We were originally of Scottish Blood

My life in Pictures

Last Update 26 August 2008

The stories I am trying my best to remember, please correct me if you know better...
The Camera, The Guitar and a visit to Ards Hospital
Author Derek Beattie Additional Joe tate

Joe Tate

Budgie Boyd

Andy

Story Number 1 goes way back to the good old days,... it features a Polaroid Camera, a Guitar and two crazy people.
We were returning from a visit to Clandeboye Forest, our place of sancutary away from the idiots and all was normal,. typical banter after a quantity of alcohol etc. but someone,.. I can't remember who, decided to take a photo of Joe (Tate) strumming his guitar as we walked along the mountain road into Newtownards in the dark. At that time he and Robert "Budgie" Boyd were learning to play guitar and driving the rest of us crazy with their incessant arguments about which key was which,..
The trouble started when the Polaroid was developed, a halt was called to study said photo under a street light to which Budgie commented "Ah.. key of C eh...!"    Much to Joes annoyance, "No, you blind b*****d its not C its G",...   this continued for another 2 miles until we returned to our Club Hall,. my Garage at the bottom of the garden,. then the argument really heated up under proper lighting.
It was whilst sipping a glass of wine that Joe stated "If you don't shut up I'll whack you one with this bottle",.. Budgie insisted that Joe was not the type to do such a thing,... "Crash, tinkle, tinkle"  he did,.. Budgie rubbed his head, no blood,.  asked if there were any more empties and was rewarded in the affirmative,..  They were sat opposite each other and Budgie asked Joe to bow his head and lean forward,. "Crash, tinkle, tinkle",.. Joe rubbed his head, swore a lot but found no blood,...
He requested yet another empty which was supplied and the contest continued,..... several bottles later Budgie drew blood from Joe.,. quite a bit as I remember, so off to the local hospital emergency department. 
When asked as to how the accident happened we did not lie but explained the truth as accurately as possible,. the expression on the face of the nurse was something to behold,..  she was trying her best to fill in her accident report without the need to involve the Police as this would be hassle all around,.  we all finally agreed that it was simply a succession of unstoppable accidents, which was very close to the truth as the rest of us had tried our best to call a halt to the whole thing.  But here we are some 40 years later and still able to laugh,..  these guys were the best of friends for a very long time and would have defended each other to the death but get them argueing... 

Additional from my old mate Joe,.
Mad i was reading the story you have in your history page,by the way you got a teriffic site really enjoyed looking through it,another one for you and bottles were used again, but this time it was Andy "Grunter" Flower  who was the culprit,we started drinking that day down in the shed at the bottom of your garden,you ,me ,Budgie ,Andy Flower and i cant remember who else was there but we had a lot to drink and it was you that got Budgie going on about the guitar you told him to go round to his house and get the bloody thing but as it turned out it was in my house in south street,i remember every one going on and on go get the guitar and i even remember the song that he always sang it was called the "Candy Man",anyway as it turned out i was the one that left to go get it,so i left and got the guitar, on my way back i was walking up the lane to get to the shed when Andy jumped out of a hedge on to my back with an empty bottle i dont no if he knew it was me our not but scared the s**t out of me we are both on the ground fighting i'm telling him its ok its me when he hit me with the bottle it broke and he stuck it in my arm twice,that meant another trip to the hospital,still got the scars to prove it,any way after the trip to the hospital we went back to the shed to round of the evening ,i think by the end of the night every one knew the song Candy Man .if you want to use this story you can type it out im not much good at this typing thing,hope to hear from you soon.  Joe.

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