About 500 yards or so from where I stayed, stood Tynecastle Stadium where Heart of Midlothian football club played. It's probably inconceivable to think these days, but as a five/six year old, it wasn't unusual to head along on a Saturday and stand amongst the adults and watch the game. Normally we would stand down at the front of the concrete, stepped stadium, against the stone, waist high wall, engulfed in a sea of cheering and jeering, depending on how well the home team were doing. Huge crowds of young men and adults packed in to watch their team. The air swirled with burning cigarettes and the banter as they anticipated a good game. The streets were packed as they made their way to and from the stadium, the main road taken over by the swelling crowd, bringing the traffic to a standstill. We would queue to enter the stadium and shuffle through the metal turnstiles into the stadium, darting in and out between the grown-ups, to get a good position behind the goalmouth area. My hero was Donald Ford, who reminded me of Captain Spock from Star Trek. A brilliant forward and prolific goalscorer. My other favourite was Jim Cruickshank, Heart's goalkeeper and one of the tallest, lankiest characters I had seen. To me he was like a big, skinny giant.
At no time amongst the crowds, did I ever feel in danger. I don't recall witnessing fights among the fans as we so often hear about these days.
I do remember an occasion when I was involved in a fight. Across from our landing there lived two brothers, who must have been about my age, who I didn't get on too well with. My dad told me that they used to gang up on me and eventually I ended up in a scrap with one of them in the communal back garden. As two five year old grappled and punched each other in the lawn, our fathers hung out their respective windows, shouting down and supporting each of us until the fight ended. Being able to hold your own, even at such a young age, was encouraged by our fathers.
The same probably applied in the school playground. I attended Dalry School, which was a few hundred yards along, westwards, from where I stayed. The playground, both front and back, was split into areas for boys and girls. No mixing was allowed in the playground. The playground at the rear of the school, had a tall. stone wall seperating the boys from the girls, with a metal gate the only means to enter between the yards.
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| Dalry Primary School |
In the boys section (and probably the girls) a long shelter was based at the farthest end of the yard, from the school building. This was often used by the boys to kick tennis balls against the wall when it wasn't raining.
In Springwell Place, across from the school entrance, was our favourite sweet shop, which we nearly always stopped at before entering the school grounds. I always remember studying the large glass jars crammed full of multi-coloured sweets. Gobstoppers were a favourite, which were rock solid spherical sweets, all in different colours, which you sucked on for an eternity. Needles to say, too many sweets resulted in a visit to the dentist, up Henderson Terrace.
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| Typical Gorgie Tenements |
I have vivid memories of being taken by my dad to the dentist to have a tooth removed. Gas was the method for anaesthetising before removal. At the end of the surgery, I remember re-awakening and feeling groggy and sick, with blood dribbling from my mouth. I was unsteady on my feet and needed my dad to help me take the long walk back down to our flat.
The flat where we live, was on the top floor. as mentioned earlier. You entered into a hallway that ran from left to right (which was from the front of the building to the rear). To the right, led to the living room. Walking into the living room, a doorway ahead led to the kitchen area, a glass sliding door separating the rooms, with a window over the sink, that looked out to the back garden and the derelict land where the railway site once existed. In the living room, to the right, was an alcove containing a table fixed to the wall, with seating, also fixed to the wall, on either side.
At the opposite side of the room stood the fireplace with a mantelpiece. In one corner was the black and white television, where I remember watching the first man on the moon. Surrounding the tv and fireplace, cushioned chairs faced inwards. The room was always filled with the light coming from the kitchen and through the glass that acted as part of the partition between the rooms.
In the other end of the corridor there was my parents' bedroom which looked out on to the main street. Unlike the living room, this was a much darker place. The windows were small and the room was west facing, so it got little light throughout the day. At the end of the double bed, the moses basket was placed where my baby sister would sleep. My room got even less light, as it was a box room, just to the left of the entrance to the flat and adjacent to the main landing. A small, square window near the top of the wall was the only source of light, but it was a perfectly adequate space.
There was no bathroom in the flat, but there was an indoor toilet across from the front door. A bath for me entailed sitting on the draining area next to the kitchen sink with my feet in the sink, where I could look out the window while being washed down with a big cloth then being wrapped in a towel to get driend in front of the fire. It may have been that sometimes we would have walked along to Glenogle Swimming Baths, close to Haymarket Station, to enjoy the luxury of the swimming pool.
Not all the flats were laid out the same. In that where my friend Philip resided, his mother slept in a bed which pulled down from the wall within an alcove, while her son had his own room. Only the flats on the top landing must have had boxrooms. There felt like a distinct lack of space and more cramped than where we lived. He had a double bed in his room, which seemed to take up most of the space in the room, which was great fun for jumping up and down on like a trampoline, while Philip fired ping pong balls from his toy gun.
It was no surprise, then, that with the lack of space in any of our homes, that most of the time was spent outside.
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