Andy Murr: The Devil I Knew...

Andy was a great friend, but he was also a bit riley. He lived in a great big house of which his familly owned the ground floor. It was so old fashioned with no heating and a layer of grease over everything from cooking with a chip pan. He had a dog, Rusty, whose full name was Rusty Perkins and he was treated as one of the familly in all things. Andy had the job of walking the dog which he did with a practised hand. Andy was a great one for leading expeditions which were often dangerous. Whether he was getting fireworks for Guy Fawkes night, and all of us lighting them to loud explosions in the streets of Lenzie, or taking me fishing with rod and line along the banks of the Luggie – a local river going through Kirkintilloch. We caught no fish of course but also didn't cause injuries to passers by with our fish hooks. I was dimly aware that I could end up puting out an eye just as easily as stumbling in the street, so I decided fishing was something I was not going to take forward. Andy was always there as a Mephisto, the young devil tempting me and others to acts of daring – sometimes even with a whiff of crime. He took me on one occasion to the carnival in Kirkintilloch and I found myself handling a mounted gun on a stand to shoot at targets and coconuts. It was a real gun, the first one I had handled. I wasn't sure how to aim, or how safe if was in a crowded fairground. I left and came home laden with candyfloss and a goldfish in a plastic bag which I had yet to find a bowl for. My mum soon obliged as if by magic.