Reminiscences - Time Period

I was born in Maryfield  Hospital in 1950 and lived  in Buchanan Street until we got moved to Douglas in 1953. I went to St Vincent school until age 7 when a new school St Pius was built opposite my house  in Balmerino Road. I used to love going to the baths on Saturday morning one week and the Gaumont on another, I used to love going through the Arcade under the  Caird Hall and see the roast chicken turning on the spit. It made me feel really hungry.

I first lived at 21 Kinloch Street at the foot of the Law Hill. An old tenement with 1 bedroom and kitchen/front room. The coalman used to come in and dump the bag of coal in the space under the wooden draining board. We moved to Findcastle Street in 1953 and we thought it was great, a new house and a garden. I went to St. Vincent's infants and primary school. It was a long walk to school. Then on to St. Michael's in Graham Street, we got a penny transfer for 2 buses. Used to go the Marryat (near Caird Hall) and the Palais to see all the bands. Read more......

I worked at the Veeder Root factory at Gourdie from 1977-79. I really liked working there making tachographs, sitting in long rows of women working away some with jigs some putting small parts together. My family lived in Fintry at 31 or 32 Findcastle Terrace opposite the primary school. My aunt's sister worked there also, Rosemary Pillins, and my friend Jackie Clancy, I think she later joined the navy. Her aunt Francis was really nice. Happy memories. 

I went to Mitchell Street school from 1966-68, primary 6 and 7 classes. My parents lived my mum's parents at 70 Polepark Road after coming back from New Zealand. Miss Joan Drumond was my teacher lovely lady and some of my classmates names; June Campbell, Marion Foy, Marion Finnie, Hazel Stuart, Flora Mcrae, Harry Knapp, Betty MacIntosh, Kevin Fyfe, lots more but don''t remember their names. Catherine Cvjetkovic nee Scott. Western Australia. 

I remember Beechwood, 11 Kingscross well, we moved there 1937 thats going back to when it was just being built. We moved from Rosebank a small cottage with a blackSmith. It was great to see electric light and a loo inside and I remember mare tinnie in the top storie, and I remember Patons Lane well too, in thoses days great daysI have been back often. 

I was born in the front bedroom at 1, Craighill Place in 1946. My first school was the hutty at the bottom of Pitarlie Road, them went to the Rainbow, had great times playing and dancing in the backies where it was all tarmacked, somebody would put a record player on their window and we would jive away, even Mum's would join in, great days and not a care in the world.

I was born in Clement Park in 1943. I lived in the square in Shepherd's  Loan, in my Granny Ogilvie's house. It had four rooms and a toilet. I went to Hawkhill School. My grandfather Hall lived under Cox's Stack in a big grey house. One of my friends was Jean Navickas she lived across the square. There was Mary Gatley and Helen Davies who lived above us. We emigrated to Australia in 1951. I told my friend Jean that I would be back in two years for a holiday but didn't get back for another 50 years and then my memories were all gone.

I was brought up in Cherryfield Lane, one memory I have is of Harry Deaks horses coming home from a hard days work on the building sites, sometimes a horse would slip on the cobbles and crash to the ground, this terrified my pals and me to see the horse struggling to get up, we thought the only safe place to get away was to run up three storey's in the building opposite. The year would have been in the 1940s and I would be about six or seven.

Remember wartime ration books
The ingenuity of wartime cooks
Nothing allowed to go to waste
Porridge becoming a familiar taste

Tatties and neeps (stomaches-full)
Peas from the kailpot to chew at school
Remember tops of eggs being taken
For tea – it was no joke
Kids then seldom tasted yoke

Powdered egg in a tin
Less sugar and sweets (more saccharin)
Baked rice, raisins, curds an’ whey
Custard and rhubarb – desserts of the day Read more......

Spending a most enjoyable and comfortable evening in Queen's Hotel on Friday 15th November 2013 with former employees of Watson and Philip (Food Importers, Dundee) I only recognised one person there - ME - my reflection in the cloakroom mirror. Years have rolled. After all 1951-1953 were the years I was in the firm's employment. It was my second job after leaving Rockwell High School at the age of fourteen-and-a-half. Read more......

