Thursday 3rd August 1972

I was out early doors with Douglas delivering milk. We’re in to a pretty good routine. It can’t be often where you have a job where your boss lives two floors above you with the company vehicle directly outside the front door of 6 Oxgangs Avenue. 

Paul and I went into town to Mackenzie’s Sportshop up at South Clerk Street; Paul bought himself a new pair of spikes and I bought myself an Adidas bag. It’s good that we’re able to treat ourselves from our hard earned money and not have to depend on others. 

We just travelled straight down to Meadowbank I quite enjoyed training tonight and I ran 11.8 seconds for 100 metres. Not bad. However something that was dead scary was Paul was peeing blood! Blimey I hope he’s okay! 

When I got back to Oxgangs Lesley Dibley (4/4 Oxgangs Avenue) was there. She’s quite good fun and Mum gets on well with her.

Thursday 5th August 1971

Note to Self: Audrey Smith's Birthday

Audrey Smith 6/8 Oxgangs Street

Although there wasn’t much improvement in the weather Boo-Boo; Les; Ali; Iain and a few others went up to the Craigies. After wandering on to the golf course we got chased again by the tractor man. It’s probably one of the reasons for going up there so we weren't disappointed; when he comes after you it gives you a hell of a buzz. 

I might be quick and not carrying my diary but on the open ground he quickly closes the gap until you can hit the cover and safety of the gorse and heather. Bloody great fun! 

I have to say it's braw being up on Craiglockhart Hill. It's always a good adventure and a healthy way to spend part of the day. It's a nice spot and we can all get up there pretty quickly especially compared to going to the Pentlands; it's almost like part-time hill walking. 

After my tea we put on a massive Singles tournament with dozens of boys 'n girls’ out. It was brilliant fun; I ended up winning it - the last man to be hunted down. Despite the weather and the pouring rain I have to say it was great to be out 'n about all day. The summer hols are the highlight of the Oxgangs year. Yes Christmas is braw but it's self-contained whereas the six weeks off Burrie seem to stretch out in my world and imagination for ever.

An Act Of Kindness

Photograph Andrew Carothers

A popular picnic was to the Braid Hills; there was a very shallow open cave where we would eat our picnic if the weather turned sour giving us some shelter. It served as a good base from which to play. On one occasion a group of us were setting out for a picnic; all that my brother Iain and I had was a bottle of water each which I'd stored in my small brown haversack. All the others had sandwiches and perhaps a few sweets. 

Hilda Hanlon

I don't know how but Hilda Hanlon (6/7 Oxgangs Avenue) somehow must have noticed this; she leaned out her window and threw down a tanner - threepence each and told us to get something at Jimmy's Green Van which was parked outside the stair. 

I bought us two packets of Golden Wonder crisps. Or was it Smith’s.

Summer Showers or Pennies From Heaven

The former St Hilda's Episcopal Church

Each summer our disposable income was considerably increased from the wedding scatters - the showers of money - the poor-oots - that would emerge from the wedding party cars.

One great bonus of living at 6 Oxgangs Avenue was that we were located almost directly opposite St Hilda's Episcopal Church, alas no more, so we were always clued in when any such an event was taking place.

St Hilda's was an iconic building in its way built in 1966 to a very modern design which was quite cutting edge.

'...The last confetti and advice were thrown,

And, as we moved, each face seemed to define   

Just what it saw departing: children frowned   

At something dull; fathers had never known

Success so huge and wholly farcical;

    The women shared

The secret like a happy funeral;

While girls, gripping their handbags tighter, stared   

At a religious wounding. Free at last,...'

Philip Larkin, The Whitsun Weddings

Weddings were often held on several summer Saturdays and as often was the way extended into a happy community event for all of us because the mums and sisters would come out of stairs 2, 4, 6 and 8 Oxgangs Avenue to watch and enjoy the proceedings and in particular liked to discuss the brides' dresses.

The fun for the kids would start when all the photographs had been taken and the formal black cars would begin to depart. Oh the excitement when the cars began to move slowly away - will they, or won't they?

