Paradise Lost

If you happened to enjoy the recent 6 week #SchoolSummerHolidays 1960/70s series that’s just ended this may be of interest as it brings together all the vignettes together under a single cover; alternatively it would make for a thoughtful present for someone with an Oxgangs or Edinburgh connection. You can source it from below or from the link at the top of the right side-bar.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paradise-Lost-Edinburgh-Holidays-1958-1972/dp/108948304X/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?keywords=peter+hoffmann+edinburgh&qid=1566021003&s=gateway&sprefix=peter+hoff&sr=8-4

Saturday 21st August 1971 - The Edinburgh Highland Games

Puttemans a year later in Munich

The morning after the night before. It was odd awakening at Oxgangs with Nana 'n Gaga here. Gaga laughed off Nana’s comments about him imbibing at the wedding – ‘Not at all - I was absolutely sober!’  You have to laugh. After breakfast they headed back down to Porty. 

Meanwhile Boo-Boo, Iain and I went down to Meadowbank Sports Centre to watch the Edinburgh Highland Games. It’s the first time I've been there since we went to watch the Commonwealth Games in 1970. It was brilliant. A cracking day with big crowds and some great athletics to watch not to mention a world record thrown in - the place was buzzing! 

Emiel Puttemans from Belgium broke the two miles world best. It was some run against some great opposition. He's clearly going to be a bit of a handful for all the great British runners over the 5000 metres in next year's Olympics in Munich. He kept blasting through each lap in around 62 seconds and just kept going. It was some field too - all the Stewarts - Lachie; Ian 'n Peter; Brendan Foster; Alan Rushmer and Mike Tagg. Once the crowd realised he was going to keep on going we were all on our feet clapping and cheering him on; not only did he break Ron Clarke's world record but he was about seven seconds in front of Foster who ran a British record!

David Jenkins on the last leg, Meadowbank 1972

It was also good to see Edinburgh's David Jenkins running after his gold medal in Helsinki, not in the quarter but he ran the 100 metres and also a great flying leg in the 4 x 100 metres relay. The three of us had a fantastic day out. It's given me a bit of an appetite for the old athletics. I wonder how you get into it. 

Back home to Oxgangs; we're home alone. Quite a few kids were all hanging out tonight - Lorraine and Jacqueline Burns were there. We then settled in for the night with some of Rissi's best and the telly. A solid night including Lulu. Thereafter Sportsreel; it's still the League Cup  -  a good win for the Hibs but a defeat for the Hearts; a wee bit of Parky before bed; Freddie Trueman was on; he’s pretty straight talking - refreshing!

Friday 20th August 1971 - A Second Chance At Happiness

Wedding Anne and John Duncan

Well the happy couple got a lovely day for their wedding. 

It was a fantastic hot 'n sunny summer's day perhaps the best of the summer. 

We all had the day off school to get the house and ourselves ready. 

It was ironic that I ended up being within a stone's throw of Boroughmuir as the ceremony was held up at Bruntsfield Registrar's Office on Bruntsfield Place. I could even have popped into school for the morning and the Globey for a wee supper! 

The wedding ceremony went very well with a nice sized wee wedding party there to watch and support. We were all turned out in our finest. Mum looked very classy and suitably stylish with her outfit and the big hat setting it all off; John looked smart in his sailor's uniform accompanied by his best man Ted similarly attired. Anne wore a white dress; Iain was in an old suit of mine; I wore the grey number of the two suits that Gaga had bought for me from Burtons the Tailors. 

We all headed back to 6/2 Oxgangs Avenue for the reception. 

It was pitched pretty perfectly. Nana had stayed back from the ceremony to over-see it. It was a nice wee celebration - low key but quite classy in its way. There were lots of lovely summer salads 'n puddings as well as drink too. I reckon there hadn’t been so much liquor in the house since the old boy was at the top of his game! Gaga isn’t really a drinker and with the occasion and excitement he was drunk pretty quickly. Nana wasn’t impressed and he was soon carted off to bed to sleep it off! 

John's best man Ted is a nice bloke and a good laugh; his daughter is gorgeous and I found it difficult to take my eye off her all day. 

By tea-time Mum 'n John had left for a wee meal out before going off to Waverley Station for the London sleeper and then to Portsmouth for the honeymoon. Meanwhile our wee party slowly faded away to a gradual conclusion as the summer afternoon and evening ebbed and the sun began to disappear. Nana and the three of us washed and tidied up; poor Gaga was still out for the count; they're (Nana 'n Gaga) staying overnight to look after us. 

