THE Herald archive picture of drug manufacturers W&R Hatrick in Glasgow's Renfield Street, reminds retired pharmacist Malcolm Allan in Bishopbriggs: "I worked as a teenager on Saturdays in my father's pharmacy in Shawlands and phoned an order to Hatrick.

"I was surprised to be asked, 'How's it going?' and gave the customary reply of 'Fine thanks'. There was a brief silence followed by, 'I meant are the items to be collected or to be delivered by van?' Another lesson learned."

SAD to hear of the death of that great golfer Arnold Palmer. As our old colleague Alistair Nicol recalled: "I met him at a dinner at Royal Troon in the eighties prior to The Open. He revealed that as a previous winner of The Open at Troon he had been made an honorary member of the club. He was then sent a demand for a £650 levy to put the new roof on the clubhouse. Being a much classier dude than those running the club, he sent them a cheque."

AND we also recall Arnold's tenuous connection to the takeover of Glasgow Rangers. Former Rangers director Alastair Johnston met current owner Dave King at a golf tournament in Hawaii when King, already a successful businessman, had volunteered to caddy for Arnold Palmer, a boyhood hero. Alastair phoned then owner David Murray and told him: "I'm in Hawaii with a caddy from Castlemilk who wants to put millions into the club."

Murray replied: "Have you been up all night drinking Mai Tais?"

A READER hears a young chap on the train into Glasgow tell his pals: "I always stand in the middle when the girlfriend wants a group photo. It's going to make it difficult for her to crop me out if we ever split up."

WE pass on stand-up Jenny Eclair reflecting in the Radio Times on coping with growing old. Said Jenny: "I do know I’ve gone off – the last time I came through passport control and attempted the automatic biometric machine, it refused to believe that I and my passport photo were the same woman – and yet my passport doesn’t expire until 2018. 'It’s the jowls,' said the nice security lady, 'and the wrinkles'."

THE Herald reported that the car from the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film has gone on display at Glasgow's Riverside Museum. Says reader Ronnie McLean: "As one of many futile attempts at pre-match entertainment back in the sixties, the car was driven round Hampden before an international. Despite the predictable abuse, the Edwardian clad models continued to wave cheerily until a penny banger exploded about a foot from the driver's nose.

"Boy, could that car go."

Any other tales of ill-conceived pre-match entertainment?

IT'S Terry Wogan's memorial service today, and Alison Campbell, who is attending, tells us she once sent Terry an elaborate letter about taking her niece shoe-shopping and deliberately using the singular "is" while talking about the soles of shoes. Terry turned to the very proper newsreader Fran Godfrey and innocently asked if that was correct. Not thinking it through, Fran replied: "It's 'are soles' of course." She was mortified. Terry was jubilant.