Then the car window slowly winds down and the groom's hand emerges to the excitement of perhaps twenty kids waiting and as the car goes by the half crowns, florins and shillings flew out followed by an almighty scrum - pennies and more from heaven!

When the average pocket money might be around two shillings this was big money. I always felt the greatest largesse was shown by the fathers of the bride and groom, but we could be surprised at the amounts that came from the lesser cars too.

Susan Bain (Oxgangs Park) and Iain Logan wedding St John's Church Oxgangs 1977

And the same happened too up the hill at St John's Church and presumably St Mark's RC Church  further along the Avenue.

Were scatters only an Edinburgh tradition?

Did those who provided the scatter come ready prepared, because a lot of coins of the realm were scattered.

The Right Rev KM Carey laying the Foundation Stone for the new St Hilda's Episcopal Church

St John's has sadly gone to the increasingly great church graveyard in the sky, but St Mark's RC Church further along the Avenue looks in robust health.

And what of St Hilda's Church? 

The congregation first met in a cottage in Colinton and then moved to the existing hall in 1951. 

In 1966 a striking, state of the art Modernist building was opened; and yet less than half a century later the church was knocked down only a few years after the start of the 21st century. 

The coming and going of a church, indeed two churches within a few generations says something about Christianity and lends some weight to recording these vignettes before they disappear from life in Oxgangs.

Pavlov's Bells and Heaven

One of the daily summer afternoon and evening rituals at Oxgangs Avenue was the sight, sound and smell of the regular ice cream vans that came around.

Some vans plied their trade on a daily basis throughout the year whilst others which were like swallows, arriving in early summer and departing come the start of autumn.

To my knowledge there was no Pavlov but whenever any of us heard the sound of the chimes, whether we were thinking about ice cream or not, we were quickly attuned!

The original ice cream van in the brand new community of Oxgangs was Ernie's remembered primarily for his distinctive orange and cream Volkswagen van and by common consent, a bit grumpy.

As the 1960s progressed and Ernie melted away our favourite ice cream van was 'Tony's' who ran his business from a large blue van.

In his demeanour Tony was the opposite of Ernie.

Tony wasn't his real name, but Mario. Initially I don't know if it was his own business but given the flair and entrepreneurship of the Italian community in Edinburgh I suspect it probably was.

Mario had film star looks with dark hair and flashing brown eyes, a bit like Seve Ballesteros; however he was quite small in height. I only ever saw him from outside the van from where he looked down upon us below so I was never aware of this until years afterwards when Les Ramage told me.

I found Mario to be a lovely guy and an excellent salesman. He had that great gift, that when he served you, you felt you were his favourite customer. Many former residents recall how you wouldn't receive any change from him with chews being thrown in to the value instead!

His van always looked quite classy and clean. The ice cream was good. In addition to the ice cream I went through long phases of buying 'Topics' and also packets of 'Oddfellows.' I wouldn't thank you for the latter today - quite medicinal. For many years Tony's Ice Cream Van appeared at four o'clock opposite The Stair on the other side of the road. And then come the evening, the musical chimes could be heard at around seven o'clock, but now on The Stair's side where he parked outside 4 Oxgangs Avenue. This was perfect timing for a post tea, pudding with my mother enjoying either an oyster or a perhaps a 'black man' (chocolate wafer).

Eddie Arcari

Because he didn't visit Oxgangs Avenue I was unaware that Arcari's sold ice cream in Oxgangs; a pity as I loved their ice cream. Eddie Arcari operated his shop out of 99 Portobello High Street and the legend goes that this is where the the name of the famous '99' originated from to thereafter reach cult status throughout the United Kingdom.

So, for us the other regular ice cream van throughout the four seasons was Jola's, a most odd name. There was less of a relationship there; similar to Ernie it was more of a transaction. The ice cream was very average; however we enjoyed the 'Payne's Poppets.' I naturally thought there was only one Jola‘s ice cream van. However, on one occasion at Morningside Road I thought I was seeing double - gosh! two Jola vans at Miller Crescent were parked in a line taking stock on board; one served Oxgangs whilst the other must have served another local Edinburgh community.

