Honeymoons, visitors and growing up 1

 My Mum and my 3 Sisters at a wedding many years ago.

Honeymoons, visitors and growing up.

 

My sister Moira is three years older than my twin Isabel and I, my wee sister Helen, the surprise addition to the family was four years younger than us. My Mum was always a bit disappointed that we grew up in Polbeth which was nothing like Dunoon with the River Clyde making it a major holiday destination of the day.  It was a beautiful place surrounded by hills and lots of places to play.  Polbeth was certainly different but still a great place to grow up, we had the Burn (stream), the swing park, the quarry, the yellow burn which had rats, and there were many other distractions too, so we had a great time.  We used to go to Dunoon every year on holiday which was always a time of high excitement, seeing Aunts, Uncles and Cousins, running wild and generally having a great time.  It also worked the other way, we got visitors too, and things then were always a bit tight space wise but when you are small these things don’t matter.  Two of my Mum’s younger brothers and their new wives came to stay with us on their honeymoon.  My Uncle Stewart and Aunt Agnes who I think were married first and then my Uncle Angus and my Aunt May.  Of course, we were small, Isabel and I were three when my Uncle Angus and Aunt May came on honeymoon, I don’t know what age we were when my uncle Stewart and Aunt Agnes came through, all I know is that we must have nearly traumatised them, they would wake up every morning to the special trampoline show Isabel and I would perform specially on their bed.  It never put them off having their own families thankfully.

 

In these days our water was heated by the coal fire, one Saturday everybody was going out except me, my Mum left me instructions (I think I would have been about 14), make sure the fire is kept going, leave the draft on for a while.  The draft was something between the fire and the chimney which directed more heat to the boiler (there was no central heating or immersion heaters in those days).  I settled down in front of the TV, fire blazing away, I was probably watching ITV’s wresting with Ken Walton commentating.  I think now looking back I had this thing where if someone asked me to do something I was scrupulous about doing it, perhaps some OCD.  I kept the fire going, enjoying the heat and the responsibility of having the hot water ready.  After a while there started a rumbling noise which I ignored.  My mum and dad arrived back and nearly dropped, their son had the water boiling in the hot water tank!  Of course, the water came out a reddy colour as it must have been cleaning the inside of the tank with the pressure that had built up.

 

Years later at High School, I think in my first year we had woodwork, definitely not my forte as it turned out.  Eventually we got to start making something, in my class it was a small stool with a hollow seat so that you could store things in it.  Our Woodwork Teacher told us what to do, demonstrated how to use the tools, finishing with “the legs must be square and flat, you shouldn’t see light under the whatever it was called, a square, I think?  Weeks passed, everyone seemed to be moving on much faster than me, I was still having trouble with the legs which after lots of shaving with the plane a minuscule amount of daylight could still be seen.  I don’t know how long it was but eventually the teacher checked my work, and he wasn’t too happy, not because of the meagre daylight that still showed but because I was left with very long matchsticks, that got me the belt if I remember correctly (a strap across my hand).  School was never my thing; my sister Isabel was much more academic than me however we both shared a love of reading which is still with us today.  Isabel was also the quieter but tougher of the both of us although I have to say I am ten minutes older!  I can still remember our first day at Primary School, getting the bus, new satchels on our backs, our Mum beside us.  We arrived at the Primary School, the old Primary which later became the Youth Club, only took Primaries 1-4, the other Primary classes were situated in the old High School just up the road. Isabel and I were very lucky for we started off in the old primary school, moving to the new Primary School when it opened, and then that happened too with High School.  Before we started our first class at the Primary, we were in this large room, lots of strange faces, both adults and children.  We were introduced to the Teacher then my Mum tried to leave us; however, she had some difficulty as I was firmly attached to her leg, crying and screaming, how could you leave me here?? Isabel whom my Mum thought might be a problem was as cool as a cucumber.

 

We had a visit one year from my dad’s younger brother’s (my Uncle Johnny) family, my Auntie Betty, Cousins Jean, Iain, Charles and I cannot remember if their younger sister Jaqueline was born at that time.  Anyway, it was a very busy house.  They were from Dunoon and not used to the sound of trains and we had them pass close to our house, so every time a train passed there was great excitement. We were immune to it, for to us it was just another background noise. I was closest to my cousin Iain, Charles was just a bit to young (I was probably only 5 or 6) so we always tried to make sure he wasn’t with us (he has forgiven us now I think).  What sticks in my mind was that I learned a new word from my cousin Iain, one I had never heard before and in all innocence, I liked it so much so that the day I learned it I used it at every possible opportunity.  We were called in for our dinner, I can still remember it well, my Mum had me sitting on the kitchen work surface with my feet in the sink as she was washing my knees and she asked what we had been doing.  I said we had F’g being doing this and F’g doing that, she looked absolutely stunned, equally astonished was my Auntie Betty who was standing next to her. 

“Where did you learn that word?” my mum asked with what I assumed was a pleased smile on her face,

“Oh, it was Iain who told me!” I said proudly.  The next thing I heard sent shivers through my body.

“Iain!!!” screamed my Auntie Betty.  He was in the doghouse for a while.

 

In these days of growing up television was really still in its infancy, our first television had a small screen, a tube and valves in the back and we only had what is now known as BBC1.  I remember when my Mum and Dad decided to get another set with Scottish Television or whatever the second channel was called, I was beside myself with excitement, I would be able to watch Robin Hood, oh heaven! There were some great programmes all in black and white, no swearing, no sex, no special effects, if it was to be a good programme it was mainly down to the story.  We had Wagon Train, Rawhide, Cheyene Bodie, Wyatt Earp, The Lone Ranger, the Cisco kid, No Hiding Place, Z Cars, Emergency Ward 10, Dr Kildare to name a few. You can tell I liked the Westerns, and I loved Brian Rix in his Whitehall farces.  Doctor Who when it came out was scary and great at the same time.  One Western I haven’t mentioned was called Tenderfoot, I liked it but only remember one episode in part that was to have a major influence on me.  This episode had a Japanese or Chinese Martial artist in it, something I never even knew existed and I knew I wanted to learn about it.  That had to wait some years as the Martial Arts were virtually unknown in Scotland in the 1950’s.  I started training when I was 20 and still train today but much more sporadically after 30 plus years.  More of that later.