Memories of Dundee

We lived in MacVicars Lane off the Perth Road for a while but in 1959 we moved to Millars Wynd. I went to the Demonstration School in Park Place and remember some classmates names like Kenny Campbell, Ronald Koppel, Alistair Soutar, Diane Buick, Cherry Leaper, Jaqueline McMaster and Stewart Patterson. Our headmaster was John Gunning and it truly was the best education a child could have. The teachers like Mr Watson, Mrs McFeet and Miss Gregg were simply the best.

I remember going to Robies dance hall in Mount Pleasant on Saturday mornings with Lindsey Downie. She is in a really nice frock and me in shorts. Not a good look for me. Shops were everywhere. On the Hawkhill we had Ronnies Cafe, Cuthberts bakey, Joe Mitzies chip shop and Peter Cabrelli's chip shop. I went to the Lifebouys at St Peters church and our corner shop was Annan's at the bottom of Millar's Wynd.

The doctor was Dr. Baumgart on the Perth Road and I used to spend most of the summer months at the Magdalene Green. My pocket money was spent going to the State cinema in Bellfield and I could jump on a bus and get all the way to Linlathen terminus for tuppence. It was only a short walk from there to the Den o' Mains or Fintry. Playing at the Dighty burn was fabulous and my parents never worried about me being gone for hours. I was still in primary school but nobody worried about their kids. We always came home at teatime.

Eventually the University bought our house and we had to move out so I moved to Ann Street school and we lived in Victoria Road, right next to the Vic cinema and above the bookshop. I notice that this tenement has now been knocked down. We lived on a plettie with a toilet at the end, shared by 3 families. I don't miss that part of it.

After Ann Street I moved to Stobswell school but we then moved house to Rowantree Crescent in Linlathen and sadly that was the last year I spent in Dundee. My dad decided that it was time to move to England where he managed to find a job. I never moved back to Dundee but it will always be a part of me and I try to go up every now and then just to breathe it in. It truly is my spiritual home.