I was school boy at the old Mains School on Claverhouse Road situated at the bottom of the old Mains Loan. I started attending Mains School in 1947 and left in 1954 to go to Stobswell Boys Secondary. Read more......

I have read that Blackness Library is celebrating its centenary this year and that members and former members are being invited to offer special memories associated with the library. I have one incident with which I was directly linked and which caused something of a surprise at the library in the 1940s. Whether anyone else still linked to the area remembers it I am not sure, but I believe it was the talk of the Sinderins at the time. Read more......

I have a 1935 copy of a puBlication from Glasgow called 'The Bulletin' I could not find any reference to it but there is an advertisement on the back page for Beattie's Bread, I recall my Nanny speaking about different products from Scotland and England and this is one of them. Is it still in business? Just curious.

Lorimer Street - low door "But and Ben" (1945 - 56). Jute Factory "Bummer" (Wm. Boase). Rag and Bone man with his bugle. Early morning milk deliveries by horse and cart. Playing street games like hopscotch/chicy/melly. Attending Saturday morning children's club at the Odeon Cinema.

Arbroath RoadAs a little girl I lived in Morgan Street. I would play in the Ritz Picture House doorway with my doll Maureen at (housies). Also Cardean Street with a ball in old stockings “under leggy” or throw the ball jump over it saying boys or girls names in the alphabet. Doll in pram walk to Baxter’s Park. Sit on steps in front of pavilion with Maureen (housies) again. Great imagination! Not like today kids all computers and phone games.

Deserted natural habitats
Abandoned sea shores
Where have all the gulls gone?
Flying to fast-food stores! Read more......

I also went to Jean Pringle at the foot of King Street  - I think round about  
1960. Linda Penman who lived in Albert Street also went there and a girl  
called Ria or Lea who was from Charleston Dundee. I absolutely loved it. Jean  
looked every inch a ballet dancer and my weekly lesson couldn't come quick  
enough for me. Hopefully I will hear a bit more from some other pupils from  
that time.

I was born in DRI in 1950. We lived in Hunter Street till I was 7 then we moved to fintry we felt as if we had won the  pools, the house in Fingarth Street seemed like Buckingham Palace after the two rooms of Hunter Street. 

Baxter Park concerts, rolling our easter egg at Den of Mains playing in the fields which are now where Whitfield stands, playing outdoors from morning till night, then coming in for tea they are just some of the memories from my childhood which I remember fondly.   Read more......

52, William Street, Dundee, end of World War 2. Huge bonfire in the court yard, 5 storeys high, one tenant organised a party of tenants to get together and make all the children costumes out of crepe paper. Mine was orange and white. Now that was a party! Must have been to remember it all those years ago!

The recent death of Dundee folk singer, Jim Reid, raised in the Stobswell area of the city, brought out a few references to his song " The Stobbie Parliament Picnic".

The Stobbie Parliament were the old men who sat on a long bench just above Ogilvie church in the early years of the 20th century. They sat and blethered and, as the name suggests, set the world to right. Read more......

It was December 1951. I had just been discharged from hospital where I had undergone an arthrodesis of my right knee which rendered it unable to bend; locking it in a straight position. I was sitting on a tram on the lower deck where there was a long seat on either side; the passengers facing one another. It was leading up to Christmas and a lady boarded the tram laden with parcels up to eye-level. She did not see my leg stretched across the alleyway and before I could move she had tripped over my leg, her parcels scattering everywhere. Read more......

I was brought up by my grannie Alice and No 41 in the 50s happy days at St Mary's Forebank. Stannergate with a bucket for wilks, plundering apples and pears, the wee pool at the sweeming, hired trunks, fishing for floonders at the docks, sky larks singing on the law, chicky nelly, doos eggs at the hoose o doos, climbing the three waas, Blaikies and the forest for birds eggs, the green hills sliding in the winter. The Plaza, Vic, Rex, minors of the ABC, kissy catchie, Jonny and the gun, kick the can.

One of my first memories as a child was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth 2nd not the 1st, I'm not that old. I lived in a 'single end' in Bernard Street and we had a great street party. My cousin Francis Harvey was dressed up to be the young Prince Charles. I was only 3 at that time, but I still think of it with fondness. Later that year we moved to a new house in what I thought was the countryside because it seemed so far away and there was a farmer by the name of Sherrit who lived up the road. Read more......

