The way we were – July 1988
While we look back to the 1988 Tarbert Seafood Festival (facing page), what else was going on exactly 30 years ago?
Greasy roads as a result of rain falling on surfaces that had been dry for several weeks was blamed for a ‘rash of shunts’.
Lochgilphead police inspector John Glass said: ‘Deposits of rubber and oil have been left on the roads during the long dry spell and as soon as it rained the roads became extremely greasy.
‘On top of that, people are driving far too quickly for the conditions.’
Despite the number accidents, there were no serious injuries.
In a reminder of the Cold War times, we were living through, a Czechoslovakian couple, who defected to the UK 19 years earlier, agreed to speak to the Advertiser under protection of anonymity.
They decided to defect while looking after a group of students on an exchange visit to Inverliever, near Ford.
They became naturalised British citizens in 1975 and carved out successful careers in this country.
In 1988, the couple viewed with interest the Soviet Union’s move towards a form of liberalism under Mikhail Gorbachev which would, within a few years, lead to the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Cold War.
The only thing they didn’t like about their adopted country, said the couple, was the weather.
Among the public notices published in this week’s paper was one informing readers of a public meeting in Inveraray Community Hall to discuss the approval for the sale of ground adjacent to the hall for a new GP surgery.
The meeting was held on Monday July 25, 1988, starting at 8pm.
On the back page, there was a report on Kilmory’s extratime defeat to Glenorchy in the Bullough Cup final. In ‘atrocious’ weather, the teams ‘contrived to produce periods of slick play broken by spells of dour slogging and spoiling’.
The evenly-contested 90 minutes ended at three goals apiece, but Glenorchy pulled away in extra time to win 6-3. The Kilmory scorers were Ferguson, Stewart and MacLeod.