A Pastime From Time Past #21 School Part-Time Jobs

Graeme Robb: Like a lot of our generation if you wanted anything you got a job. My first job was delivering papers for Ewarts Newsagents (Oxgangs Broadway) - quite a good round with everything above Ewarts i.e. Caiystane, Swanston, Oxgangs Road up to Fairmilehead Crossroads providing good Christmas tips. Then sweeping up and stacking shelves in the chemist at Oxgangs Road North now The Chip Inn. The best job I had was washing dishes at the Hunters Tryst Inn - a good laugh. I remember the fist things that I bought with my paper money - T. Rex,  Ride a White Swan and Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Child - I still have them both.

George Fraser: I worked in the Hunter's Tryst too, washing dishes - a good job, but all the chefs were toss-pots. I can remember a fellow dishwasher - when a plate came back with a bit of fillet steak on it he ate it; I will not name him and it wasn't me. I was disgusted - all I will say is he was from the Oxgangs Farm side of the area!

Ruth Kaye (Blades): Yes I delivered papers for Ewarts too.

June Rafferty: My husband John Rafferty cleaned at Hunters Tryst before he left school

John McDonaugh: I also washed pots and dishes and cleaned at the HT - enjoyed the occasional knocked bottle of beer as well!

Audrey Dixon (McLean): My god when l was about 13 l worked at Hunters Tryst pot washing - had some great laughs.I also worked at the woollen mill shop in Morningside on Saturdays and during the holidays. In the summer-time I was at Toni's Cafe down Leith at weekends and on a Sunday; he would take me to the beach where I manned the ice cream and sweet trailer. The first record l bought was Marc Bolan's l Love to Boogie.

Peter Hoffmann: Nice post -  #70sSummer

Laurence Calder: I delivered milk at Gemmells Dairy 223 Morningside Road during the week and behind the counter. I carried on at weekends once left school up until I was 20. The owners then bought the Kildonan Lodge Hotel at Craigmiller Park and I worked there at weekends for many years. My first job was an apprentice draughtsman at Mackenzie & Moncur at 49 Balcarres Street Morningside for five years. I also played rhythm guitar in The Paper Chase from 1966 until 1970.

Paper Chase and Friends. Tiny Burns; Mike Jarvie; Howard Anstruther; Duncan Mathews; Laurence Calder; Billy Wilson; John Kennedy and Douglas Miller.

Lisa Sibbald: I had a couple of jobs when I was about 14. I delivered the local free paper - think it was maybe the Edinburgh Advertiser in these days. I covered most (or it might have been all) of the Oxgangs Farm streets. Hard work, but well paid. In fact, it was so well paid that I used to pay some of the younger kids to run up and down the stairs for me! I also was an agent for Cancer and Polio football coupons. I used to have to go round to the people who took part in them and collect the money. I can't imagine a 14 year old doing that sort of job these days. The army houses at Dreghorn were part of my round and I remember one particular house I called at where the wife was usually out at the bingo and the husband never had any money. I'd end up having to go back again the next day.

George Fraser:  I delivered the Edinburgh Post in 1972, paid £1.20 to deliver 500 and I had two of the high flats at Firrhill.

Lisa Sibbald: It would have been 1972 for me too, so must have been the Edinburgh Post.

George Fraser: To be honest I can't really remember if they all got delivered.

Dougie Begbie: I delivered papers for Ewarts aged 13 then at 14 years old I delivered milk for Murchies Creameries Ltd, Lochrin Place. I then worked for Edinburgh Dairies - John Clement was a driver for Edinburgh Dairies; I met him years later and he reminded me that I bumped him - gladly he doesn't hold a grudge!

Yvonne Thomson: I delivered papers at Oxgangs Park and Oxgangs Road for Ewarts; I can't remember how much we got - 5 shillings or maybe not.

Morningside Road, Scotsman Publications Ltd.