It was September 1944, I was a student nurse in Apeldoorn and I had been at home on sick leave as I had TB. The cure was bedrest and good food. We lived in occupied Holland, Groningen, not far from the German border. My father worked there on the railway and he was told by the Underground that we had to leave our house and go underground. We put what belongings we could in an empty room belonging to a neighbour. The rest we just had to leave in our house. Father and Nico, my brother, dressed as workmen and cycled to Makkum, the village where my parents were born, and where we had a lot of relations. Nobody wanted me as I was ill and did not have a ration card. Read more......

My grandfather's unmarried sister, Georgina Scott lived in Eden Street for many years and her parents before her. She died in approximately 1960. Our family stayed with her for a holiday a few years before she died. My sister can remember a bed in the living room. I remember the man in the corner shop could smoke his cigarette backwards i.e. with the lit end in his mouth.

In 1955, having just left school and starting a college course, I was employed as a temporary tram conductor during the summer of that year. It was one of the happiest summers I ever experience and I have many happy memories. Read more......

I remember living (squatting) at 13 Larch Street in the nine storey tenement and attending Blackness School prior to moving to Fintry in 1951, and moving to Linlathen Primary just over the Linlathen bridge. I'm sure it was a foundry opposite us on Larch Street, and a huge open midden around the corner on Urquhart Street. A penny dainty from the corner shop on the way to school was a treat to look forward to.

So many memories of Dundee in the sixties ... being a teenager at that time was brilliant ... going to the Marryat on a Saturday night was the highlight of the week. Dancing to the likes of the Beatles, The Searchers, Swinging Blue Jeans and many more - then leaving there to stand and blether to your pals before getting the last bus home along the Perth Road because if I wasn't home on the last bus then woe betide me because my father would be waiting for me and I would get a lecture that would last for 15 minutes or more. Even before that I remember my grandma taking me to nearly every picture house in the town. The first one being the Wizard of Oz at the La Scala then going home on the tram. Oh how I loved the journey along past the Seabraes where I could look across the water - great days that stick in your mind forever. Read more......

I don't know if you are the same Jean Tully. If you are you will remember Rita and George. I think we stayed with you before we moved to Cheltenham in 1959. Read more......

I was born in Perth but moved to Dundee when I was still very young. I lived in Dallfield Walk and went to 'The Rosie' (Rosebank Public School) in Tulloch Crescent.

My Dad was a wood turner. Once he made a 'piler' (cart) for my brother. It didn't last long though because he took it out and went flying down Dallfield Walk right under the legs of a horse! When dad found out about it he broke up the 'piler' right away! Read more......

I was born in 1946 in Lochee. Unfortunately my father died at 21 and my mother became a widow at 18. We then moved in with my grandparents in the new housing scheme called "Beechwood". This was a lovely friendly place to grow up in. Read more......

When war ended in 1945 a crowd from school assembled outside Clark's chip shop and we were all dancing in Gray Street, then on to the celebrations in City Square, Dundee.

Jim was born in Dundee and has lived here for about fifty years.

I was a representative of the Commonwealth Youth Summit that took place in Edinburgh city in 2003. I visited Dundee for a week after the conference and I was very impressed, Dundee kept its tradition to modern day. I was particularly taken by the memorable Discovery, though only a museum right now, it seems so real with the display it has. I will never forget Dundee.

I remember moving in to Whitfield from Broughty Ferry in October 1968.

I was born at 40 Constitution Street in May 1933 where I stayed with my parents and two brothers until we moved to a new house in Kendal Avenue in 1946. I went to Rosebank School then to Rockwell High. When I started work it was in J.K. Mearns at the bottom of Victoria Road, it was a very happy place to work as we had a very good employer (William Mearns). I married George Millar in 1953, we have 4 children, 8 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

I bought the ironmongers shop in 1967 from James Murray and retired in 1988 to become a Councillor for Dundee Tayside Region for Ancrum Ward. I have many happy memories of customers.

