AS A young lad, Hugh Lyall remembers being sent to the newsagent to get his dad’s favourite newspaper.

“It was the Evening Times,” smiles Hugh, who is 84 and now lives in Maryhill.

“He always enjoyed the Lobey Dosser cartoon…”

For the uninitiated, Lobey Dosser was the creation of Ayrshire-born cartoonist Bud Neill, who began writing for the Evening Times in January 1944.

Ten years and 3000 cartoons later, he was interviewed for the newspaper and admitted he had been astonished when his first cartoon had appeared, and again when another one was published a couple of days later. “Come to think of it,” he wrote, “I have been living in an almost perpetual state of astonishment since then….”

His most famous character was Lobey Dosser, the sheriff of Calton Creek, in the wild west of Arizona. He debuted in 1949 and Glaswegians took him – and his two-legged horse, El Fideldo, and his arch-enemy, Rank Bajin – to their hearts.

Neill died in 1970 but his creations live on – a statue of Lobey, Rank and El Fideldo was unveiled in Woodlands Road in 1992.

Lobey Dosser statue 1992

Lobey Dosser statue 1992

Hugh has shared many fantastic memories of growing up in Glasgow with Times Past – why don’t you do the same? Get in touch by emailing ann.fotheringham@glasgowtimes.co.uk or write to the address on this page.

Hugh recalls the first time a pal brought a banana into school.

“I went to St Mungo’s Primary on Glebe Street, Townhead,” he explains. “In those days, sweets and clothing were among the items still being rationed after the Second World War.

“One day at playtime, one of the boys brought out his play piece, which contained a banana. All the other kids were amazed to see this - many of us had never seen a banana before.

“The poor lad did not get an opportunity to enjoy it as he was chased all around the playground....”

Hugh recalls never being away from Accident and Emergency at the Royal Infirmary, including one spectacular occasion he was lucky to survive.

“As a youngster, I was always falling off my bike, getting injured playing football and the like,” he laughs.

“But one memory stands out clearly.

“I was playing hide and seek with my pals. My Dad was a van driver for Dawson’s furniture removals (they were based in College Lane, off Glasgow High Street) and he had stopped off at home for his lunch break.”

Hugh adds: “I decided to hide beneath his van but after a while, my Dad came back out, jumped into the driving seat and drove off.

“He accidentally drove over me. Luckily, after a few weeks in the hospital, I recovered...”

Hugh Lyall

Hugh Lyall

Hugh is also wondering if any Times Past readers recall ‘clabber dancing’?

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“Often when the pubs closed at 9 pm, back when I was a young man, the men and women of Barony Street would light a bonfire in the back courts and continue with a wee sing song, and indulge in a bit of clabber dancing, which meant dancing around the bonfire on the ‘clabber’ or mud,” he says.

“These were happy times, with good patter and warm Glasgow humour.”