A look back at some festive photographs in December 1989.

Dec 31 2009 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

A look back at some festive photographs in December 1989.

ALI Baba and the Forty Thieves played to sell-out audiences in Blantyre in December, 1989.

The popular Kirk Players presented their annual Christmas pantomime in Blantyre High.

CHORUS OF APPROVAL: members of the chorus and some principal characters.

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DYNAMIC DUO: Rhum Baba (Carolyn McGhee) and Polly Jones (Karen Tait) were popular characters.

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DAME FOR A LAUGH: Fatima Kebab (Tom Blair), with Kasim and Ali Baba (Robert Stewart and Paul Burns).

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GENEROUS GESTURE: pupils at Hamilton’s St Anne’s Primary raised an amazing £2050 for charity over 12 months in 1989. They sent £500 for famine relief in Ethiopia, £600 for missionary work and over £1000 to help deprived youngsters in Peru. The kids were inspired by Father Patrick Hennessey, former curate of Our Lady and St Anne’s Church in Hamilton, who was working in South Africa. Most of the cash was used for the purchase of medicines.

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ANIMAL ANTICS: a new youth organisation was formed in Hamilton in December, 1989. The Hamilton branch of the Badgers movement was officially launched following a display at Hamilton Ice Rink for Hamilton Provost Dick Gibb, in which the kids displayed their first-aid and singing skills. Mrs Nancy Ledingham and daughter Elizabeth founded the Hamilton branch of the Badgers, the fastest-growing youth organisation in the country. Members were boys and girls aged 6-10 who followed a training course. The long-term aim was to arouse interest in volunteering and encourage youngsters to remain with first-aid organisations into adulthood.

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NO ESCAPE: protesting violently is one of hundreds of turkeys on sale at Lanark Market in December, 1969. But with 115 birds to sell, and Christmas being a profitable time, Agnes Watson from Lockerbie wasn’t going to let go!

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