ONE of the defining moments of growing up in Scotland in the fifties and sixties is when you discover how utterly disappointing many of your toys turn out. Model yachts was one of them. They are gleaming irresistable crafts when you get them as a present on your birthday, but then you pester your parents to take you to your local boating pond, excitedly adjust the little bits of metal on the strings holding the sails, and then delightedly launch it on its maiden voyage. Seconds later it just sits there, going nowhere yet tantalisingly out of reach. Bored, you launch stones at it to get it to move, or a half-crazed dog plunges in and grabs it.
Newspaper files claim that there were model yacht races at Victoria Park and Queens Park but I can't believe anyone could actually move them that far. In our picture Charlie Sutherland is about to launch his yacht at Barshaw Park in Paisley in 1954. Best of luck Charlie.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
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