mad cows

[J Gowers]

Try this one in later years I lived in Finniston and was only half a mile from Betty's bar unfortunatly I was married then and could not partake of the activities in Betty's bar.

https://oldglasgowpubs.com/bettys-bar

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John S
Jees that was lucky, taken the day before your performance at Betty's!!!
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

It has ben scientifically proven that young men of our day had an inbuilt radar which automatically directed us the the nearest pub ashore.
May not always have been the best, but it had grog and if the ladies were present that was an added bonus.

I did once hear of a pub somewhere in the north where on a Friday night some of the ladies would slowly undress based on the amount of money going over the bar for grog.

[j.sabourn]

There was one in Aberdeen if that far enough north for you John , forget the name of the pub but was close toward Waterloo Quay and the harbour . If remember it was open on a Sunday morning as well. The Aberdonians on here may know of it , or maybe weren’t allowed out if when at home. JS

[Graham Shaw]

...and Gallivanting around Glesga with the Shoregoers Guide to World Ports.

This morning I decided to retrieve the afore mentioned guide (1963 edition-although seeing as by then the British MN was in terminal decline,I don't think they ever updated it thereafter) from my loft,as I wanted to tell you about some of those places to go.Well,after it mentioned the usual boring addresses of churches,the main post office ,the zoo and museums it mentioned the seamen's missions (Students Mariners Club,193 Bath St;Glasgow Sailor's Home,Atlantic House,47 York St-fully licensed (Oh dear!);The Missions to Seamen in nearby 4 York St;and the Stella Maris just across Glasgow Bridge.
The Guide does give a list of dance halls and eateries of the day(no mention of our Betty's,naturally!) some of which have been mentioned in earlier posts in JS and Marian's traipse down Sauchiehall Street. There was the One-O-One in Hope Street,the Rogano in Exchange Place off Buchanan St;the Venetian Room in Union St.
Dance halls include,the Majestic in Hope St. the Locarno in Sauchiehall Street,Greens Playhouse in Renfield St.and the Albert in Bath Street.
If you wanted dinner and dancing then there was the Gay Gordon in Royal Exchange Square.
I think by the time a lot of us visited the city,those dance halls would have been seen as old-fashioned and were probably rebranded as nightclubs,discos or wine bars.
I did visit a winebar called The Gay Gordon regularly but that was just out of the city on The Great Western Road at Kelvin Bridge,next to the Metro station,a.k.a. the Clockwork Orange 'cos of it's colour.The carriages were quite tiny too when compared with the London Underground. This Gay Gordon was near to our 'standby ' digs.The actual dance itself you know is really called the Gay Gordons (plural) -thought I should let you know that.
Anyway the barman was a big bruiser ,not called Gordon,but Shuggie.He had an affinity with us because-no,nothing to do with anything gay,but because he was an ex seafarer-an AB who did a dozen or so years on the Gourock-Dunoon ferry,a crossing taking at least half an hour each way.
Shuggie said he liked to be home every night and in any case he fretted a bit when out of sight of land,so the round the world voyages on the likes of the Oronsay or Orcades :didnae suit me one wee bit ". So you can see his point.
He ran a tight ship at the Gordon' There was never any funny business and you were quite likely to end up with the proverbial 'Glesga Kiss',or 'dandruff salad' if you did,although with regard to the latter maybe not as he was quite bald.A customer told us that a trio of football fans on their way back to their hotel,staggered in the door ,looked at Shuggie and with exaggerated camp affectations declared "Oo,well now,luvvie you must be Gay Gordon.What shall we have boys,pink gins,or a large cocktail?"
With the speed of light Shuggie had thrown all three of them out of the door and onto the pavement in a heap.He was a legend,and a memorable character.
I've always liked Weegies-some of the friendliest folks in Britain I find,and I think a lot will agree.

