If you're not the 'ANONYMOUS' who regularly drops in to the STEVE DOES COMICS blog, you may well be a little confused by this posting. "Just what the heck is it about?" you may be wondering.
Well, first of all, you shouldn't be reading someone else's mail... but, as you're here, I'll explain.
You see, dear (if nosy) reader, once upon a time, in a mystical, faraway land called 'The Past', there existed a magical place of wonder called JOHNNY'S. Nothing to do with anything you got in the bartber's 'for the weekend', I assure you, but rather a shop in Gallowflat Street in Rutherglen, Scotland.
My grandparents (who I irreverently referred to as 'Grunt' and 'Grumpy' - shame on me) lived in Rutherglen in the early 1960s, and it was our well-established custom to visit them every Sunday. We had to pass through Gallowflat Street en route to their house in Hamilton Road, and we invariably stopped outside Johnny's on the way.
Johnny's was a newsagents, confectioners, tobacconists - and, as well as other sundry items that such shops always stock, also sold toys. Oh, what treasures teased, tempted and tortured both my brother and myself from within that toy and trinket-bedecked window display. It was there (around 1963 or '64) that I first saw an AURORA PHANTOM Of The OPERA model kit, built and painted in all its blood-curdling glory.
I well remember being fascinated by the desperate prisoner staring out pleadingly from behind the bars of a basement window on the model's base. Deep lacerations in his arms had exposed the bones, and blazing red blood weeped from the wounds. What four year old boy wouldn't be captivated by such a gory and macabre sight?
A few years later (if memory serves - and why shouldn't it? I pay it enough), Johnny's had moved to bigger premises a few doors along (The Hospice Shop, I think - in the 2nd photograph from the top), and it was there I obtained my second QUERCETTI FIREBALL XL5 parachute toy in 1968 or '69 (or even '70) for a mere 2/6d. A bargain if ever there was one, because the one I got for Christmas back in 1962 or '63 cost 10/6d. (Now it would cost far more.)
Ah, dear old Johnny's... now sadly long gone. It must have been around the mid or late '70s it closed its doors for the final time, but I don't know for certain. In 1964 or '65, my grandparents moved to the town in which we lived to be closer to us, and that late '60s visit to the shop was the last I can remember. (Might've paid it a visit around 1971, but can't be sure.)
The featured photos were taken a good few years ago, when the original Johnny's premises were a flower shop (and may still be). The reason I took them was because 'Johnny's' name was still clearly visible under the painted green board above the new sign. At least, in real life it was clear, it's a bit harder (but not impossible) to see it in the close-up photographs.
So, if you're around my age and are familiar with Rutherglen, you may well remember this legendary landmark. Click on the pics to enlarge, click again for optimum size. You should just be able to discern a hint of the name of that long-gone, much missed shop from childhood, when, I wager, each of us used to think we had forever.
Here's to Johnny's... and to us.
