Until we began working at the petrol pumps at Munro’s National Garage Oxgangs Road North our familiarity with the garage was playing in the line of wrecked cars at the rear end. It was a bit of a junk-yard and I suspect they were used as handy on-site spares for repairs.
From a disused and overgrown patch of ground to the side of the Store (St Cuthbert's Cooperative) we used to climb up and then clamber over a ten foot high wall; whereas on the garage side the wall was only three feet high or indeed low in contrast to the drop on the other side.
Quiet as mice we daredevils would open the doors of the old cars and play inside on the drivers’ seats kidding on we were racing one another as we wrenched the steering wheels wildly from side to side with big smiles on our faces. From the sun beating down on the old leather seats there was a distinctive smell inside those old cars
Eventually we would be spotted usually by one of the young mechanics; Derrick Nicol was the scariest and it was quite thrilling having to run away. The only real escape route for us was to throw ourselves over the three foot wall with the ten foot drop. No one would chase us that way; I guess it was rather like Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid - would you jump off from there? And of course all the staff wished to do was to scare the kids off until another day.
Graeme Robb (Oxgangs Park) tells a nice story about how one day he arrived at the garage in tears because his bicycle had picked up a puncture in Colinton Dell. The owner, Mr Munro, a large bluff chap kindly instructed one of the mechanics to repair it for Graeme; from watching the mechanics in action he thereafter knew how to repair future punctures for himself.
Quiet as mice we daredevils would open the doors of the old cars and play inside on the drivers’ seats kidding on we were racing one another as we wrenched the steering wheels wildly from side to side with big smiles on our faces. From the sun beating down on the old leather seats there was a distinctive smell inside those old cars
Eventually we would be spotted usually by one of the young mechanics; Derrick Nicol was the scariest and it was quite thrilling having to run away. The only real escape route for us was to throw ourselves over the three foot wall with the ten foot drop. No one would chase us that way; I guess it was rather like Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid - would you jump off from there? And of course all the staff wished to do was to scare the kids off until another day.
Graeme Robb (Oxgangs Park) tells a nice story about how one day he arrived at the garage in tears because his bicycle had picked up a puncture in Colinton Dell. The owner, Mr Munro, a large bluff chap kindly instructed one of the mechanics to repair it for Graeme; from watching the mechanics in action he thereafter knew how to repair future punctures for himself.
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