The irregulars were 'Mr Bongo' who served up bongos. These were hard frozen balls of ice cream covered in chocolate on the end of a stick - at the time quite a novelty.

The other more interesting van was Mr Whippy who only seemed to ply his trade in the summer months. He always kept the van’s engine running. The combination of the smell of diesel; the distinctive ice cream; the big queues and the summer heat was a powerful mixture. The ice cream was good and it was magical to see the way it emerged from the tap and the expert way the vendor curled the ice cream on top of the cone.

Ice cream vans are a bit of a rarity nowadays particularly here in the Highlands where I live today. But occasionally, on a quiet summer's evening, drifting across from Strathpeffer to the hamlet of Jamestown carried on a zephyr breeze we hear the sound of musical chimes.

Back in around 2005 when visiting my mother at Stenhouse, Edinburgh I got a lovely surprise to see Mario driving along in an ice cream van. But this time the van had his own name on it - 'Mario's' so by then he was definitely self-employed? Although his hair was grey he looked as handsome as ever. My sons Atticus and d’Artagnan were both there and were thrilled because they'd been brought up hearing about the novelty of the Oxgangs ice cream vans from back in the day.

Postscript: Mario Angelucci (‘Tony’) died peacefully on 21, May, 2008 at St Columba’s Hospice, Edinburgh

Wednesday 2nd August 1972

With the pick-up being so important to his business Douglas had managed to get the van repaired yesterday so the two of us were back out on the usual run together. We had a good wee blether; Douglas is dead interesting especially about his great passion the railways. He’s dead knowledgeable. 

Gaga dropped by at lunchtime; it’s the butcher’s Wednesday half day so he gave Paul Forbes and me a lift down to Meadowbank. I tried out the hurdles which was quite good fun; there was a German girl down and I was speaking away with her; her English is better than mine! 

Back at Oxgangs I settled down in front of the telly; Sportsreel was on with Hibs beating Rangers 3-0 in the semi-final of the Drybrough Cup; possibly a bit of an upset but a great result for the Hibees.

Wednesday 4th August 1971

Last night's rain continued; in fact it was pouring down and stayed like that all day which put a wee bit of a dampener on today's proceedings. Iain and Anne went down to 6 Henderson Row to spend the day at Maggie and Andy's house. I meanwhile went up to Ewart's Newsagents at Oxgangs Broadway and bought a copy of a new publication called the Rangers News and also the Radio Times. The Gers are quite go-ahead with their own publication; with a big fan base I suppose they reckon it will pay off attracting a big readership. 

Part of the reason I bought the Radio Times was because there's a wee feature about the European Athletics Championships from Helsinki which starts soon; I really like watching the athletics on the box. I ended up staying in all day; in the evening we had a right laugh with Maggie 'n Andy.

We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

‘…We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo
How about you, you, you
You can come too, too, too
We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo…’

Photograph Werner Bischof

Back in the 1960s a large part of the capital’s population must have visited Edinburgh Zoo on at least one occasion.

We too went as a family on a few occasions and perhaps not by chance, the weather was sunny and hot so as it involved two busses from Oxgangs to Corstorphine and then back home again in the late afternoon it was always a long, tiring day out – thank goodness for the zoo's little bus-train that ferried us high up on to Corstorphine Hill allowing us work our way down, along and through the zoo.

There were the glasshouses with the terrifying snakes behind them which despite us tapping on the windows never batted an eye all the while probably eyeing us up as their dinner. 

Then there were the lions and tigers in their enclosures – if you had just the smallest amount of imagination, boy were they scary. 

Photograph Aileen Kirchin

And then if we were lucky we saw the seals being fed with flying fishes being launched in their direction; and of course there were the King Penguins or the chimpanzees' tea.

Photograph Rozalia Cull

We were never well off so we always brought a wee picnic with us but did enjoy a single treat of perhaps one of the Walls ice cream cones that came in a packet. 

Photograph David O'Brien

The shop was full of other serendipities but with no discretionary spend we could only look and wish.

