Working Days

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.

After I left school at fourteen and a half years old I had a few jobs but I always wanted to be a weaver. My aunt asked me in to Walker's at the top of North Ellen Street. I was in the jute works when war was declared from 1939 to 1945. You always had to carry a gas mask and at night time you had to put up blackout curtains. You weren't allowed to show a chink of light as it was important in case enemy aircraft passed over.