Corner’ I actually don’t think I slept that Xmas eve, giddy with anticipation about the lashings of street cred that were about to come my way. It was all I could think about and I couldn’t wait to wake up on Xmas morning and take delivery of this plastic weapon of mass destruction. It was the coolest thing in my universe at the time and to ensure its safe delivery I was happy to forsake quantity for quality and made a list of only one item for Santa that year. ![]()
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