The Sunday Post #4 Bed in Summer

When we were young we had to go to bed far too early on summer evenings.

Photograph, Dave Hennicker

We children had the back bedroom which faced toward the Pentland Hills and the scree slopes of Caerketton and Allermuir. It was south to south west facing and therefore enjoyed the sun from lunch time until early evening.

The curtains would hardly contain the light and I would lie in bed on the top bunk watching the shadows of the numbers 4, 16 or 27 Edinburgh Corporation buses move and circulate around three of the four walls of our bedroom.

Occasionally there would be the sound of footsteps going past of an adult returning home from work to Oxgangs Street or going out for an evening outing.

Worst of all were the sounds of other children laughing and shouting, still out enjoying themselves playing.

I suppose it must have been the same for the Hoggs, the Blades and the Hanlon and Duffy children too.

It may have been a small comfort if we'd realised we weren't alone - a century before Robert Louis Stevenson clearly experienced the same thing too.

Summer's Gone

  ‘Summer Has Gone’ 

I have tidings for you,

The stag bells;

Winter pours;

Summer has gone

Wind is high and cold;

The sun is low;

Its course is short;

The sea runs strongly…

Cold has seized

The wings of birds;

Season of ice.

These are my tidings

       (Early Irish Lyrics, Oxford 1956)

Top Playground former Hunters Tryst School
 (Photograph 9 September, 2012)

The above photograph is of the remains of the playground at the former Hunters Tryst School; below is a photograph of the pupils who helped Hunters Tryst School win the Shennan Banner and the Girls' Shield at the 1967 Edinburgh Inter-scholastics Athletics Championships. 

The two photographs separated by forty five years make for an interesting contrast.

Do ghosts from the past flit and skip and run and shout and laugh? Probably not.

Hunters Tryst Primary School

Winners of The Shennan Banner and Girls' Shield, 1967 Edinburgh Schools' Interscholastics 

Back Row: Martin McAlpine Terry Workman Stephen Drysdale Meinhart Sutherland John Whyte Guy Henderson Martin Kidd

Third Row: Alan Fisher Patricia? Ann Breslin Jaqueline Porteous Carol Clement Eileen Evelyn Geoff Hunter Elaine Martin Ronnie Smith

Second Row: Joyce Colbron Colin Benson Linda Smart Graeme McKiernan Margaret Rutherford Peter Hoffmann Norma Fraser David Lines

Front Row: Susan Le Grice Marjory Menzies Doreen Rutherford Linda Littlejohn

Summer Showers

One great bonus about living at 6 Oxgangs Avenue was that we were located almost opposite St Hilda's Episcopal Church, alas no more.

It was an iconic building in its way - built in 1966 to a very modern design which was quite cutting edge.

Each summer our disposable income was considerably increased from the wedding scatters - the showers of money - the poor-oots - that would emerge from the wedding party cars.

Weddings were held on a good number of weekends and were family affairs for all of us because the mums and sisters would come out of 2, 4, 6 and 8 Oxgangs Avenue stairs to watch and enjoy the proceedings; they particularly liked to discuss the brides' dresses.

The fun for the kids would start when all the photographs had been taken and the formal black cars would begin to depart.

Oh the excitement when the cars moved slowly off! - will they, won't they?

Then the car window slowly winds down and the groom's hand emerges to the excitement of perhaps twenty kids waiting - as the car goes by the half crowns, florins and shillings flew out followed by an almighty scrum - pennies and more from heaven!

When the average pocket money might be around two shillings this was big money. I always felt the greatest largesse was shown by the fathers of the bride and groom, but we could be surprised at the amounts that came from the lesser cars too.

Was this only an Edinburgh tradition?

Did those who provided the scatter come ready prepared, because a lot of coins of the realm were scattered.

And what of St Hilda's Church? 

The congregation first met in a cottage in Colinton and then moved to the existing hall in 1951. 

In 1966 a striking, state of the art Modernist building was opened; and yet less than half a century later the church was knocked down only a few years after the start of the 21st century. 

The coming and going of a church within a few generations says something about Christianity and lends some weight to recording these vignettes before they disappear from life at The Stair.

ps Look out for the lovely Philip Larkin poem, The Whitsun Weddings

'...The last confetti and advice were thrown,

And, as we moved, each face seemed to define   

Just what it saw departing: children frowned   

At something dull; fathers had never known

Success so huge and wholly farcical;

    The women shared

The secret like a happy funeral;

While girls, gripping their handbags tighter, stared   

At a religious wounding. Free at last,...'

An Act of Kindness

A popular picnic was to the Braid Hills-I might struggle to find it today, but there was a very shallow open cave where we would eat our picnic-if the weather turned sour it gave us some shelter too. It served as a good base from which to play. Sometimes we would venture further to the Elfin Pond on the private Mortonhall Golf Course to collect frogs.

On one occasion a group of us were setting out for a picnic-all that Iain and I had was a bottle of water each which I'd stored in my small brown haversack. All the others had sandwiches and perhaps a few sweets. I don't know how, but Hilda Hanlon somehow must have noticed this-she leaned out her window and threw down a tanner-three-pence each-and told us to get something at Jimmy's Green Van which was parked outside the stair.

 I bought us two packets of Golden Wonder crisps.

'An Act of Kindness' (Peter Hoffmann, 2008)

Or, was it Smiths?

Great blog Peter evokes many memories I especially remember the mini Olympics you used to organise and we would run between the lamposts and you would time us happy days
Ruth Blades

Great to hear from you Ruth-thanks for the prompt-definitely a future blog item! For years I had a wee notebook with all the times as well as triple jump on the small grass area across the road.Later on we held a couple of mini-Olympics at the army track at Redford Baracks-second one not completed because we got chased off by the soldiers! Peter Hoffmann

Great to hear from you Ruth-thanks for the prompt-definitely a future blog item! For years I had a wee notebook with all the times as well as triple jump on the small grass area across the road.Later on we held a couple of mini-Olympics at the army track at Redford Baracks-second one not completed because we got chased off by the soldiers! Peter Hoffmann