Ken Hoffmann with Iain; Anne and Peter

Whilst those zoo visits were an interesting and rare interlude in our day to day lives as a family, rather poignantly and with a hint of regret now for far away and irretrievable days I’m unsure if I really enjoyed those occasions the way I should have as captured in the photograph - perhaps I'd just had a telling off!

Photograph John Greenwood

But Tom Paxton got it about right too; and come the late Edinburgh afternoon, for us it was a case of joining the extraordinarily long bus queue outside the zoo – hopping up and down I thought God will we ever get on that 26 bus, but we always did to thereafter get the number 4 bus at Haymarket to take us home to Oxgangs, most probably nodding off en-route.

‘…Well we stayed all day and I'm gettin' sleepy
Sittin' in the car gettin' sleep sleep sleepy
Home already gettin' sleep sleep sleepy
'Cause we have stayed all day…’ 
                                                                                                Tom Paxton

Summer Wine at Shandon Records

I wonder if any of the capital's older residents recall Shandon Records which back in the mid-1960s was located around Stewart Terrace.

Many decades ago it of course went to the great record shop graveyard in the sky.

It wasn't large, but was just a small dinky little shop selling mainly second hand records but it carried an interesting stock and represented great value for your money.

After we got our first little suitcase record player one summer, Mother and I took a few trips on the number 4 bus from Oxgangs down to Shandon to see what little gems we might pick up. I enjoyed those little summer interludes together finding it a rare interlude to bond with her.

Apart from Mother holding the purse strings she also had a much deeper knowledge of music than me. So, initially whilst I might not be happy with her choice from our limited budget, once back home to 6/2 Oxgangs Avenue I would realise we'd struck gold.

On one occasion she picked up 'Guantanamera' by The Sandpipers; I had my doubts but it was a beautiful track as was Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood's 'These Boots Were Made For Walking' with the B side the hauntingly dreamy 'Summer Wine.'

When I was able to buy records for myself with monies from my paper and milk runs around Morningside my first two purchases were Scott Mackenzie's 'San Francisco' and 'Good Vibrations' by The Beach Boys.

It's interesting how we associate days of summer with feel good records perhaps emblematic of being young, sometimes carefree, but in our primes.

When you're fourteen years old Mungo Jerry's 'In The Summertime' leaves an indelible mark; as did 'We're Going to Barbados' by Typically Tropical a few years later reminding me of it blasting out whilst Roger Jenkins and I were training down at the former Meadowbank Stadium for the Olympics; and then a few more years after that listening to perhaps the greatest pop record of all time, Van Morrison's, 'And The Healing Has Begun' - including the line '...I want you to put on your pretty summer dress...'

Summer wine. And Shandon Records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXMwEsfUBUo

Tuesday 3rd August 1971

Colinton Mains Park; photograph Alan Clark

After my cornflakes 'n milk I went down early to Colinton Mains Park to play tennis again; I'm pretty keen. The park's always got a good feel to it at this time of the year. There's a council employee in charge of the entrance building; rackets 'n balls and courts can be hired and there's always something going on. 

After a good dinner of chips a big group of us including Boo-Boo; Iain; Ali; Les and others went off for a wee adventure up to the Craigies (Craiglockhart Hills). It's braw up there with a great view over the city as well as over Oxgangs and the Pentlands to the south. 

We ventured on to the golf course on our travels and ended up being chased by a man on a tractor; what a flipping laugh we had and what a buzz - just what the school holidays should be all about! By the time we left for home back to Oxgangs the rain was on for the evening. 

Back at 6/2 we watched an entertaining feel good film called What A Crazy World starring Joe Brown all set in cockney London. Freddie and the Dreamers featured too. God he's got some energy; the man never stops - one of his nicknames is Frantic Freddie but you cannae help liking him. Now that I think about it he looks a wee bit like Buddy Holly. 

Tuesday 1st August 1972

The milk was a disaster as Dougie’s Austin Cambridge A60 pick-up broke down so all our customers had to do without. 

