May 1953
The "Coronation Special"
On June 2 over 600 adults and children of St Mary's housing scheme, Dundee, will travel by train to Monifieth West End Park for a picnic.The train will be festooned with flags and bunting. Making these is a spare-time occupation of many St Marys' housewives at the moment.
The Coronation Special, laid on especially by British Rail, is the idea of Mr W Campbell, Chairman of the St Mary's Tenants' Association.
To date the Association have raised £70 to help pay for the picnic. With dances, lectures, and other social functions in the offing, there's likely to be nearly twice that figure available. On Monday May 11th, a concert is being staged in Downfield North Hall.
It Will Certainly be a Bright Spot
All eyes will look up towards the Law at Coronation time. Dundee "Kirk on the Hill" - the High Church - is to be floodlit, the only one in Dundee to be done.
The suggestion was first made by session clerk, Mr JM Simpson. It was enthusiastically received, and an electrical firm was asked for a quotation. They gave the figure of £60. The "High" just couldn't look at that - but they wouldn't give up.
Mr Simpson appealed to Corp J Valentine, of the RAF, one of the church's most enthusiastic young workers.
During a fortnight's leave Jimmy made six floodlight boxes each fitted with plate mirror reflectors and 1,000 watt bulbs. The lamps will light up three sides of the church. The back, which faces the Law, is not to be lit.
The floodlighting will be turned on for the first time on Sunday May 31. It will last for a week to 10 days, and will be on from 10 - 12 nightly.
Good for Mattie!
Visit the wards of East House, Dundee practically any day of the week and you will see women patients, some over 80, dancing to the music of an accordion. Sometimes they are entertained by songs too, from Mattie Wallace, well known in Dundee as "Blind Mattie".
76 year old Mattie has been a patient in East House for 5 years. She can still handle an accordion very well and certainly helps to keep the place lively.
When the "Spanner" Slips
That's the time for flexoplast
flexible and waterproof first aid dressings
Always keep a tin of flexoplast handy - to meet day-to-day emergencies
For conveniences, economy and value insist on flexoplast.
In golden tins from chemists everywhere, 9d & 1s 6d
Coronation Garden Display
Groom your lawn and hedges in preparation for your Coronation garden display.
Garden shears, lawn mowers and all garden requisites await you.
H. Warnock, 303 Hilltown
Enjoy Your Swim at Central Baths
One of the finest bathing establishments in Britain,
you cannot do better than have your daily dip here
Admission charges
Swimming - 1st class (ladies' and gents') 10d
Swimming - 2nd class (gents' only) 5d
Towels available 2d each
1st class 12-timer 8/-, season ticket 50/-
Private baths - 1st 1s 6d; 2nd 10d; 3rd 6d
To revitalise the aching limbs have a turkish, aeratone or foam bath and come out renewed and refreshed.
Dundee Corporation Baths, West Protection Wall.
If You Entertained The Queen
If the queen came to afternoon tea, what would you bake that would be specially toothsome and at the same time distinctively Scottish?
There's a prize of a 26-piece case of cutlery for what is considered the best set of recipes, with consolation awards for others selected.
Entries to Tea Party Fare, c/o People's Journal.
Mind the Folk Below!
* Don't shake your dusters and mops out of the window. Remember the people who live underneath have their windows open and your dust blows.
* Don't throw your mats and carpets out of the upstairs windows. Besides being illegal, it is a very dangerous practice.
* Don't throw hair-combings out of the window. It is a disgusting practice.
* Don't overwater the plants in your window-box so that excess water runs out and is blown on to the newly-cleaned windows of the people downstairs.
* Don't leave unsecured flower-pots sitting on the window-sill. Recently I saw a very large pot come crashing down from a top-storey window during a gale. Luckily, there was no one about.
If these are observed there will be greater harmony among tenement-dwellers.
The High
The "High" is inseperably a part of Dundee. Its square Grecian facade looks as ancient as its traditions, which go back to the 13th century. As far back as the 1200's a Mrs Wallace didn't see eye to eye with the reigning King Edward I of England and sought to keep out of harm's way at the Carse of Gowrie home of a relation.
She sent her boy to what was then known as the Grammar School of Dundee. His name was William. Ask any High School boy who William Wallace was!
This grammar was situated in an unpretentous house with an outside stairway in St Clement's Lane. Those were the browned-off schooldays. There was no home lessons, but school began at 6 in the morning and went on until 6 at night - 6 days a week.
Water Willie
Water Willie was a familiar sight trundling through Dundee's streets in the 1840's.
A drawing of him and other characters of the first half of last century has been unearthed for the Central Library's Coronation Exhibition.
Water Willie was one of the water-carriers who used to sell his wares at a penny for 10 gallons. The water came from four public wells.
At one time there were 20 carts distributing the valuable liquid throughout the city.
The exhibition will be sent round the branch libraries shortly.
What's On Tonight - Cinema
La Scala - Anna
Playhouse - South of Algiers
Gaumont - Escape Route
Kinnaird - Because You're Mine
Odeon - Carnival in Costa Rica
Empire - Appointment in London
Regent - Somebody Loves Me
Royal - The Story of Dr Wassell
Astoria - The Quiet Man
Rialto - The Outcast
Forest Park - What Price Glory
Princess - Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye
Tivoli - Weekend with Father
Rep - The Tempest