Kevin John – The Home Run Presenter (Drivetime Show)

I’ll never go to as many parties again as when at primary school. Every time someone had a birthday you were off clutching a present and usually the party was on a Saturday morning or afternoon. The BEST party of all started with a trip to the cinema to see The Jungle Book….and that was my introduction to big screen entertainment! Back in the day the cinema screen had curtains that opened and they played ‘God Save the Queen’ at the start! You also got two movies so there was a short cartoon too. After that it was back to the house for all the party food and traditional games like pin the tail on the donkey. Who’s birthday, was it? Do you know, it was so long ago I can’t honestly remember…but thank you whoever you were!

My folks were very sociable and liked to hold big parties from time to time, the biggest usually being at Hogmanay. When it came to the music, they had me as the young DJ in the family so I belted out the tunes for everyone on my trusty record player to get everyone dancing. Who knew that I’d still be playing the hits all these years later! No chance of mega-mixing with the available technology in those days. I was playing the old 45’s or singles as they’re know. I didn’t realize that the crackle at the start of my copy of ‘Fernando’ by Abba was a fault until much later when I heard it on CD. I thought it was a sound effect to go with the line, ‘in the fire light, Fernando’!

I’m from a family of four brothers and with large age gaps. My eldest brother is 11 years older than me, but he always used to take me swimming to the local municipal pool at the weekend. It used to be a steamie back in the day! Sadly, it no longer exists as the council closed it down. It was always great fun and he showed off jumping off the high diving boards. Not for me at that age although I have done it since. Unfortunately though, my swimming technique has not improved over the years!! After the swim it was usually a trip to the chippie!

It was also my eldest brother who taught me to ride a bike (and much later a car!). Getting the bike for Christmas opened up so many possibilities of things to do and places to go – and made it easier to chum around with pals who also had wheels. I’d go for miles on that bike and even did a bit of shopping to help out the folks as we didn’t have a car in those days. Can I just say I don’t recommend carrying stuff hanging from your handlebars…and of course, helmets weren’t a thing for cyclists at that time. Eventually I had a wee saddle bag installed which was much better for storing the bread, milk, chops and the streaky bacon!