Saturday, November 29, 2008

Hamish remembers his first fag

The sun is trying to break through the heavy mist covering the top of the hill opposite my home, 1600 feet above sea level, and it is quite cold outside and so I’ve been browsing the Gurn from Nairn whilst having my morning ‘break’. There I find two pictures of properties on the market – The Latino Restaurant and Jacko’s which evoke memories.

Are they pictures of the same building taken at different times and sited between Burntisland Street and King Street?

If this is the case I recall that before the war the premises were owned by a local man – today he might have been considered an entrepreneur since he owned and rented a number of domestic property in addition to other business enterprises in that part of the town – and at the rear of the shop were two rooms. In one was a full sized billiards table and in the other a half-size billiard table. Snooker was not as popular then as now.

The smaller table got more use than did the “big” one by young lads. We each paid a penny for a game of “fifty up” or for a half hour whichever was the earliest but provided there were no other lads waiting to play that half hour was often extended so that fifty point were on the board.

I smoked my first ever cigarette in the bigger of the two rooms and felt very ill afterwards – don’t think I finished it.
Thanks Hamish. Latino's is in the location you are describing, Jacko's is a bit further down harbour Street.

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