Carole Shearer: I worked in the Orchard at Morningside (now Boots the Chemist) on Monday Thursday and Friday after school and all day Saturday, during the school holidays I was full-time there or at their shop in Dundee Street. i worked alongside Diane and Marion Watson and Moira Wilson.

Colin Laidlaw: I delivered papers for Ewart's, but was called 'Sleepy-Joe' by Ian; thereafter as I was always late.

Dougie Begbie: Was that the afternoon delivery ha ha!

Del Trotter: Same way for me to - I think we all did.

😂

Dreeping-Ruth Kaye (Blades) and Peter Hoffmann

Hello Peter
I cannot remember if you mentioned about the dreeping off the shed roof at the back we used to do that often. The stair fashion also fascinated me everyone was very into the 70's look I remember fiona and Liz with their loons. My mother always used to dress the 3 youngest in the same outfits all the time. Bu I guess it was easy for her. She always had our play clothes laid out on our beds when we came back from school. I had forgotten your mother was always a natty dresser and very colourful I do not think I ever saw her in trousers whereas my mum wore trousers all the time. I know your mum loved sewing and made a lots of dolls clothes I am sure she could have made a very successful business out of it
Kind regards
Ruth

Excellent-that one passed me by-I used the term with d'Artagnan not so long ago when he was up in the attic and he just gave me this blank look...duh!...Dreeping-what's that? Yes, it was very popular-we sometimes had to coax one or two people down who would take fricht and end up in the hanging position for five minutes so good was their power to weight ratio! 

I don't remember Mrs Anne Hoffmann making doll's clothes-I'm likely to catch up with her and Anne Junior on Saturday when I'm down in Edinburgh for the weekend with d'Artagnan-she certainly was brilliant at making her own clothes-if we came in from school or out playing and cloth covered with patterns and pins encompassed the sitting room floor we made a quick body swerve out of the house as we knew from experience that the language might get rather colourful and choice if things didn't always go to plan! We could have done with your creative thinking back then Ruth-it would have been good pin money-sorry, me and my pins, uh, puns again!

ps Iain and his wife are up staying with us over New Year-he was saying you were always his favourite and how he enjoyed chatting with you coming back from Firhill School-he said you were always great fun!

I May As Well Try And Catch The Wind-Signing Off And Final Thoughts From The Stair

This blog feels rather like the last page of the Oor Wullie annuals when he signs off-Wee Wullie sitting on his bucket contemplating, philosophically on the Auld Year as it draws to a close and then cheerily wishing all his readers all the best for the New Year ahead.

Serendipity, perhaps, but  it feels appropriate to be signing off from the blog on Auld Year's Night allowing the followers and me too, to move on to pastures new. There's no handing over of the torch however-it's just occurred to me that an interesting twist on such blogs would be if the role of 'editor' passed on Olympic Torch like to others!

On a recent response to Ruth Kaye (Blades)-the most ardent supporter of the blog, we mentioned that it had been slightly disappointing not to have received more feedback from those still alive of the 'original cast of forty one'; however, including my responses to comments there's actually approximately 10,000 words. Because they disappeared off the side bar, for the sake of completion I will pull them all together and post them as a Comments blog later in the week.

The blog will continue to exist on the net for any current readers to revisit or for those who may stumble upon its existence by happen-stance in future-it may even become a useful resource for children doing a project on life at The Stairs half a century ago.

I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the trouble to make contributions since I started the blog in the summer-either through the Comments button or who I have spoken to. In particular I'd like to mention Ruth Kaye (Blades), Liz Blades and Iain Hoffmann. There's nothing like a comment, a reaction or a response winging its way through the ether to raise the author's spirits!

I will probably do a blog sometime in the New Year giving a succinct update on Where Are They Now-I'm short on material on the likes of The Duffys; The Smiths; The Hoggs; Norman Stewart and Alison Blades.

