Laughter in pub, 18 killed

FrIday 18th October

Sometimes a headline catches your eye, and you either cannot quite believe it, or are so shocked that you just have to ‘read all about it.’

It was the early seventies.  Think back to that time.  No computers, no mobile phones, no 24 hour news, no facebook, no twitter.  Wasn’t it wonderful.  But also we were less immediately informed.  We had to rely on the newspapers and the 6 O’Clock and 9 O’Clock news bulletins.  In fact, with far fewer channels it was far harder to escape the news.  I suspect that back then far more people watched the News every day, and were actually better informed.  Though they probably did not know which celebrity was bonking which other celebrity, and on the whole they didn’t care.

I was travelling home on the tube after a hard day’s work.  At that time there were two evening London papers, the Standard and the Evening News.  You also had to pay for them; this was long before the Metro and the free Standard.  Not many people actually bought them, money was tight and most preferred a morning daily.

I was half dozing when I glanced up and there was a man reading the broadsheet Evening News held wide open before him.  I saw the headline and couldn’t believe it.  “Laughter in pub, 18 killed.’  What on earth could it mean?  How could laughter kill anyone, let alone 18?  Infuriatingly he folded up his paper and got off at the next stop.  No-one else in the carriage was reading an Evening News.  I would have to buy a copy, there was no other solution.  At that timeyou could buy the evening papers from dedicated sellers outside of most tube stations.  I approached with trepidation and just in time read the headline.  “Slaughter in pub. 18 killed.”  The man must have had his finger over the S.  It suddenly dawned on me.  This was the IRA who at that time were targeting mainland Uk and had bombed a pub in Birmingham causing death and injury.

Oh Well, serves me right for reading someone else’s newspaper.