Food and Drink

The day we got married I told the wife we would go to Edinburgh for our honeymoon. Little did she know but United were playing Kilmarnock in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup. It was a draw and we went back for the replay. She really enjoyed her first Dundee United game. And we are still together even though United lost the replay. Can't wait to get married again, ha ha!! Better luck next time.

I remember my first impressions being of Step Row just off the Perth Road. My grandfather, James Kirkland was a coal merchant and everybody knew everybody. I remember especially the lovely summer days, an ice cream cone with raspberry on top from Tony's on the Perth Road. Happy days when bairns played on the street making their own fun and life was plain and simple. I have since moved to New York and have lived in many very fine places but my heart will always hold a place for all the special ordinary people and memories of Step Row.

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 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......

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.

I remember shopping in Ingram's in Gray Street. My wedding cake was made there. The bakehouse at the back is now part of Jolly's Hotel.

Holidays spent in Dundee 1939 to 1945. In the Overgate at a buster stand (chips and peas) in a large tarpaulin with an open fire. Sarsparilla from a chemist on Sunday mornings.