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Shoes
"Stephen McMahon’s memory
(1 above) is spot on. The shoe shop he
mentions was indeed Baird’s, about 50 yards south of the High Street and
the original Patrick Thomson’s store – on the left-hand side of the South
Bridge, when heading south..
I was dragged there many times in my
schooldays to get my sensible Clark's shoes - a bit like Henry
Ford; you could wear any colour of shoes you liked at the Royal High as
long as they were black.
Once you got the shoes, they had to be licked
into shape – scoring the shiny leather soles with a fork so you didn’t
slip, then hammering in some strategically placed studs (tackets), not to
mention a steel tip.
The real treat came when the shoes needed
soled and heeled. The Store (St Cuthberts) shoe repairer, at the beginning
of West Richmond Street, used to put on quite thick, leather soles and
heels then would also whack in a few rows of round studs in the sole with
built-in, steel tips on the heel. My mother wouldn’t let me have the full
steel, wrap-round ‘cuddy heel’.
School Clothes
"Upstairs from Baird’s, was Stark’s which sold
school uniforms for many Edinburgh schools and general school wear. I
think Baird’s and Stark’s became the same firm at some point.
Stark’s was where I, and I’m sure hundreds of
other kids and teenagers, got rigged out for the start of the school year.
That’s where I had little choice in being rigged out in my
- ‘Beau Brummell’ blazer
- ‘Braemar’ long-sleeved,
grey jersey and
- ‘Kilspindie’ long grey
socks with the school colour stripes on the bit folded over at the top.
In my time, long trousers were not allowed by
the school until you got to the fourth year, or reached the dizzy height
of 5’ 8” – no matter if your legs got exceedingly hairy and ugly
beforehand." |
