'Scousers,Scousers! where's your scarf's!?'
- Paddock Mancs to Liverpool fans in the Score board end,Old Trafford circa 1980
Oh! how we laughed at those scarf bedecked, donkey jacket wearing, Air Weir booted fools, the following year , they too had shed their scarfs...a trend, nay! a culture, led by our very own had separated the knowing smarter fan from the scarf wearing horde...but that was then and this is now.
I don't know when I started wearing a scarf , but I certainly stopped in the late Seventies...however, I left behind fond memories .... my Kevin Keegan Silky...once tied around the wrist it ended up a Gordian Knot....my mam in her wisdom once washed it...the streak on Kevins faced made him look like a Bizzaro world Keegan....my main scarf in the mid to late seventies, like Kavah was the pinstriped fans around the world flags ..worn, naturally hanging down the side of your Birmo's!.. a gem..I loved that scarf, it enjoyed cup finals, league wins etc ...until some twat stole it on the way to a Liverpool away European game....stole it off the fucking coach whilst still in Liverpool!!
But there can only be one, my pride and joy, if ever , god forbid my house is on fire I will get my family out first and will ensure only one item comes with us...My St.Etienne Scarf...the ziz-zag Allez Les Verts one ( gentlemen of a certain vintage will know what I mean) ..swapped it before that game ...a bloke offered me £20 for it afterwards...£20 in 1977!!....no way! ...that scarf embodies everything I cherish about that period.... defines that moment when we became the Bastion of Invincibility...Ive only worn it once in the intervening 36 years...the Kops last stand....promised meself I would wear it at the last game if we left Anfield...maybe, maybe I will get to wear it to see us lift the League again at Anfield...if not... I will wear it , finally , one more time.....it goes with me.
Since then only one momentus moment caused me to don a scarf...I couldn't help meself ...and Im bloody glad I did as I held it aloft during YNWA in Istanbul.
Scarfs will always equal Wool to me....so its not something for me , nor I suggest a certain generation of Scousers..but feel free to go with it...cos you may find that if that magic moment finally arrives and we win the league and the Kop breaks into YNWA a load of fifty-something non scarf wearing Scousers will be asking to hold one end of your scarf!