Having explained my family background it might be assumed that I would have been a Celtic fan from a very young age. However my own journey to Celtic took a slightly longer path. During the 1950’s I knew virtually nothing about Celtic or the game of professional football. Of course I did know about football. You could not live in Scotland without being aware of football. But for me it was a game that was played in the street, in the school playground, in the park.
I only had a vague idea that crowds of people would go to watch others play the game. And we had other diversions and games too despite, or maybe because of, not having television. Our neighbourhood was full of young children and I simply had to go out the door and find someone to play with. Especially during the lighter summer months we could go out in the morning and come back at night with the odd visit back to the house for something to eat.
And back doors were rarely locked so we did not have to bother with taking a key. At primary school I had friends from all over Baillieston and either on foot or on bike we would travel all over the area. If we did go further afield the tram was an easy option especially during the school holidays when a penny special meant travelling as far as the tram was going for only one penny.
Saturday mornings were spent playing football in the park or going to the Odeon matinee in Shettleston or the baths. During this time I had no memory of my father going to see the Celtic. As Celtic Park was only a few miles away he must have gone to at least a few games but these were not always great times for Celtic and possibly he did not want to inflict any pain on me by telling me about them? Of course having three (soon four) children and a mortgage meant other priorities on the financial front.
He did have football involvement though. He helped run the Our Lady’s High School football team and he did take me to some of their games. One was at a large park with seats. I was not that concerned with what was going on on the field. I was more interested in running about the rows of seats with some other kids and consuming my bottle of Irn Bru and crisps that my father had given me before going off to be with the team.
It was some years later before I discovered that the “large park” was Hampden and it was not until 2004 on a visit back to Scotland when I caught up with Billy McNeill that I discovered the game had been the Scottish Schools Cup Final. So the first time I had seen Billy play was not in the green and white of Celtic but the blue of OLHS.
