Shopping
Memories of Polepark
I was brought up in Polepark by my dad Frank Traynor and the lovely Ann and Bert Small who owned a little grocer shop at 16 Polepark Road. They took over the majority of my care after my mum sadly died when I was four years old.
I have many happy memories of the jute workers who came into the shop and the actors from the Rep Theatre which was in the church at the top of Polepark. It was a lovely time to grow up and a caring way of life when people all looked after their neighbours. Ann and Bert Small ran a lovely wee shop and were kind to their customers. Read more......
The Parrot
The parrot that sat on the milk crates outside Keillors shop at the bottom of the Blackie, the sledging down the brae from the Blackie to the burn, so many kids there we had to line up to get your turn. Great days, but we were all kids then, we didn't know about life then.The woman that sold puff candy across from St Joseph's school, that's just a wee bit of great memories.
The Wellgate Clock
Crowds gather in anticipation
Showing their appreciation
The footman grinds the hurdy gurdy
In tuneful animation
A monkey turns to look around
Two bluebirds take their station - Almost midday
Precisely then - the clock becomes alive
Unicorn gallops and nods his head
To the cat's fiddling jive Read more......
The City Arcade
Wha remembers the City Arcade
Underneath Caird Hall
Buyin' onythin' frae a half-loaf
Tae a bouncing rubber ball Read more......
Good Days
I stayed in a house like the one displayed in the Bygone Memories exhibition, in Central Library, right before I got married, going back 40 years. But now I am a widow, I do remember the good days I had there. Little shop on the corner where you went and got all your messages. I stayed at 14 Lyon Steet, all in the past now.
Smell of Jute
I lived in Shepherds Loan in the early fifties in a tenement right next to Thomson and Shepherds, at the end of the day the bummer would sound and men and women would stream up the road on their way home, the jute fibres filled the air and the smell of jute hung heavy all around us. I loved Lizzie Smiths shop at the top of the road and would spend all of my one and sixpence pocket money there.
Beechwood Shops
I notice that there are virtually no shops in Beechwood now which made me think of the names/types of shops that thrived there in the 50s namely:
From left to right Mallow, Beechwood Stores, Andrew G Kidds, The Butchers, Johnston Stores, McBains or Mary's and lastly the chippers. Read more......
Memories of Dundee - Part Eight
Street vendors were commonplace in my childhood - there were so many different ones. One of the first who comes to mind is the milk man who had a small two-wheeled cart pulled by a pony. On the cart was a huge metal churn with a tap from which the milk was drawn to fill the customer's pitchers and jugs. Being two-wheeled the cart sloped and I could never understand why the churn didn't fall off and spill the milk. Then there was the banana salesman who came round carrying a basket of bananas shouting "ripe bananas sixpence a dozen" he left his basket on the street one day to go round the doors with a few bunches and when he returned to where he left his basket, someone had pinched a lot of the bananas from it. I felt sorry for him. Read more......
Maureen's Life
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......
Albert Street Ironmonger
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.
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