On the Maryfield line, just before the Arbroath Road on Albert Street a fellow had parked his horse and cart. The tram driver decided that there was not enough room to pass, he decided to go into nearby shops to look for the carter but the tram's air brake leaked and the tram, full of passengers ran right down Princes Street and King Street to the Gaumont Cinema. Mr Charles Broadley, Superintendent, took charge of the situation, fortunately no one was hurt.

I started off as a tram Conductor for two years, most of us always started here and then learned tram driving. An Inspector trained me. I began as a spare driver and was then given a steady line on the Blackie to Downfield line. I started in 1947, after leaving the army and worked until 1956 when the trams were taken out of service, any driver under the age of 50 could train as a bus driver.

I was born in 1954 in my Granny's house in Kirkton. We lived in William Street but went to Granny's all the time to play in her garden and get a bath. My mum was one of five sisters, three of whom were nurses in Maryfield Hospital and it was one of my aunties, Annie Dodds, a midwife, who delivered me and most of my cousins, at home. I remember walking down Victoria Road with Mum to the butcher who always gave us a slice of roast beef straight from the machine and salt to put on it.

Someone mentioned the butcher shop selling horseflesh at the bottom of the Wellgate. I worked there as a laddie after school and on Saturdays, earning £1 a week. And yes, we sold only horsemeat. If I remember correctly beef was rationed at the time (1950) and the queues outside the shop were quite long on most days. We used to get a big parcel of meat home with us on a Saturday night, steaks, joints, sausages etc. Read more......

Helen was born in Dundee and has lived here all her life.

I was born in Hill Street in 1938 and attended Butterburn School for one year and the Rockwell Junior and Senior until age 15. I worked in the SMT for one year then on to George Stephen's in Castle Street for 40 years until I was made redundant. Read more......

My Dad was manager at Bonar Long, and an expert in make-do-and-mend. When Dundee's trams were withdrawn in 1956, Dad bought some tram track and tram chassis. The track was laid in the new Bonar Long factory at Kingsway West, and the chassis converted into a truck to convey transformer oil tanks into a giant oven for storing their enamel and for vacuum testing. Dad also bought some tram seats for our garden, and I still have one of the red leather bolsters.

I have many, many wonderful and happy memories of Dundee and Dundonians. My late mother Rita Elder (nee Gillan) was born in Dundee but left in the forties to come up to Peterhead with my father Edward Elder who was born in Carnoustie. My mother was brought up in Brook Street and did in fact work in the jute mills, maybe even the coffin mill. Mother never forgot Dundee and was a frequent visitor coming back at every opportunity. I wish in fact that Mum and Dad had returned to live in Dundee as we seem to spend quite a lot of time going back for weekends and shopping. God bless you Dundee for you have given me and many other happy memories. Read more......

I was born in D.R.I. on 27th June, 1931. I lived at 2 Park Lane with my six brothers and sisters in a one room attic. My father was in the army at outbreak of war. My mother and all of the family were sent to Banchory for the remainder of the war. It was a cultural shock for us. We had never seen cows in a field. We lived on a farm for six years. We were so happy then. We did not want to come home. We cried all the way back to Dundee.

My favourite trams were the Lochee trams, as I lived in the West End of the city, and travelled on them daily. Where as on the East End of the city when I visited my relatives, I found the Downfield to Maryfield trams very uncomfortable, where the Lochee trams were very comfortable. I always remember our regular Conductor on the Lochee trams was always cracking jokes and was known as "nuts & raisins".

In 1956 I was no longer living in Bonnie Dundee. My father Dave Anderson was a long time employee - first a conductor and then an office worker prior to his retirement. Family lived in Kerrsview Terrace, Dundee. Our daughter Deborah visited Dundee and was presented by her grandfather the Dundee Coat of Arms (plaque/disc) taken from the last tram. We still have this momento from this area. Now framed and on display. My twin sister still lives in Dundee, a retired nurse, Betty Urquhart.

My Grandfather had an allotment at City Road, Dundee. His greenhouse was an old Dundee tram. If memory serves me right, he acquired it from a farmer out in the direction of Auchterhouse who had been using it as a henhouse. He and my father and uncle transported it to City Road using a horse and cart where it was duly installed and produced large crops of tomatoes for many years. Read more......

I lived at 18, Victoria Street until September 1947. Trams ran up and down Princes Street to the City Square. I did miss that special ride when we moved to South Australia.

