Saturday 14th August 1971

I was down at Baird’s Newsagents for 6.00am. It was a big day and a big responsibility selling a big range of Saturday newspapers as well as fags 'n sweets around the City Hospital. I covered all the wards and despite one or two wee challenges managed fine. I put my back into it taking a wee bit of pride in the job. 

And then it was back home to Oxgangs via the City Hospital woods for a good breakfast of cornflakes 'n milk. We've managed to get a new replacement lock for the shed. It seems a shame we've had to pay out for that; it's like rubbing salt into the wound. As Mum says I suppose we just have to be pragmatic and move on. 

Come three o’clock I was back down to Baird’s to do the afternoon slot around the hospital; I easily sold all my Evening News'. There's less pressure in the afternoon and you can stroll around spending a wee bit time with some of the patients. 

Anyway my pockets are now jingling as I've got eight quid, a man's wage! 

In the evening Gaga and Nana were out to see us. The football season has started so I watched ‘Sportsreel’; it was the League Cup; Celtic and Rangers are in the same section and Celtic won 2-0. Bobby Murdoch was back looking fit again and stroking the ball around the park. Celtic got a penalty and a young guy called Kenny Dalglish calmly tied his laces and then stroked the ball past big Peter McCloy! 

What A Lark!

Between the years 1968 and 1972 I very much enjoyed working at Baird’s Newsagent’s at Morningside Drive particularly so during the school summer holidays when it was light, warm and with no school you were in no hurry.

Most often the paper run was done alone but sometimes in July my sister Anne would chum me. During the run I would send her up to a house to deliver a newspaper but when she came back I'd vanished behind a tree or a wall, only to leap out and scare her. 

The 1960s was a decade of rapid change with a greater accessibility to fun, luxury goods compared to the austerity of the 1940s and 1950s. Allied to this was the refreshing pop movement of the 1960s with a change in attitudes embracing a youth culture in clothes, music and technology changing our lives for the better, even when we were on our paper runs. 

All the way from Hong Kong with the advent of technology we could now work to music! In the late 1960s there was an explosion of cheap mini radios that came on to the market. And for many of us of a certain age it was a must have purchase. 

So, instead of solitary contemplative walks I could now enjoy the dubious charms of ‘Tony Blackburn’ on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show as I traipsed up Morningside Drive

.

Lord Stott

On occasion I had to cover for an absentee and loved delivering the judge’s (Lord Stott) ‘Scotsman Newspaper’ to Midmar Gardens because I would nip around the garden to look at the goldfish in his garden pond.

Photograph Graeme Paterson

The morning’s adventure was sometimes finished off with a coconut bun from Martins the Bakers on the corner  of Morningside Drive before sitting on the wall outside the former Bank of Scotland bus stop at Comiston Place before taking the 16 bus back home to Oxgangs. How I enjoyed that last stretch along Oxgangs Avenue standing on the open platform trying to look cool by sticking my head out against the breeze. 

And as I walked the 60 yards back home to 6/2 more often than not some of the younger Blades children were already out the front playing, the start of another summer holiday day in Oxgangs.

Sunday 8th August 1971

Baird's Newsagents Morningside Drive

I was out early to do my papers but at a slightly more respectable hour. There's a different feel to Baird’s on a Sunday partly because it's Pamela Baird's day off but also because Sunday is Sunday, if that makes sense. 

The City Hospital with 'The Village in the Sky' in the background

I cycled up to the City Hospital with a pretty big bundle on the back of the bike. It's slightly trickier than doing the afternoon run when I'm only selling the Edinburgh Evening News’. This morning I've got the Sunday Post; Sunday Express; News of the World etc. so it's a bit more challenging. Also I've got my favourite patients so I always make sure they get a copy of the newspaper they're after; that said I'm sure some of the patients share and swap their papers. 

After I finish it's always a braw feeling and I casually cycle back through Firhill, Colinton Mains and back home to Oxgangs; the world is still coming to and I've already put in a shift. On the way I stopped off at Colinton Mains and picked up some Sunday rolls from Andretti's - a braw breakfast for the working laddie. 

We spent all morning cleaning out the back shed and we now have a great wee gangy. After dinner Boo-Boo; Iain and a few others all played in the shed. 

Paul; the author; Iain and Boo-Boo

It was great fun; we've got wee boxes for seats; candles for light; and a deck of cards for playing ‘Trumps’. Every now and again we hear someone out in the back alley and it goes all quiet while wee fight over the keyhole whilst trying to keep quiet and not laugh. Sometimes it's some of the mums going back 'n forward to the washing line; other times it's some of our pals. Often they don’t even realise we are in the shed and they scratch their heads at the sound. The only slight drawback with the gangy is the oxygen begins to run out; it gets a wee bit low and stale - just a slight drawback! If I'd only paid attention in Chemsitry 'n Biology at Burrie in first year I would have kent all about that! 

A T.V. evening including a very good comedy on called The Old Dark House - the critics might not like it but Retep thought it was good.