Poor Wee Soul

When I was 10 years old my family moved to a new house in Kirkton. One morning when the snow fell heavily my Dad took me with him get a bag of coke to boost our coal supply, from a coal merchant at Clepington Road.

Carrying the sack of coke on his back, we made our way to the tram stop. When the tram arrived he told me to wait at the stop while he took the sack to the front of the tram at the driver's compartment. Unknown to me the driver let him into the passenger's compartment from the front of the tram, as the tram moved off I was left standing bewildered. Where was my Dad with the sack? I them realised that I was stranded and had no option but to trudge through the deep snow and follow the tram lines home.

My Dad (getting his priorities right) took the coke home them walked back to meet me. He said that when he got on the tram and couldn't see me, he realised what had happened. He said he got some glowers and comments from the lady passengers who all saw the "poor wee soul" abandoned at the tram stop, but he assured them that I would be okay. We laughed about it in the years to follow and when I see a picture of a tram, this story always comes to my mind.