I lived in Dundee until 1976 when I moved to Leeds to pursue a musical career, which was good until I retired this year. In Dundee I was the singer with 'Happy Ever After' before going solo and remember playing the Dee Club, Angus Hotel and all the American bases. It was a great life and I would like any fellow musicians who remember me to get in touch.

I was working as a joiner in our family business, Robert Samson Ltd. when World War II ended. All the neighbours were very excited, then we carried on working until 5 pm. There was a big bonfire in the field behind our house which carried on all night.

I don't remember too much but as a youngster but I do have a very good memory of "the Hurley". When our mother died in the late 40's we went to live with our Grannie in Wallace Street, they never had any room for us so my uncle Bob got an old drawer, put some kind of rollers on it and my older brother and me slept in it for a long time, and we got hurled under Grannie and Granda's bed at night and hurled out again in the morning.

I was born in the DRI on 13th June 1925. I had four brothers. When I was four and a half years old I went to the Cowgate School. I lived in Constable Street. All my aunts and cousins lived beside each other. My Grandad lived in Wallace Street. I used to go my Gran's messages to Jackie's the butcher for beef, Massey's for messages, the Buttercup for butter, Martin Simpsons for pies and bread and the Mealstore for eggs. When I was about twelve I used to go to the washing house to do my Gran's washing. Read more......

I worked in Dundee from about 1949 to 1952. Firstly at Bonar Long on the Kingsway, then as a dispatch clerk with Thomson Shepherd & Co., Shepherd's Lane. My next job was with Robert Kellie & Son, Dock Street. All these places of employment have now gone.

I was at the United V's Hearts match last season when United won 3-0. Near the end of the match, the shed end started singing "we want four", because the team were dominating the match. Another man then shouted "gee's another one for my Angie". Another memory is of the woman who is always sitting behind us in the George Fox lower. She always cheers us up with her cheeky comments. Bless her!

My grandparents lived at Dunmore Lodge Ninewells on the Perth Road. As a child when my parents would take the journey from Birmingham to Dundee I would look forward to the walks down to the River Tay and the tram journey into the city. As I got older I was trusted to go on the tram each morning to fetch the hot morning rolls for breakfast. My grandfather worked as a gardener for the Dundee Council and set out the gardens at Magdalene Green and near to the Tay Rail Bridge. He died aged 100 at "The Rowans" nursing home. Read more......

I was born at 58, Hill Street in 1933 and went to Butterburn School and then Rockwell High. I remember when as a young boy going through the Law Tunnel. There was always stories going around about people that had gone into the tunnel and never came out, so it was a brave kid that would dare to go from, one end to the other. It started at the tennis court in Upper Constitution Street and came out at the Law Crescent gardens at Byron Street.

The talk given by the City Archivist, Iain Flett at the launch of the Streetwise exhibition was thoroughly enlightening and interesting. Bringing back many memories of times past. One particular street, Saggar Street, held my attention. Read more......

(Sung to the traditional tune of 'A pair o' Nicky Tams')

'Twas the end-o-the-line for the Dundee trams - October '56
The bairn o' the Lochee route'll be up tae nae mair o' her tricks
At twenty-past the midnicht 'oor she rumbl'ed thro' Dundee
A' the wey frae Maryfield tae her journey's end - Lochee Read more......

I can remember the very last Lochee tram to run as it stopped outside our building at 78 Lochee Road. At that time I was with my father who got the sign 'WAIT TILL TRAM STOPS' from a chap who had taken it down from its position at the rear of the tram. Read more......

I remember at the start of the Second World War, when every civilian in the country received a gas mask. This Lochee tram was travelling up Lochee Road, in the afternoon. The driver suddenly opened the passengers door and shouted "they are dropping gas bombs, get you gas masks on". Well panic broke out. After about ten minutes it cleared up. They discovered it was only a house chimney on fire. Read more......

I was born in Glentrium Terrace in 1949, but although I don't remember it, mum and dad couldn't afford the house, so we moved in with grandma and grandad. They had a huge house in Commercial Street and I remember grandma used to take in policemen as lodgers! Dad had the fruit shop at the top of the Hilltown. I wonder if anyone remembers it? Read more......