The day has been a great success; it's not often that 6/2 Oxgangs Avenue seems to be at the heart of the universe but today it was; it went as well in fact better than any of us could have hoped for. We all had a bit part to play - a very different exciting and memorable day. 

It's a late summer's evening now with a certain timelessness to it all; a bit like the recent school summer holidays - at one level you don’t really want it to end but it's now reached its natural conclusion and I'm off to bed.

Note to Self: Remember To Switch Off Gas!

Wednesday 18th August 1971 Note to Self: Beginning of School

Part of me always thinks this day will never come around especially during the first few days of the summer holidays yet here we are yet again. I wonder if this will be my last time around or will I stay on at school to sit my Highers. I guess it's probably likely to be my final year and the end of my boyhood as I'll have to go out and work. 

Although it should be all doom 'n gloom the first day back is actually the opposite partly because it's tinged with excitement. Also with me going to Boroughmuir it's loaded with people I've not seen all summer mainly because the school takes in pupils from all over Edinburgh so it's different from my pals at Oxgangs who attend Firhill and see their pals throughout July and August. 

Rather ironically because I had to go to see this chap at Lauriston Gardens I got a half day. It’s ironic because I guess the main reason for seeing him is to help to encourage me not to skive school so I've already only got a 50% attendance record whereas I would actually have put in a full shift at Viewforth today! 

He's a lovely bloke and we basically just had a wee blether. I'd gone in thinking I had to convince him I wasn’t mad but he quickly realised the fusing of the lights was just an accident and nothing sinister so by the end of our wee chat I suspect both parties came to the conclusion that it was a first and last meeting and that he's got far more serious cases to be attending to with kids in crisis; although we made a tentative appointment I've decided in my own mind I'm not going to bother going back. 

In the early evening Nana, Gaga and Aunt Heather were up from Porty to see us all. Late on I nipped up to the chippy then watched a little telly. 

Rather than ‘Dads Army’ I watched the first episode of ‘Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.’ It was about this knight; his philosophy is that since we all have to die it's best to do it with honour - discuss! I actually enjoyed it but it meant we couldn’t watch an hour of Captain Mainwaring et al on BBC 1; we could do with one of these fancy new video recorder machines that cost more than 6/2 Oxgangs Avenue - about 700 quid a shout! 

Postscript - On The Cusp Of The Year

When that summer of 1972 came to an end it marked a point in time - a line in the sand - the bell was ringing for the last lap and the end of my boyhood. It wasn't long afterwards, indeed only a few weeks later that I decided to leave school. And a few months after that, at the start of winter, I left The Stair and Oxgangs, only to return for occasional visits.

And as summer meets early autumn looking at an old photograph taken up at Swanston Road with the T Woods in the background on the lower slopes of the Pentland Hills a local farm worker is atop a cart and horse carrying hay; they are making gentle progress up the slope on a golden afternoon at the cusp, as summer turns to autumn. It was on such afternoons throughout the 1960s and on to 1972 that I, along with the other twenty five children from The Stair contemplated our return to school.

Hunters Tryst Primary School; photograph David Steele

Quite often the weather remained similarly fine and sunny which made it a struggle to return to stifling classrooms at Hunters Tryst; Firhill and Boroughmuir. 

Viewforth; photograph Roger Musson

Those of us with an awareness of the English system would be envious that our peers across the border wouldn't return until the cool of September.

Boroughmuir Senior Secondary School

Most of the kids didn't really want to go back even if by the back end of the holidays being off school had perhaps lost a little of its sparkle. I've no doubt though that a few of the more studious individuals such as Gavin Swanson next door looked forward to the start of the autumn term and the new school academic year. 

I don't think I ever did, but there was always a certain buzz about going back to school and the new rhythm of the year which as an adult you miss – children strive on some structure and security brought about by the seasons of the year and the beginning and end of school terms.

So we boys had visited the local barber, Ben Mackenzie, for a haircut with Michael; Boo-Boo; Colin; and Alan Hanlon getting their number ones, whilst Iain Hoffmann and I had our hair plastered down with ‘jungle juice.’ 

For those with new schoolbags (and that unforgettable smell of new leather) or school clothes and ties or perhaps those going up to secondary school for the first time, many will recall these days with a mixture of excitement and pleasure. 

