CHAIRMAN

John Parker

Tel. 07970 568425

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN

Martin Harris

Tel. 07720 823364

SECRETARY

Allan (Mac) Black

Tel. 07512 022949

TREASURER

Duncan Pickard

Tel. 01334 870203

TALK CONVENOR

Graeme Hogg

Tel. 01334 653043

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Jim Lawrence

David Martin

Maurice Shepherd

David Sinclair

ASSIST. TALK CONVENOR

Bill Bowman

TALK RECORDERS

Jim Lawrence

Tony Miklinski

Brian Murray

Graham Pirie

MEMBERS PAGE

To access the MEMBERS page enter your password in the box above

...........................

Next Meeting...

Wednesday

24th June 2026

10.00am

'Wildlife Photography'

Presenter - Chris Reekie

Club News

Secretary email: macblack.author@gmail.com

After the last minute cancellation of our previous meeting it was nice that the meeting on 10th June in Castlehill Cummunity Hall proceeded like clockwork. Chairman, John Parker, was in charge. He introduced the Secretary who informed members that action was needed to replace him in the near future and volunteers were requested to fill the post.

It was then the turn of  Douglas Telfer, a new member, to introduce himself to the group and it was a little bit of 'tongue in cheek'.... A previous Probus member, he was reluctant to talk of his career because he retired so long ago, and also that he had signed the Official Secret Act, however he optimistically quoted Louis Armstrong's 'It's a wonderful world!' 

Our speaker was Eddie Taylor, from Dunfermline Probus, and an Antique Motor Bus enthusiast, who owns a Bus himself, and states sign writing is his hobby. His talk was entitled 'Signs...'

Would you like to join us?

New members will be very welcome, so, if you are someone who has retired and you are looking for something to do on Wednesday mornings, please contact our Secretary or, better still, pop-in to one of our meetings. If you know of someone, encourage them to attend.

Our next meeting will be on 24th June and the speaker will be Chris Reekie. His talk is entitled 'Widlife Photography'. We hope to see you there!

Signs All Around...

Our speaker today was Eddie Taylor a fellow Probus member and Past Chairman of the Dunfermline Club.

He entertained us with a talk on everyday signs throughout history. He pointed out that even in the room we were sitting in it was full of signs directing us or warning us or just informing us.

Sign writing was previously an art form done, by hand, in a very artistic manner which was pleasing to the eye as well as informative in content. Eddie himself has taken up sign writing as a hobby.

The high street in every town or city has always had signs and road markings telling us either to do or not to do.

As Eddie pointed out there are now so many signs often written in English as well as local languages, that the message is often lost in the mass of words.

His slides gave us examples of humorous signs which were by design or by accident. Sometimes they state the obvious, sometimes a spelling mistake changes the meaning. Modern education has led to a lack of punctuation and no understanding what an apostrophe is for, being mis-used to give a plural form.

He went on to show examples of signs which stated the obvious.

However, there are some very clever signs which give a subtle, subliminal message within the design of a business logo or name such as Fedex, Amazon or Travel Lodge. Look closely next time you see it.

He showed us many examples of logos where we knew what the company was from the image alone.

The thrust was keeping it simple to get the message across and Eddie showed us examples where this was not the case, many were hilarious and he kept us very entertained with what was an unusual but interesting topic.

Following questions from members, the vote of thanks was given by Allan Black.

Graham Pirie