As the new football season is about to start I thought we might have a wee sporting theme. Fitba cards from back in the day.
They came in a waxy packet with a stick of gum that continued the waxy theme. The "gum" would shatter in your mouth and was capable of slicing through a lip. The cards also had a magic panel on the back which you rubbed with a coin to reveal an answer or secret fact.
We would have bundles of these cards and spend many a playtime trading doublers with the mantra of "got, got, got, not got, got, not got".
My kids had Pokemon cards with "Spurtles" and "Jigglypuffs". We had scarier creatures such as Des Bremner, Willie Gibson and Danny Masterton of Ayr United. For every Peter Marinello there were a dozen guys with bad hair and a mooth like a burglars toolkit.
But the fitba was different in them days. Everyone at school supported either Hearts of Hibs and no-one would have dreamt of supporting Celtic of Rangers. Plus you didn't mind what ground you sneaked into for nothing, Tynecastle or Easter Road, made no odds.
An wee bonus for us High Wall boys was that Neill & Co printers down Causewayside printed the Hibs programmes and you could go into the office on the way home fae school on the Monday and they would give you them for free. Also my dad's pal Bobby worked at Banks & Co, a printers also in Causewayside. They once printed the bubble gum cards and my dad got me some. Only thing was that they came on huge sheets and you had to sit and cut them up.
Thon big sheets would be cracking things to have these days. Stuck in a big old frame on the wall would have looked barry. Probably be worth a fortune too.