Photograph Pete White

It didn’t sound great on the way down to Murchies Dairy at Lochrin Place. That’s the second time Douglas has had problems with it which doesn’t feel fair given it’s brand new a 1971 model. 

We’re into August now and in a bit of a limbo-land but officially it’s still the school holidays. We (Paul Forbes and I) went down to Meadowbank and I’ve decided I’m going to take up the hurdles!

World Cup Willie

On Saturday 30 July 1966 at twenty to six in the early evening we were sitting in the living room at 6/2 Oxgangs Avenue having our tea.

I had turned ten years old four weeks earlier.

There was a knock on the letter-box.

I answered the door (we were regularly asked by my mother to 'Answer the front door' as if we also had a back door too!).

I looked up to see the tall figure of Andy Allan (4/7) standing on the door step.

'World Cup Willie' (Peter Roderick William Hoffmann)

I was momentarily surprised because it was the only time before or since that he ever came to our door.

Andy was three years older than me.

He handed me sixpence - a tanner - because five minutes earlier England had won the World Cup.

It was the first I'd heard of the news; I'd actually forgotten the game was even on or perhaps chosen not to watch, preferring to play football instead. Indeed, the appearance of Celtic and Rangers in two European finals a year later which I did watch made a much bigger impact on me. Andy had however watched the World Cup final.

Bobby Moore holds aloft the World Cup 1966

I'd made a bet with him; it was typical of Andy to pay up and so very quickly. 

Free with The Hornet - still got a copy!

Andy had a lot of class; he was no more than an average football player, but was a fantastic captain. I always hoped to be picked in his team rather than Merc's in the evening's big game up at The Field.

Monday 31st July 1972

It was just me out on the milk with Douglas so it was a slightly tougher shift - more like a job of work today. 

I think I’m back into the athletics groove again so Paul Forbes and I went down to Meadowbank late morning and did a wee bit training together by ourselves. At one o’clock we took the 44 bus down to Durham Road where Nana gave us a good dinner. 

I love the smell in Nana’s old greenhouse that comes from her growing her tomatoes; it’s a kind of musty smell but it takes me right back to being a wee boy. After relaxing in the back garden and looking in the greenhouse for a while we went back up to the stadium. We got back at a fairly early hour; Nana Gaga and Aunt Heather were here visiting us. After all of today’s exercise we went up to Rissi’s for some chips.

Monday 2nd August 1971

 My summer of tennis at Colinton Mains Park continued with a game first thing; it makes for a great start to the day. There no problem getting a court and I like the early coolness of an August morning. 

It was a full-on activity day because later in the morning Keith Robertson and I won the 2 a side tournament that a big bunch of us put on. 

After dinner I managed to get scratched by Simon the cat. 

The 2 a side tournament was such a big success that we held a massive one later in the day; it ran into the mid-evening; we called it the World Cup although ironically we were playing for the European Cup at least the Subuteo version! It went on for several hours and I worked up a hell of a sweat all combined with the rain that came down later; the draw was done out of a hat and I partnered John Duffy (6/8 Oxgangs). We emerged victorious for a hard earned victory. Afterwards it was no wonder I needed a bag of Rissi's finest - chips 'n juice to celebrate. 

It's quite late on now. I'm settling down to watch Monty Python.

Saturday 31st July 1971

The moon car was driven today - no road tax or a licence needed up there. 

Meanwhile back on planet Earth Iain and I took the number 16 bus from Oxgangs down to the bottom of Leith Walk where we bought our new Ben Sherman shirts; they're both brilliant. Iain's got a very cool long sleeved one whereas my one is a lighter yellow/ orange and is short sleeved; it hangs on me well. 

A year later Iain wearing his Ben Sherman

I did my papers up at the City Hospital; I was in no hurry; being a Saturday and a holiday I just took my time. I collected my pay, chatted with Pamela Baird and tootled around the shop before cycling up to the hospital. 

A wee Saturday evening in watching the telly. The football is back on with Sportsreel; earlier on we watched The Streets OF Laredo aka The Cowboy's Lament. 

With the moon landing on I've also been studying all about space which would surprise my teachers.