Ah well,I didn't mean to carry on so much,but hope you enjoyed this brief traipse round Glesga for a wee while.
Kilt.gif

[j.sabourn]

One of my more hilarious memory’s of Betty’s bar was years before the episode(s) on the Beechwood and in 1964 was the so called chief officer of the Pennyworth one of Daggies .lying alongside the General Terminus jetty we had the usual visitations from the regulars from Betty’s Bar and true to the gentleman I once was I used to go around making sure they were off the vessel before the shore labour came on board . True to Cappys report I used to get a lot of threats and actual at times violence from these waives and strays , but soldiered on for the good of the good name of merchant seamen .The 2 and 3 mates at the time were 66 and 65 years of age and tried to give me a hard time , complaining to all and sundry about strange female faces they had sighted .The second mate the 66 year old had his wife visit the ship for a couple of days and was a bit of a haughty lady , had special shoes for coming up the gangway etc. and was like Queen Tut to Louis’s King Tut. 0ne evening one of the girls must have been locked out of a cabin , so made her way midships looking for a friend she knocked on the 2 mates door next to mine , and his wife answered the door , her answer to the request for a safe haven was “ Hinny there is nothing you can do for him that I can’t” .i made it obvious to the second mate that I had heard the conversation between his wife and the Betty’s bar girl .Any problems that I had with him ceased to exist . From the next day onwards .The third mate a proficient tale carrier to anyone who would listen got him later on another bit of his gossip put into a return missile. Politics existed at sea also if you allowed them to . JS

[Graham Shaw]

JS -Going back to yr.#12-Clancy's Bar.I said it was in Yokohama,and you thought it was in Kobe ! I should have known you would be right! Yes it was Kobe.
I found this on an ex-seafarers web page.His name is silverfox175.

It was owned and run by Clancy (of course), who was an Australian and he’d remained in Japan after the war.
Clancy was a large man and wouldn’t put up with any troublemakers. Any problems and you were out on your ear.

I like the bit about the circular being non-transferable-except to another man with money!



Cheers.gif

[j.sabourn]

#19. That could of been me posing for that character after I was told to leave. Clancy himself after I had been reinstalled , learned how he had been part of the Australian occupation forces, a sergeant in the Australian army. Married a Japanese lady, actually the pub was in her name due to the Japanese law at the time and foreign ownership laws. He had to leave Japan every 6 months or so. And then return under a new visa.Australia used a similar system when I emigrated in 1991, only it was every 3 months. All the foreign oil rigs and ships which arrived here , it was 3 months and out you go. I thought it was a good idea myself one of the good choices of a then labour government . I saw nothing wrong with that system , enabled the Australian work force to stay employed and for the money to stay here also. Others don’t agree but if Abanezer was to bring back I would maybe think of voting for him, squeaky voice an all. Cheers JS
PS re the shipping side in Australia the ships and rigs being inaminate objects could stay but any foreign personages had to be replaced with Australian , this included all from the highest to the lowest. JS..

[happy daze john in oz]

Young and Jacksons in Melbourne or to give it the correct name Princes Bridge hotel.
We had been on the sauce most of the day, days of six o clock swill.
It was around 1700 hours when we got in there and Scouce was as full as a boot, maybe even two boots.

He asked for food ,'soup in a basket' if I recall correctly which upset the barman.
Then he saw the picture of Chloe and asked if the barman had a razor as he thought Chloe could do with a shave.

Bloody barman then threw us all out into the street!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bill Morrison]

There was one in Aberdeen if that far enough north for you John , forget the name of the pub but was close toward Waterloo Quay and the harbour . If remember it was open on a Sunday morning as well. The Aberdonians on here may know of it , or maybe weren’t allowed out if when at home. JS

I think this is the one your thinking on John. It's long gone as are most of the dock side pubs. The landlord Chris Cummins passed on and no one wanted to take it over. It was right next to the NUS office.
Bill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1bbbjowgkQ
The video is no longer available. PEEP-PEEPS was the pubs name.