This internet dating of sorts usually comes about after a bit of wooing by PM. So as you build up to the day of the meet there is one question needs answered: ‘How will I recognise you?' The answer is usually along the lines of, (in my case anyway), I’m 6ft 2, built like Amo, and have locks of flowing blonde hair. But you get the picture.
Anyway Le Bluebear and myself had arranged to meet on the day of the ‘walk’ at Bridgeton X (The Crimson Star) 2006. The same question from above ensued on the Friday;
Le Bluebear – How will I recognise you?
Moi – Trust me, I’ll find you sunshine because you will be the only guy floating around outside a pub in ‘Brigton’ on the day of the walk wearing a Pink Carnation!
So anyway, we met up and although we only spoke for around 20 – 30 minutes or so, he said a thing that I still remember to this day: ‘If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to make the GCC honour those four boys who formed our club!’
I personally had my doubts, but as we all know, he kept true to his word and Sunday September 6th 2009 at Glasgow Green Football Centre, says it all.
Some times, some things happen for a reason. LB and moi’s ‘wee meet’ took place to the backdrop of all sorts of activity going on for at least a year beforehand. Various people were doing their own stuff and starting to piece together wee individual parts of the jigsaw as to how our club came into being.
For instance, we knew that Moses was born in 1855, the year of the ‘Long Census’. What that meant was that in that particular year a birth certificate would have included the names of all other siblings. The telly and birth control being what it was back then, the overworked registrars soon said ‘sod that for a lark!’ Too much work involved.
We also knew that rowing back then was a massive spectator sport and one big, major race in Newcastle would attract over 100,000 along the banks of the River Tyne. Beats watching that crap in black and white I suppose. But you get the picture.
Some times, some things happen for a reason. Later on in 2006, the October to be precise, there was a thread on FF about the founders of the club and there was one person, who I’d never before read on FF, who seemed to be leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of us in their knowledge of some of what was happening way back then.
I pm’d this ‘female’ to say I admired her knowledge and what dress size was she? The reply was along the lines of; ‘ I’m a size 16 and btw this is Gary Ralston of The Record, and the reason I know so much is that I’m working on a project of my own on the boys who formed Rangers (along with David Mason). PS, I’d be grateful if you didn’t mention this to anyone.’
The very next day, GS introduced LB and myself to George Parsonage of the Glasgow Humane Society who give us many wee tips and imparted some of his vast knowledge regards the rowing scene in Glasgow that our founders would have been part of, as they swapped oars for a football.
I remember the day well; it was the day Rangers announced they would hold a minute’s applause for Bobby Shearer, which would take place the following night in what would turn out to be a disastrous League Cup tie against St Johnstone. Perhaps with hindsight there is a lesson in there.
Anyway, after the talk with George Parsonage took place we went back to The Crystal Palace for a shandy and the talk came to that founders thread on FF and the gal who seemed to know so much? I was bursting to tell all, but couldn’t as I had given my word to GR on the subject.
Of course, with LB trudging the streets of Glasgow and coming up with all sorts of information that was building up to a bigger picture than we could ever have first imagined LB and GR were bound to collide. And that they did. It was obvious there was too much going on and they began sharing info on their shared interest.
Some times, some things happen for a reason. As I said earlier, LB saw his project and his obsession through to its final resting place on the first Sunday of last month. Although I wasn’t there, four generations of my family, from my old man down to my granddaughter, did attend the unveiling, and I’m proud as hell about that.
Immediately prior to this event, Gary Ralston’s wonderful book Rangers 1872 – The Gallant Pioneers, had hit the streets and is by all accounts doing a roaring trade. Which is the way it should be.
So why this wee look back at the endeavours of certain individuals of the last few tears?
Well, I see that Davie Wilson is to make a speech at the founders’ dinner tomorrow night and as someone who made his Rangers supporting debut in a season when that wee left winger won his last Scottish Cup badge, and indeed top class medal for Rangers, one thing has always struck me. We don’t seem, collectively, to put too much emphasis on the history of our club.
This is not a criticism, per se, of the modern day Rangers support, it’s just something that we’ve came to accept throughout our history. For instance, Moses was still with us up until 1938. That the club never sat him down and got the story of our formation down in black and white seems crazy at best and almost criminal at worst. Talk about a chance missed.
However on the other hand, I’d wager that every Rangers fan out there would be able to tell you about Brother Walfrid walking around Glasgow with murderers and bigots and proper Irish Fenians.
Contrast that with the fact that the majority of us wouldn’t have been able to tell us much about our young boys; Moses and his brother Peter, another Peter and a William plus their friend Tom. Why is that?
It has been an outrageous state of affairs, but events over the last couple of months, mean it doesn’t ever have to be that way again. For example, the interest in LB’s open top bus and Rangers tour tells its own story. The bottom line is there are vast amounts of punters out there eager to soak up every part of our wonderful history and heritage.
The story of those young men, those Gallant Pioneers, is our story too. We can only hope a new vibrancy and enthusiasm to tell their stories and emphasise our history reverberates through the club also. If that comes to pass then I know the man I’d put in charge of operations.