{"id":5833,"date":"2017-09-22T08:08:28","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T08:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/?p=5833"},"modified":"2025-12-26T23:49:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T23:49:14","slug":"mind-time-football-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2017\/09\/mind-time-football-memories\/","title":{"rendered":"Mind the time? Football memories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mind the time? Football fans could complete that question a million times over. A new anthology of poetry, Mind the Time<\/i><\/a>, does the same for a good cause and to good effect. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Football Memories project does ground breaking work creatively tackling dementia and, with the help of the guys behind the excellent Nutmeg<\/i> football quarterly, has produced a book deserving attention from football fans, poetry buffs and Leither readers alike.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The aim of the Football Memories project is to improve the lives of people who suffer from dementia (over 90,000 in Scotland alone), sufficient to fill Hampden almost twice, quite a crowd and a chilling statistic. What does the project do you ask? Well here\u2019s one woman\u2019s testimony from the foreword of the anthology. \u201cI come along with a confused man and leave with my husband.\u201d That\u2019s a result by any measure. Fulfilling the project\u2019s aim to offer hope not only for those who suffer but also those closest to them.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The editor of the anthology is Jim Mackintosh who is St. Johnstone\u2019s poet in residence; we could do with more poets and fewer agents in the modern game, so well done the Saints. Those writing range from Jackie Kay, who contributes Here\u2019s the Pitch<\/i>, about the first black player to play professional football in England, to dyslexic Celtic fan Tony O\u2019Donnell, inspired by the project to write poetry for the first time since school. In between the covers you\u2019ll find enough content to keep you occupied home and <\/i>away plus brilliant design by Ayr United fan Ally Palmer.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A secret love<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Billy Hunter, former manager and player, ambassador for the project and a poet in his own right offers words about Dave Mackay and Pat Stanton, true characters of the game and worth the \u00a310 admission price alone. Asif Khan, director of the Scottish Poetry Library, told me that at the launch of the anthology Billy stopped reading, emotion getting the better of him, until the crowd pulled him through.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me this emotion and empathy is exemplified by the poem Once I had a Secret Love<\/i> by Celtic fan Marie-Therese Taylor. It describes the day her dad took her to Patrick Thistle v Rangers to see \u2018Slim Jim\u2019 play. \u2018My hero played for the other team in Govan blue.\u2019 A secret love indeed! A great photograph illustrates this piece. Baxter with the ball under his shirt after a 3-0 victory over Celtic under the watchful eye of referee \u2018Tiny\u2019 Wharton, resplendent in referee\u2019s blazer as they leave the pitch. A great example of the love and care heaped on the Mind the Time<\/i> anthology.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another is a selection of football limericks sent in to Off the Ball after Mackintosh\u2019s appearance on the show. How do poems about Ralphie Milne, Dennis Law, Billy Bremner, Scotland\u2019s women\u2019s team or The arrival of George Best at Easter Road, 1979 <\/i>sound? The best however comes from the shop floor itself.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael White tells the story of Bill, a quiet man. Sitting in one of the reminiscence sessions he is cajoled into taking part by one of the helpers. \u201cCome on Bill you like football don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joining the group he and his pal start rattling off scores, line-ups and legendary names. His pal turns to the facilitator and says, \u201cBill was a grand player, I saw him play for Celtic.\u201d Researching further Michael discovers that \u2018Bill\u2019 is William Corbett of Celtic, Preston, Leicester, Dunfermline and Scotland. He was man of the match against England at Wembley in 1942 playing against Tommy Lawton and part of a back line that included Shankly and Busby. The reminiscence sessions took him back to \u2018when we were young\u2019 but also brought him back for a wee while to the man he used to be. A worthwhile outcome that\u2019s impossible to measure, except by those closest as the testimony of the woman quoted earlier shows.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Football: opium of the people<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are now 150 Football Memories groups in Scotland. One, open to supporters of every club, meets once a month at Easter Road stadium. Convened by Hibs Historical Trust, under the enthusiastic eye of club historian Tom Wright, meetings are on the first Monday of each month from 11.00-12.30. No need to book, just turn up and ask at reception, you will find that refreshments and fellow fans are provided. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dementia is devastating for both sufferers and those closest to them, if evoking fond and maybe not so fond memories of football can help lighten that burden then the project is doing more than fulfilling its aims it\u2019s performing a public service<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terry Eagleton, riffing off Marx called football \u2018the opium of the people, it affects people in many different ways, even Marxist cultural theorists. This season the poetry is on the page as well as on the park and in both instances it\u2019s for the people\u2019s entertainment. Purchase the book. Go and see The People\u2019s Game with fellow fans and discuss\u2026 As Jim Mackintosh would have it: Open the curtains and inhale the birdsong, it\u2019s game day<\/i>. <\/span>\u03bd<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mind the Time: an Anthology of Poetry to support Football Memories Scotland is available from MyBookSource<\/a> (\u00a310). Visit www.footballmemories.org.uk for much more info.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was first published in The Leither<\/a> magazine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Featured image: by footysphere One of five Royal Mail Stamp Cards issued alongside the 1996 Football Legends stamp series. CC By-SA.20 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI come along with a confused man and leave with my husband.\u201d Gordon Munro reviews Mind the Time, a poetry project using football memories to enhance the lives of people with dementia and those closest to them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":5834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[217,55],"class_list":["post-5833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-football","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17782,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5833\/revisions\/17782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}