 |  | | | Edinburgh Childhood Memories | There are 4 messages in this section. |
Mrs Isa McLaren from Edinburgh. Posted 12 Jul 2006.
I was born on 3rd August 1930 which was also my maternal Grandfather’s birthday. I was the apple of my Granda Millar’s eye until my little sister was born on 17th March 1934. My granddad was a devout Catholic so May was now the apple of his eye. I had one older brother and 1 younger brother and 3 younger sisters. We all stayed in my Dad’s mother’s house in Ferrier Street, Leith in one room. We all moved into a council house in Granton in 1939 and it was great to have electric light and a bathroom as we only had a wee lavatory in Gran’s house. Although I had to share a room with 2 of my sisters it was heaven to have a bedroom of our own.
I remember seeing a funeral when I was 7 years old and it was 2 big black horses pulling a glass hearse, the horses had purple feathers on top of their heads. It was the first time I had seen a funeral like that. I attended Royston School which was almost bombed during the war. My father said the Germans thought it was an Army hospital, it was a Red Cross hospital and it had two big red crosses painted on the roof. | | |
|  | May Melrose from Newhaven, Edinburgh. Posted 12 Jul 2006.
One of my earliest memories is going through the village with my Dad. He would address the ladies we met as ‘aunty’. I asked him if they were my aunts and he said he was just showing respect to his elders. Many a half crown was slipped to a needy widow. Generosity and kindness are a heritage of village life. No-one went hungry – it was natural to look after each other.
The area was alive with industry. The ‘fish market’ selling the trawler catches; to see the fishwives filling their creels, was a real pleasure – my chums and I having risen at 7am to see what he thought was spectacular – they over to the market buffet to have our breakfast – simple pleasure but what enjoyment.
As my dad was trawler skipper I loved to meet him at Granton Pier where he docked. My brother Andrew would see his boat coming up the firth – we had a telescope. That was all I needed. I would run to Granton and be passed over four trawlers to reach him. There was probably 20+ trawlers in the pier. At that time trawling was an excellent source of revenue to the village and Edinburgh. It’s sad to know it’s all gone.
Happier memories – school and Sunday school. How he loved the annual kinderspeils. We had swimming on the doorstep and Storbank Park to play in. Our best dare was to walk around the lighthouse held no fear for me. I was only following in the footsteps of my three elder brothers.
I’ll never forget the fun we had roller skating down Craighall Road. A wonderful childhood and all without computers.
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| | Betty McAnna from Broomhouse, Edinburgh. Posted 12 Jul 2006.
I was born in my grandmother’s house, on 26th July 1922. Freer Street was a small street off Fountainbridge, at the bottom of the street was Freer Street Terrace where the tenement windows looked onto the canal basinm. Also there was a mission hall which belonged to St Cuthbert’s Church on Lothian Road.
Fountainbridge was a very busy street then. The Rubber Mill, McEwans Brewery, Mackies Sweet Works and Isa Wass, Rag and Metal merchant, and many different shops to serve everyone’s needs. I remember at the corner of Gardner’s Crescent and Fountainbridge.
There was a large spare bit of ground where we got the shows in the summer and a boxing booth in the winter, and on Saturday nights there was often more fights outside than in. My grandmother was born in 1976 and was left a widow when my brother was 7 and my uncle 5 she arranged for a neighbour to see to them when they came from school, also paid for the lunch at a small restaurant nearby. She worked in the rubber mill as a machinist until she was 77 years old and left.
I remember when I was about 2 1/5 being taken to a large tent which my grandmother had on the foreshore at Cramond along with many others. It had beds and table chairs and cupboards and she cooked on an outside fire, then about 1928 or so she bought an old bus, had a mean clear out the seats and had it towed to Seton Sands where a Farmer Mr Bruce owned the land and rented out to 5 people. This was the start of the new large caravan campe owned now by a large company.
When I was five-years old I started at Tollcross School, Fountainbridge, near to the then Palais de Dance and as children we used to go and watch the guests going into the private dances. I remember seeing the Prince of Wales as a young man,this was a good time before he abdicated to marry Mrs Simpson, such a very long time ago but memories do stay. I am now a great-grandmother of 13 children and love telling them stories of when I was a wee girl.
Fountainbridge, as I know it, is all gone, to help keep it alive I started with two friends in 1981. Margaret and Bonnie the Fourntainbridge Re-union group. We are still going strong and we will celebrate our 25th year at our annual Christmas dance in December. I still write to Fountainbridge people who are now in Canada, Austraila and New Zealand to keep in touch with old Fountainbridge.
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| | Charles Newton from Vietnam. Posted 16 Oct 2006.
Dear betty,
I read with interest your recollections of Fountain Bridge. I was raised at 2 Freer Street Terrace (gas lamps and a')and wonder if any of your friends can remember my mum and dad Joe and Jeanne Newton.
I'd be interested to hear from you and maybe swap some memories.
Regards,
Charles
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