The standard drill prior to last month's cup-tie seemed to be to get into town as close as possible to kick-off time, then head for home straight after the finalwhistle. A couple of the pubs in the town got a wee turn just after tea time but there was no big bonanza for the locals.
With our latest trip coming just a few days after our goalless draw at the Piggery, the singing monitors were out in force and those Bears seated in the Main Stand were able to enjoy the discredited Queer Fella straining to make out the words being sung on the terraces. The song about German bombers in the air was rejigged to refer to Plastic Paddies in Stranraer, with P&O doing the job of the RAF by reducing their number one by one. And I enjoyed Ireland's Slimmer Of The Year for 1981 being advised to adopt a new diet, with the Forfar Bridie replacing the traditional Chicken Supper.
It was all good tongue-in-cheek stuff but it wouldn't have surprised me to read about Klinsmann's A Klansman and other you-couldn't-make-it-up guff (oh yes he can!) in the following day's chip wrappings.
My memory of the 1970 game is of a fleet of buses pouring into Forfar just before opening time on the Saturday morning, it was a carnival occasion, the entire town seemed to have turned out to see the goings-on in the main street, the pubs were rocking and, with a low key police presence, enjoyment was the name of the game. There were impromptu sing-songs in the street - nobody losing any sleep over what we were singing! - and, for those of us too young to get into the pubs, it was great fun just wandering around, soaking up the atmosphere.
The match wasn't too bad either - the Gers won 7-0 - and afterwards many of the buses stayed on in Forfar, some went into Dundee, but there was no rush to get home. It was a great social day out, from leaving home at seven o'clock in the morning, right through the day, to crawling into bed around 3.30 a.m., a real occasion to be savoured and talked about over the weeks and months ahead.
Maybe it would have been a bit different this time around if the game had gone ahead on its original Sunday lunchtime date. But these days, I detect a couldn't-care-less attitude in host towns and that has made many Bears less willing to make the effort to drag themselves across country for a non-event of a game. Wednesday evening in front of the TV in the warmth of your own house can be so much more attractive than a cold night on an open terracing.
I wonder if the young pups of today, never having experienced the likes of my first wee jaunt to Forfar, know what they have missed out on.