Halloween - it's Better to Light a Candle than to Curse the Darkness

Photograph William Warby

Back in the 1960s, moving toward Halloween, we used to take ‘neeps’ from the local farmers' fields at Dreghorn, Hunters Tryst and Swanston to be carved out as lanterns. Stealing from the farmer could be challenging - to escape from him might involve a long run along an open road such as from the former Polo Fields and if he was on his tractor, well the turnips would be too cumbersome and heavy to hold on to as they slowed you down, so we would hide them in a ditch to collect them later.

Making lanterns from these root vegetables was the main way that Halloween was marked at ‘The Stair’. I can recall Boo-Boo Hanlon (6/7 Oxgangs Avenue) and Iain Hoffmann sitting (6/2) atop the back shed roof toiling over their lanterns: making the lanterns was hard going because the neeps were often rock hard in the centre unlike the more fleshy pumpkins that have become so prominent in the shops over the past twenty years.

Another thing in favour of pumpkins is they don't give off the same pungent smell that emanates from neep lanterns and candles.

Guising became much more prominent in Oxgangs during the latter part of the 1960s and I can recall some of the kids from the Stair and their pals from numbers 2, 4 and 8 Oxgangs Avenue going door to door, where they picked up a few bob. However, their costumes were nothing compared to today; occasionally some of the kids were imaginatively dressed up, particularly with some make up, but I'm afraid the standard fare was a bed-sheet and a tea-towel on your head, to pass yourself off as an Egyptian!

But we had masks too which offered some creative potential to work with. In the very early days the masks were made of a paper come cardboard material akin to an egg box, but the drawback was that with wear and tear they swiftly became detached from the elastic band: but as the decade progressed, plastic masks became more popular, eventually replacing them.

Halloween has a long and fascinating tradition - a mix of All Hallows Eve; a celebration of the end of the harvest; the passing of summer into winter and so on. Lanterns were important - they were left on gate-posts, in windows or door-ways, to guide folk back home from the fairs and festivities; then there was Jack'O'Lantern in Somerset with allusions to the flickering lights in the marshes signifying the souls of unbaptised children.

I'm glad that at Oxgangs we followed in the long tradition of lanterns - there's something very special about providing a light in the darkness and I very much subscribe to the philosophy that it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Fallen But Not Forgotten - the Number 16 Bus '655' Accident

A small update on Robert Law's remembrance of the fallen Number 16 bus.

The 16 bus that toppled over on the 18th June 1975 was a Leyand PD3 with Alexander body and registered ASC 655B. Here’s a photo of the bus that came a cropper at Oxgangs on Wednesday 18th June 1975; it appeared on the front cover of Buses Magazine; the bus was subsequently scrapped.

The Edinburgh Evening News for the day said nine were hurt in the accident - a lorry hit the bus as it turned right from Oxgangs Road North and into Oxgangs Avenue. Interestingly it wasn't actually the accident which resulted in '655' being scrapped. The crane sent out to get the bus managed to distort its offside doing so and that was enough to put '655' off the road for good.

The inimitable Douglas Blades (6/6 Oxgangs Avenue) comments: 'Our father, Charles Blades, was shaving at the side window in the large bedroom and that window looked out towards the junction. I wasn't in at the time but the story was related later. He exclaimed to our mother, ‘Helen, that bus is toppling over – or words to that effect!'

The Boy With A Green Pistol and the Felled Number 16 Bus!

Hello Mr Hoffmann,

I hope this email finds you well. 

I saw your article a few years ago about an Oxgangs bus incident and was going to contact you, but just never got round to it. I hope I don't annoy you by going over this story. 

On a short break from Dumfries to the Jurys Inn in Edinburgh next to Waverley Station back in November 2014, my future wife and I had been doing a bit of sight seeing and had taken a few good photos up at Calton hill and the Folly. We had worked up a good appetite and were now getting ready for evening dinner. While Judith was having a shower I happened to look out the window onto an arch bridge on Waterloo Place; when you see it at night it's well lit underneath with colourful lights and you could see the vehicles on top travelling to and from Princes Street.

I recollected travelling up from Dumfries visiting my Nana Law at Oxgangs back in the 70s. (It would have been on the 18th June 1975 - Peter Hoffmann). I remembered clearly when I was about 4 years old walking with my dad down, I think I am right in saying 'Colly Mains Road' as they call it (Colinton Mains) and past R. Drummond the Chemist to a toy shop where my dad bought me a bright green water pistol. 

We walked back to my Nana's (Nana Law also known as Angie Law) the long way and instead of going in at the bottom of the hill at the chip shop and Scotmid end we walked further up where we saw a toppled double-decker bus that had taken down a fence at the side of a church. My dad and I went to my Nana's house and picked up his camera and went back round the corner where he took a photo that he would keep in his wallet for the rest of his life, a picture of me grinning, holding a bright green water pistol beside a bus on its side that had some recovery men at it.

'Honestly officer, I didn't shoot the number 16 bus down!'

Robert Law aged 4 in front of the toppled 16 bus

I had an early fascination with anything mechanical especially buses, I grew up to take an apprenticeship mechanic job with Western Scottish buses in Dumfries in 1987 and spent nearly 17 years there. It must have been in my blood. My papa from Edinburgh was a precision Engineer for the water board and one of his sons Alistair Law who had also stayed nearby my nana in Oxgangs in one of the flats worked as a lorry driver for Texaco. 

I decided to go onto the internet and see if there was any information on the toppled bus hoping that I might find something about it. I came across your blog "The Stair" that seemed interesting to me as it was about Oxgangs, a place that held a lot of memories from my childhood. 

I read on further and it mentioned someone looking out from across the road witnessing a bus starting to topple, I searched further and it took me to the picture of Ian Allan's "Buses Illustrated" magazine issue number 177 December 1964  2/6, and with a shiver down my spine read that this was the toppled bus. It was photographed brand new on its first day in service  sitting at the bus stop facing Princes Street, on the bridge on Waterloo Place, just as I was looking at the bridge. 

To make things more special for me and my memories about my dad twho came from Edinburgh and subsequently passed away in 2006 with a picture of a wee boy holding a bright green water pistol beside a double-decker bus on its side in his wallet,  

I went onto Amazon and found as advertised in excellent condition from a collector a single copy of Ian Allan's "Buses Illustrated" magazine, issue number 177 from December 1964 priced at 2/6 showing the bus on the bridge that I was looking at from my window of a hotel bedroom window, and proudly have it to this day along with my dad's old wallet.

Thanks for having the article on the internet for me to find. 

Robert Law.