The Stair - 6 OXGANGS AVENUE EDINBURGH (incorporating OXGANGS - A PASTIME FROM TIME PAST) - The everyday life of eight families living in one of the post war new council housing schemes on the south of the city set in the lee of the Pentland Hills between the years 1958 to 1972.
Wednesday 26 December 2012
Help-The Forty One!
On the last blog it would be good to conclude the project by mentioning each resident and what happened to them in the days after 1972. It's forty years ago now-four decades, so even the youngest residents from The Stair will be moving toward their half century and of course I'm very aware that many of those mentioned over the past five months are sadly no longer alive and with us today. If anyone wishes to send me a comment or two and some brief information on themselves/others that they are still in touch with or know a little of their story it would be interesting to make mention of them in a small pen portrait.
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1 comment:
Peter, you have done a marvellous job and some of the research was most impressive. I wouldn't chide yourself for what might have been. As my daugher Victoria would say 'it was what it was'. It will also likely stand for some time, perhaps to be discovered latterly by other former residents. It was hard to advertise I expect, except by word of mouth so perhaps there were many who did not even know of its existence.
But I think you might also find that, for many former residents, it was not such a happy place. You seem to have been more fortunate in some respects. For example the fact that Ken Hoffman was away for long periods allowed your household some respite which ours did not enjoy. The other was your extended family, grandparents etc., who all had a supporting and nurturing role.
It seems to me that some former residents were just not interested in going back there. There was nothing that you could do about that. Yes of course it was a PH-centric blog, but that was also part of its charm. I learned things about Oxgangs, you and others, that I did not know.
I think its interesting too that some of us could not wait to distance ourselves from the stair. Ruth and I did that geographically which I think is quite telling. Others have distanced themselves in other ways and perhaps had little interest in revisiting. I know that some members of my family do not remember the stair with the fondness that you clearly do. It was likely those different experiences more than any other that created a distance and that lack of engagement with the blog.
There is also the aspect of time. It may take some time for word to reach all former residents, the forty-one. You might find it springs to life again at some point!
Happy New Year and all the best with whatever ventures await you in 2013.
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