I've tried to paint a picture or to give a flavour of what life was like at an atypical Stair in the years between 1958 and 1972, but to quote Donovan's 1965 hit I may as well have tried to Catch The Wind. I haven't quite managed to capture life there-perhaps because I haven't deployed a more thoughtful, intellectual, methodical or chronological approach to it. Instead I've largely gone on instinct-I've tried to present or tell the story through little vignettes that I trusted would be local, but also have some universal appeal too. And yet, I've not really captured what day to day life was really like for the sixteen adults and the twenty five children who lived at 6 Oxgangs Avenue over these fourteen years or so. Indeed, I haven't even captured the sights, the sounds and the smells of the days-I've not even mentioned the smell of chips wafting down the landings as Mrs Hilda Hanlon cooked dinner for Mr Charlie Hanlon and her darling boys Michael, Boo-Boo, Colin and Alan-never mind an atypical day-A Life in the Day of The Stair.

Also I haven't managed to convey the enormous changes that subtly and then more quickly impacted upon us all, because the decade of the 1960s produced perhaps the biggest changes socially, culturally and technologically of any decade-certainly if I'd continued into 2013 I would have written about the likes of Neil Armstrong and the moon landings which feature prominently in old diaries. There are some excellent academic books out there including two works that I have at home by Dominic Sandbrook, but perhaps even to my surprise I've avoided even referring to them opting to take a more folksy approach and to try to see things from the eyes of a boy and a youth-thus the absence of areas such as politics which dominate my day to day interest now. I rarely referred to my journals until quite late on which is a mistake-they are thorough, honest, timeous and immediate snapshots.

It's been an interesting experience writing day in and day out-it's given me an insight into what life is like for some journalists. On many occasions I've thought, What the hell are you doing Peter and on other fleeting occasions I've thought, Yes, this is worthwhile-it's recording times past before particular experiences vanish and disappear for ever. Also hearing from the likes of David Lines, Douglas Blades, Ruth Kaye (Blades) and Liz Blades alone has made it worthwhile.

I would have liked to have heard from others and the wealth of experiences that they could have brought to the table because too much of the story was me, me, me-I had subconsciously hoped for a dialogue-a conversation and the blog would have been so much better if it had consisted of more input from those other residents at The Stair-more of their story, their adventures-how they saw, viewed and interpreted life at The Stair-but of course it's still not too late for anyone to add future comments if the whim takes them, for as long as the blog exists on the net, others can continue to add their story too.

When I started the blog around two hundred episodes ago I said that I was taking more of an instinctive rather than an intellectual approach. It's thus begun and ended in the same way. Because of the approach taken there's no objective idea or measure as to whether it's been a success or a failure-in management speak no SMART objectives were set so there are no performance indicators. There's a part of me that perhaps hoped it might take wings and fly, but without knowing how and to where.

I feel that where the blog did take off to give a much more interesting take on The Stair is some of the on-line discussions and dialogue that I've enjoyed with Liz Blades who lives today in Melbourne, Australia. These gave some insights into some of the darker aspects of life back then as well as taking the conversation into unexpected detours adding in new information and re-awakening seemingly lost or forgotten memories. If there had been many more of these dialogues then the blog would have improved immeasurably, because people could have sparked off one another.

Some interesting themes have surfaced-The Elephant in the Room whereby two of the eight families had alcoholics as the head of the household; life through a child's eyes rather than an adult's; slips of memory; freedom and autonomy; hard work; fun; a general malaise of the importance of promoting a positive academic sensibility; a good, healthy place to live compared to the pre-war generations; values; lifestyle; interesting personalities and interesting families; entrepreneurship; relationships giving way to transactions; a time of stability and yet paradoxically a period of great change; transition; the celebration of the seasons; friendship and companionship; stable employment; and the advancement in technology  We were lucky too whether at a micro level enjoying the golden age of comics to the macro because we enjoyed and benefited from everything that Bevan instigated in 1947 in terms of new housing, new schools and the NHS. And from a personal angle it's given me a better insight into my father-many colourful tales of his adventures which will never see the light of day!