However, some of us were keen to squeeze the last drops from the summer fruits and as the countdown began we played amongst the hay in the fields at Swanston; had grass fights with the mown grass in the front garden of 6/2 Oxgangs Avenue; and late evening enjoyed games of Kick-the Can or British Bulldog at The Field. We might even manage a final visit to go jumping the burn at Colinton Mains wandering all the way downstream to the Braid-Burn Valley but by then the grass and wild flowers and weeds and nettles had perhaps become too overgrown.

And if it was wet, Iain, Paul and I would enjoy card games upstairs at the Blades’ home at 6/6 Oxgangs Avenue with Fiona and some of her sisters or play mischievously with their giant tape-recorder with Paul Forbes blowing enormous fart rasps onto the tape.

What was truly lovely about the summer was that it brought many of us at The Stair together whilst the return to school would unfortunately divide us. At the start of the autumn term the Duffys (6/8) returned to St Augustine's whilst the Hanlons (6/7); the Hoggs (6/4); Norman Stewart (6/3); the Swansons (6/1); and the Hoffmanns (6/2) were divided up between Boroughmuir; Firhill; Royal High; and of course Hunters Tryst.

The cusp was thus metaphorical and literal.

Summer Has Gone 

I have tidings for you, The stag bells; Winter pours; Summer has gone

Wind is high and cold; The sun is low;

Its course is short;

The sea runs strongly…

Cold has seized The wings of birds; Season of ice.

These are my tidings

Anon.

One Midsummer Morning

Pentland Hills and T Plantation circa 1914 (Photographer Unknown Edinburgh Libraries, Museums and Galleries Collection)

This wonderful old photograph from a century ago shows three school-girls walking down Swanston Road through the farmland and fields. 

There is no sign of Swanston Farm or Swanston Golf Club. The Old Schoolhouse in Swanston Village was in existence so perhaps the girls are heading off to school in the morning. 

Swanston Farm, Robert Hope

The Pentland Hills and the T Woods can be seen clearly in the distance. 

The scree slopes of Caerketton were no different fifty years later when in the 1960s the Blades; the Hoggs; and the Hoffmanns stood at their living room windows looking out for the number 16 bus. 

There are hay stacks in one of the distant fields and one of the girls is only wearing a blouse, so we might surmise it is late summer. They are all dressed smartly in their straw hats; skirts; and dresses and each of them is carrying a metal case perhaps containing their books and school lunches.

On a fine late summer morn at the commencement of a new term after the school summer holidays or in early autumn the walk would be refreshing and enjoyable. However, on a bitter winter's morning, in the semi-darkness or in the cold of a March morning with a biting wind, it would have been quite a different story. At least they walked together which would have eased their passage and no doubt they will have enjoyed the company. Still, it's a long exposed country lane and one which we at The Stair often travelled on our adventures to the Pentland Hills half a century later and half a century ago.

I wonder where the girls are coming from as back then there wouldn't have been many houses in Fairmilehead. Perhaps they were sisters and lived at the old Hunters Tryst Farm. It's a lovely photograph capturing a moment in time. I also wonder who the photographer was. Was it set up or just serendipity? Perhaps their mum or dad wanted to capture a special moment in time to treasure and hold dear in their hearts, before the girls grew up, left home and moved on to follow life's journey.

They are all smartly dressed and don't look poor. Their outfits - straw hats, skirts and dresses remind me of the two girls in The Railway Children. They all look very lady-like; quite composed and serene, but not prim. If there had been a companion photograph taken at the end of the school day it would have looked quite different. We would of course see their faces and perhaps being the end of the day and free from school, we might have seen them un-lady-like taking to their heels, racing downhill from Swanston Village to head homewards for their tea and back to the welcome bosom of the family home.

Because we can't see the girls’ faces it adds to the elusiveness of the subject material. It forces the viewer to use their imagination; and of course one can't but help wonder what happened to each girl. The First World War was only a matter of months away. Did they go on to become wives and mothers or follow a career in nursing or teaching? Did they remain in Edinburgh or move on to other towns or even make a life for themselves abroad?

In a way, the photograph reminds me of the cover of the novel Three German Farmers On The Way To A Dance by Richard Powers which was based on an old photograph. It seems to me that in the hands of a fine novelist such as Joan Lingard a rather good story might be weaved.

Joan Lingard

Postscript: If you look more closely the girls aren't carrying schoolbags at all!  Still, much of my musings on what happened to the girls remains true so I thought I would leave the vignette as it stands!