It's Time To Hit The Roof
Diary reader Scott McFarlane contacted me on Friday with an idea for a radio programme. He'd spotted a news story about the discovery of a locked room in a museum and how the contents within had lain forgotten for years. Scott tells me that he did a quick internet search and it seems this kind of thing is not uncommon. He wonders if a radio series on secret or forgotten rooms would capture the imagination of the audience.
"I know for the listener it will be excitement as it's opened and the contents described - and the story that goes behind the reason why it has remained hidden."
I think he's on to something there. The recent refurbishment of the City Halls in Glasgow, for example, unearthed a pretty big "secret room" which has now been transformed into a performance space for chamber music. I'm not sure why the room had been blocked off, but I aim to find out.
I admit to being personally intrigued by this whole notion of locked rooms and attic treasures because I'm in the middle of sorting out the roof-space junk we brought with us from Glasgow and then swiftly stored in the loft of our rented house in Inverness. That junk is on the move again because we have finally been given the keys to our newly built home. We plan to move in just as soon as we can find a removal company that will answer our calls.
So what treasures did I find nestling betwixt our roofbeams? Ah well, from my teenage years, there was my beautifully filed and indexed letters to my Greek pen-pal which petered out as she developed a obsession with the forthcoming marriage of Charles & Diana and finally stopped when I sent her an early draft of my stage-play about life in a colliery wages office. It was entitled Terminations and for all I know she may have stolen the idea and had a smash hit in Athens.
Then there was my 1974 first edition of Warlord comic which I had the foresight to preserve in a thick plastic folder. It's complete with the original 'Medals of Valour' cardboard album. That too would have been in mint condition had I not decided it was a good idea to stick the foil medals onto the carboard using Tate & Lyle Golden Syrup instead of glue. I remember thinking that it would eventually dry out but hey, 32 years later, and it's still tacky. Give it time eh?
Oh and there was also a little audio cassette dated Christmas 1984 on which I have recorded a breathless and banal commentary as I joined two of my student pals on a pub crawl across Glasgow. We appear to be looking for some female students who had arranged to meet us in "a pub" but, for obvious reasons, have stood us up. Well can you really imagine any girls saying "hey let's meet up with Jeff and his mates...if we're lucky he'll have that tape recorder with him."?
So that's what was in my attic. How about you?
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