Finally to all those individuals who lived at The Stair-grew up, grew old and to those who have long since died from those days-many of them very happy indeed could I say thank you for the years at The Stair. When I think of these times it is with great affection for all my fellow travellers and whilst not all of the experiences were good they influenced the people we became and continue to be.

Could I apologise if I've inadvertently upset either you or those close to you-I've undoubtedly been clumsy or somewhat thoughtless on occasion.

Once again a big thank you too, to all the contributors to the blog and also all those anonymous followers too-ironically over the past few days the blog's been getting 250 hits or so a day!

I will visit the blog regularly in case anyone leaves any comments in future-I would be delighted to hear from anyone; indeed, because it still has the potential to be a live forum, anyone can still add their own comments, their stories and their tales of life at The Stair as they see fit or when the motivation takes them. And although it's no longer alive, yet it isn't dead either-and of course those readers who have followed the blog since it started will know that I enjoy these little quirks and paradoxes, not to mention the titles-was Adolf Hitler Kept Me Out Of... either the best or the worst of such examples!

Take care; keep busy; look after your health; and good luck in all your adventures-one of mine may be to edit the 90,000 words of The Stair!

Peter Hoffmann
peter.hoffmann@btinternet.com
Twitter: @thehoffster
Mobile: 07799 673290
'd'Artagnan' (Tom Hoffmann) is on Facebook and would communicate any messages to me too.

ps Look out for my Edinburgh coffee and cakes invites!

Lost Photos From The Stair

When I was clearing a few shelves to display some Christmas cards yesterday afternoon I strayed across these negatives-long forgotten-a very happy find as the blog moves toward the start of its last week. Here's a selection. The Arthur's Seat photies will be added to the Edinburgh Spring Adventure blog from earlier in the week to supplement the script. The quality varies, but a couple of the group photies are good-the colour version with nine kids and three pets is a cracker particularly in a larger size-I've set it as a screensaver-might even consider sticking it on the cover of The Stair!

It's a very happy find from forty years ago! ENJOY!

Ruth-I thought you were h(armless)!

Iain Hoffmann and Alan Hanlon-Iain and I always liked this wee car

No idea what you were up to here Ruth-anyone come up with a caption?

Edinburgh Spring Adventure above Dunsapie Loch, Arthurs Seat Iain Hoffmann; Ali Douglas; In front: Boo-Boo Hanlon; Les Ramage

Ali Douglas; Peter Hoffmann; Boo-Boo Hanlon; Les Ramage

Peter Hoffmann

Iain Hoffmann and Simon

Derek Ramage?

Mark and Keith Robertson

Playing football at Colinton Mains Park
Willie Taylor; Michael Hanlon; Keith Robertson; Steve Westbrook Front row: Boo-Boo Hanlon; John Duffy; Mark Robertson; Iain Hoffmann

Iain Hoffmann looking like a young Steve McQueen and Boo-Boo Hanlon

Back Row: Iain Hoffmann and Boo-Boo Hanlon
Front Row:Peter Hoffmann; James Duffy; Ruth Blades; Alan Hanlon; Anne Hoffmann

Paul Forbes and Peter Hoffmann-I'd received official permission to take him out for the afternoon!

No Comment!

In a larger size this is a nice photie!
Iain Hoffmann and Freddy the Tortoise; Alison Blades and Candy; Anne Hoffmann and Simon; Ruth Blades; Lynn Steer; Eileen Hogg Front row: Boo-Boo Hanlon and Esther Blades

Les Ramage and his dog-can't recall its name!

Lynn Steer and Anne Hoffmann-great pals for many years-I liked her in her David Bowie phase!

Paul Forbes in atypical pose-he's no different today, I'm very glad to say!

Ruth Blades and Anne Hoffmann

Toward Duddingston Loch Iain Hoffmann; Les Ramage; Ali Douglas; and Boo-Boo Hanlon

Simon chancing his luck in Mr Leslie's garden-dangerous!

Les Ramage-can't make out the figure behind

Missing Member Of The Stair-The Elusive James Duffy!

