July 1953
£5,000 Fire in City Shop
At the Murraygate-Commercial Street junction on Wednesday night fireman fought a blaze in the 4th floor attic workrooms of Smith Brothers (Dundee) Ltd., the drapers and clothiers.Three rooms were gutted, but the fire was under control in less than an hour. From the top of the turntable ladder, firemen wearing breathing apparatus directed water through the big corner window into the head of the blaze.
The fire, discovered by a policeman on the Murraygate beat, Constable Thomas Gugan is believed to have been caused by an electric iron left on in one of the workrooms. Mr G.B. Smith, Managing Director, estimated damage at nearly £5,000.
Holiday Time
Choose your cycle from the wide range at Wooler's, 147-149 High Street, Lochee. Agents for B.S.A., Raleigh, Robin Hood, Sunbeam, Phillips and Cyclemaster. Largest repair depot in town for cycle attachments.
Crazy Game
A football match in the middle of the Tay - sounds crazy doesn't it?
But if you look over the Tay this afternoon you'll see members of Dundee Corinthian Boating Club and Wormit Club competing in their annual soccer game on the Balmerino sandbank. Oars stuck in the sand are the goal posts.
About 20 boats from each side expected.
Sawmiller Wanted
For contract work on band rack on outskirts of town. Write to box P3929, People's Journal.
Library Expects an Increase
'Operation Readers' Card' is under way at the Central Library
50,000 readers - almost a third of the city's population have to be documented before August 1st. This had to be done very two years, and nearly always meant a loss of several hundred readers who couldn't be bothered with red tape.
But Mr Small has started a new system whereby readers are documented every three years instead of two, and by the aid of a big propaganda drive throughout the city is turning the red tape to account.
He expects an increase instead of a decrease. He has had 150 posters put up in 62 different sites warning his "customers" that their lease has lapsed, and making it clear that everyone living or working in Dundee can have the full facilities of the library at his or her disposal for a charge of - absolutely nothing.
There are still many people who think they have to pay to join.
Dundee's Roads and Streets
Dundee has now over 206 miles of roads and streets. The mileage in 1939 was 158. There were 884 roads and streets then compared with 1063 today. The latest figures are shown in the 1953-54 Dundee Corporation diary issued this week.
Digging in this little mine of information one finds that Dundee has 55,010 inhabited houses, of which 14,412 have been built by the Corporation.
D.P.M. Sterilised Milk
Best for coffee, cereals and puddings
The safe, pure milk. You'll enjoy the delicious, creamy flavour. Enriches coffee, custards, puddings and other breakfast cereals.
Can be kept indefinitely without refrigeration so long as cap is not revoved and bottle is kept in a horizontal position. Try a bottle today!
7d a pint
Dundee Pasteurised Milk Co Ltd., 62 Mains Road, Dundee
Household Pests
A piece of soap rubbed on the hinge will stop a creaking door,
And washing blue, or onion juice will ease a wasp's sting sore;
To keep the wasps out of the house you'll want a jar or two,
Of water and ammonia mixed - the pests just hate this brew.
When gardening at the close of day, my, how the midges bite!
Rub oil of lavendar on the skin and you will be all right.
It's also good for clearing ants, that cover food like dew,
They loathe the smell of lavendar and seek for pastures new.
Just one more word, about the mice, that pantries over-ride,
The best advice that I can give is - shut the cat inside.
Didn't Play the National Anthem
I went to a Dundee Cinema on Saturday to see the film "The Quiet Man", which I thoroughly enjoyed, but at the finish of the programme, I was surprised to hear a number of Irish tunes being played instead of the National Anthem.
Did the Manager genuinely forget to honour or Queen, and in Coronation Year too?
This happens in small cinemas. I asked one Manager why - "when we played the National Anthem few people stood still", he said. "It came to be there was a rush for the exists just before the film ended. Then there were patrons who objected to those who kept on the move during the Anthem, and that caused trouble. So in the end we found it better to drop it".
Palace
6.25 pm and 8.30 pm - For a season
Robert Wilson and Johnny Victory and a big cast of new stars.