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Recollections of
Musselburgh
East Lothian
Musselburgh lies beside the Firth
of Forth
about 7 miles to the east of the centre of Edinburgh |
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Recollections
1.
John Paul Carr
Australia |
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Thank you to John Paul Carr who wrote:
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Homes and Schools
"I was born in Musselburgh in 1954 and
grew up there until I was ten. I even remember the fishwives.
Our family then moved to Edinburgh. We emigrated
to Australia in 1968.
At Musselburgh, I went to Loretto RC
Primary School,
In Edinburgh, I went to Holy Cross Academy RC
Secondary School. |
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Play
"I lived in Belfield Avenue, a 'nice'
street. If you went out the back gate, you were in Mitchell
Street, a dead-end street with a 'swing park' where we all used to
play.
There were two sets of swings, a slide
(slippery dip), roundabout and a couple of see-saws, all on a hard
gravel surface - none of this soft 'rubbery' plastic safety
equipment like today. The slide was high and
dangerous, the roundabout was an 'accident waiting to happen' and
the main swings were 'real' swings, iron poles, iron chains and
solid wooden seats. There was one rule on
the swings, though - 'Nae dunchin'.
Dunchin' was the practice of standing on
the swing and swinging sideways into the next swing. This was done
by 'bad boys' to get other kids off the swings, or to bully
specific kids.
The practice was usually policed by
older kids. There wasn't any adult supervision as such, unless
of course a kid ran hame crying tae his mum, then the mother would
drag 'little Jimmy' kickin' and screamin' back tae the park -
"Richt, whae wuz it? Which yin did it? C'mon oot wae
it."
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Wash House
"There was a wash-house in Musselburgh
then too. I remember a huge Victorian-type factory building -
the precursor to modern laundromats, I suppose, where women could
take their big laundry loads.
Huge tubs and dryers etc were provided
in a very steamy atmosphere. [he,he]
It was like something out of Oliver Twist." |
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Trains
"The steam trains took passengers to
Edinburgh Waverley station. Ahh, the memories." |
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Shops
"My mum would take us to the High
Street, to shop at the Co-op, but get this, there was a shoe shop in
the High Street that had an 'x-ray' machine, to see where your toes
came to in your shoes. [he,he]
I remember being told to 'play' with
that when my mum had her shoes fitted... Arrrrgh!"
:) |
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Museum
"A few years ago I stumbled upon
the web site for the Museum of Childhood in Edinburgh. Their
main exhibition at that time was 'Children in the 1950s, playing in
the streets of Edinburgh'.
Aarrrrgh, here I was, a museum exhibit,
visiting one of my favourite places as a kid."
[lol] |
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John Paul
Carr, Australia: 20+27+31 May 2010 |
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