Iain Hoffmann worked out who has been missing over the past six months-it was James Duffy-the youngest member of the five Duffy children. I didn't think that I had a photie of James, but amongst a small bundle of negatives that I found by accident yesterday, imagine my surprise that coincidentally the very last negative on the final strip includes James-serendipity or what!

Back Row: Iain Hoffmann and Boo-Boo Hanlon
Front Row: Peter Hoffmann; James Duffy; Ruth Blades; Alan Hanlon; Anne Hoffmann

Ten Photographs From The Mists Of Time At The Stair

As the blog begins to come to an end, ten photographs from the mists of time.

Iain and Peter Hoffmann

Iain Hoffmann and Ali Douglas-The two nicest boys at The Stairs and best friends for many years

Same as above-just couldn't work out the right way around!

Eilleen Hogg; Alison Blades; Ruth Blades at front-I was always pleased with this photie-I thought it artistic-Alison clearly humouring me! 

Iain Hoffmann with Candy 

Maureen Hogg with Simon-brilliant to find a photie of Maureen at this late stage of the blog!

Les Ramage

Colin and Alan Hanlon

Alison Blades; Heather Swanson; Eilleen Hogg; Ruth Blades and Anne Hoffmann at front-again, great to find a photie of Heather!

Peter Hoffmann and Ali Douglas

Scraps And The Great Divide

Over the fourteen or so years that I spent at The Stair I had a relationship at various times with all the children apart from perhaps the Duffy girls, Ann, Laura and Mary; where we would simply acknowledge one another.

I don't think I ever thought of a separation between the boys and the girls. Depending upon the season and the passing of the years things just seemed to naturally fall into place. Some activities were gender neutral whilst with others a natural separation took place.

I can recall having great fun going off on adventures to Morningside Park with Fiona Blades or to Portobello Pool with the ballet girls-Audrey Smith, the McKenna sisters and others; at other times Boo-Boo Hanlon; Iain Hoffmann; Les Ramage and I would head off to Edinburgh Castle; or I would go to church barbecues with Liz and Fiona Blades to Gullane Beach. The great chasey games that were held in the winter involved boys and girls including Carol Ramage, Jaqueline Burnett, Jonathon Taylor, Michael Hanlon and many others. In the summer time we would play British Bulldog in the front garden of 6/2 The Stair with Ruth and Alison Blades, Ali Douglas, Colin Hanlon and many others too. In the summer jumping the burn was a mixed activity, but one which mainly featured the boys, more of which in a future blog.

Where there was a great separation or divide in the 1960s was football which was dominated by the boys-it was very rare to see a girl playing, although I can recall Ruth Blades being atypically enthusiastic and indeed still have the bruises on my shins from such encounters!

On the girls' side there were two distinctive activities which come to mind that were female exclusive domains. In the summer they always had the really annoying habit of creating brilliant tents from blankets pegged up against the fence which separated the field from the washing green. The Hogg girls, Christina, Maureen and Eilleen and also all the Blades girls did this over the years.

These were girls only zones-boys were excluded. The tents always looked so cool-actually it was probably far too warm in there-and they always seemed to be getting up to interesting things inside that would irk our curiosity. Some boys were stupid enough to pull the tents down-not something I would contemplate doing having been on the losing side of several toy wrestling matches against Fiona Blades who I had total respect for-I wouldn't have wanted to get into a scrap with her!

Talking of scraps-the other activity, and one which I think mainly fell into the autumn and winter seasons of the year were scraps. Many of the girls including Eilleen Hogg and my sister Anne Hoffmann Junior collected scraps. I could never see the appeal of this hobby and I think it was boy free. Was it a gender thing or was it something that was indoctrinated into us so that we were all stereotypes?

Looking back I can see a greater rationale for the activity-it's probably similar to why many people go to the pub for a drink rather than sitting at home with one-it was a social activity-a vehicle where the girls got together in each others' homes to admire, comment and swap scraps together. The late 1960s must have marked the passing of collecting scraps as an activity for girls.

