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A BUS DRIVERS EVENTFUL DAY
I was driving through Gullane today and the main street was very busy
and lined up each side with parked cars, there was a bottle neck where only one vehicle could get through so as you can imagine
i sat for a while as traffic was coming from the other side, eventualy a big silver Merc stopped and flashed me though, very
decent of the driver I thought as not many will give way to buses these days, asnyways , as i drove past him I gave him a
big flash (of my lights before anyone gets the wrong idea) and a friendly wave, the drive waved back and as he did I realised
it was Ronnie Corbet, what a big car for such a small guy. This wasnt the first time i have met him as my wifes wee sister
used to pall about wi Ronnies daughter when they were in Gullane for their holidays and I would often meet him in the street
early mornings on his way to the bakers. This lead me to thinking, I wonder how many of us have met Celeb's on our buses, I know that once i had Robbie
Coltrane on my bus in the mid 80's, he was nipping up to sighthill as he either had friends or relatives up there.
When at eastern on the Citylink work when i was at New Street I often had many of the cast off Take The High Road on my
Glasgow 500 as they traveled back and forth on our buses. This takes me to an event that happened to one of our North Berwick drivers years ago around the early
80's. It was a very warm summers morning and the driver left North Berwick that Saturday morning at around 5.30 am going
to the Bus Station in Edinburgh. On his return journey he arrived in Aberlady around 8am and had quie a busy bus as he headed
to North Berwick. Meanwhile
Jimmy Tarbuck was staying over at Ronnie Corbets house in Gullane for a few days as they were hoping to get a few round of
golf in while the weather had been good. They had got up early that Saturday morning and decided to go for a walk over Gullane
golf course, they wandered right over the hill to Aberlady bay and back up to the road leading back to Gullane. They were
knackered by this time as they didnt realise how long this walk was so decided to wait to see if a bus was going to turn up
to take them back home. The
driver had just left Aberlady and was going along by the Aberlady bay area when he saw two people jumping on the road trying
to attract his attention, they were even showing bare legs in jest to try to get the driver to stop and pick them up. The
driver noticed who they were and stopped the bus along side them. Ronnie Corbet jumped on the bus first, he nodded and bid
the driver a good morning and walked up to the middel of the bus where he took a seat. Jimmy Tarbuck jumped on the bus next,
he also bid the driver a good morning and then at the top of his voice so that all on the bus could hear, he asked the driver
for one and a half to Gullane, this was met with hysterical laughter by the driver and all on the bus.
The two of them
created a great atmosphere on the bus that morning and had everyone in fits of laughter by telling jokes and getting the people
to sing songs ect. It fairly made the drivers day that morning and is one if his greatest memories from his time with the
bus company. Dan Mclean
| All the best from Peter Mclachlan from , Australia | |
| Hi All at the Club, Just to let you know
that I’ve recently found your site and enjoy watching the re-runs of OTB’s. Happy Christmas to you and keep up
the good work, Ex London Cab driver, now retired. C in France |
Hello, My partner and I get a great deal of laughs and enjoyment from watching OTB and would like to express our support
for the fan club, which if we've pressed the right buttons we are now linked to. OTB supplies a homely, nostalgic glimpse at life in the 70's which we totally enjoy. One thing we are particularly
enthusiastic about are the scenes around the table at home and in particular the food and crockery on the table! It might be strange to admit it, okay it is, but we're currently trying
to get some OTB crockery, the green ones were so popular back then and once a week we try and have an OTB fry up with
sausage, egg, beans, white toast stacked up on a plate, marmalade in a glass bowl and a dirty great big tea pot. Why did Michael Robbins always eat with his legs crossed? The episode when Stan leaves for the factory up North and stuffs his dinner in his
bus drivers jacket is memorable for the size of the sausages and the scrumptious chips he rams into his pockets. Happy days, thank you James Gower and Razia Ehsanullah |
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 Here we see Dan who sent the story LEFT AND BELOW. He is dressed in old bus uniform
similar to those worn in On The Buses.
One night many years ago probably around the late 70's, one
of our drivers pulled up outside the depot in his car ready to start a late back shift. He picked up all his gear and proceeded
to the rear of the depot to get his vehicle. Our depot is a small one so at night there is no one around, it is also dark at the rear of
the depot and a handy place for courting if you don’t want to be caught. He jumped into his double deck bus and stared to drive out the depot,
as he drove round the corner he picked up speed, then all of a sudden he heard voices, it was one of his co workers who had
just finished his shift 30 mins ago and had went up the top rear of the double deck with his girlfriend. The driver slammed
the brakes on and ran upstairs to find his co workers with a woman both half naked... It was a funny event and everyone had a laugh about
it,, after this happened there was a joke notice put up in the depot, " would any driver using a bus out the back of
the depot for courting purposes please ensure a sign is placed on the bus window to alert any driver who requires the vehicle"..
As you can guess this never happened
again...
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Nick and Adam working in the ice and
snow keeping an eye out for any motorbike and sidecars sliding down the road.
hi,
im adam, the bt engineer, pictured with nick, renewing the junction box in bullhead rd, elstree. the job is now complete,
during our 5 day job, we didnt see any motorcycles and sidecars driving into our work tent !!, very good films though, they
just dont make them like that, anymore
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