Not Swimming, But Learning!

One possible divide in The Stair was the children who regularly went to Warrender Swimming Baths and those who didn't. There may have been a cost dimension for some of the children, but generally many of the children managed to get the bus fares and entrance money, if not money for secondary spend.

I cannot ever recall seeing Heather or Gavin Swanson ever going to the baths. Even if they had the inclination to go they never seemed to have the freedom that all the other children enjoyed once they got to a certain age-the interesting dynamic of control was clearly a factor there which as a parent I can now understand. Looking back, for many of us, being able to go swimming without parental supervision was a right of passage. It was another example of the inordinate freedom to roam, that certainly The Hoffmanns were able to enjoy. Because our father would have done the same at the Glenogle Baths at Stockbridge as a boy in the late 1920s/early 1930s, it probably wasn't considered a health & safety issue in our house.

I don't remember seeing The Hogg girls Christina, Maureen or Eileen going along; similarly The Blades and The Duffys. Generally speaking there seemed to be a gender split, because the children who attended regularly were boys-The Hanlons-Michael; Boo-Boo; Colin; and Alan; and Iain and Peter Hoffmann, as well as Ali Douglas (8/3); Les and Derek Ramage (4/3) and many others.

Iain and Boo-Boo were great pals and for several years they used to go along together weekly It was the one activity that Ken Hoffmann used to very occasionally come along with us. He was an excellent swimmer, with an effortless, smooth and powerful front crawl; but it was his diving which attracted great attention. Because the deep end was only six feet deep, unfortunately, all that Warrender Baths had back in the 1960s was a small spring-board-but even from this he performed lovely swallow dives. I enjoyed watching him perform these. What I didn't enjoy was when he might swim under water and suddenly take my legs from me and pull me under the water. I couldn't swim at that stage so it was always a scary experience.

The bold Ken Hoffmann diving off the bridge of a ship

One distinctive memory for me about how life might have been, was when he had the loan of a black Riley car. It must have been during the autumn school holidays-the tattie holidays. It was a wet, overcast Friday. Over lunch he announced that the three of us-Anne, Iain and I would go swimming at Warrender Baths. It was a great feeling to be driven in luxury, rather than queueing for buses and then walking to and from Bruntsfield Place to Thirlestane Road in the rain. We were driven straight to the door! Even the route he took seemed to be magical-through the Braids, Cluny, Blackford and then Marchmont. And the luxury of a chilly bite and then chauffeur driven home!

We usually always treated ourselves to a chilly bite after our swim-it was a hot chocolate drink from a machine which cost sixpence. We really did shiver after our swims so it was welcoming initially, but I usually found it a bit sickly toward the bottom of the plastic carton. There was a rather classy shop with a a lime green painted façade (probably Farrow and Ball paint!) called Elizabeth's at the top of Thirlestane Road from which I'm ashamed to say we used to nick sweets from-perhaps because she was used to a better class of clientèle it was as easy as stealing sweets from a baby.

Edinburgh Corporation were very go ahead with their swim lessons programme which were usually held during the school holidays. For this one would usually be issued with a swim pass on the last day of term dated for say the two weeks of the Easter Holidays which gave one free access to the baths. It was on one of these occasions at Bruntsfield Primary School (Sean Connery's old school) where they had a pool in the basement, that I first learned to swim-what a feeling! The instructor obviously realised I'd mastered the stroke, but didn't have the confidence. He gave me water wings to put on for confidence-what I hadn't realised was there was no air in the wings-bright or what?

After that one was able to make progress through their swim development programme-a lovely certificate for swimming a length-thereafter it got progressively more difficult, but because the certificates were so classy, one wanted to get better to obtain them-back to my collector tendencies! Anyway, I managed to get certificates 1, 2 and 3, but never sat no 4 which included life-saving at a higher standard than level 3. Part of some of the tests included diving for the heavy rubber brick.

Aye, if we weren't swimming we were learning and if we weren't learning we were swimming!