1970s and 1980s
Memories - 1970s
Whilst living in Barnhill, we used to meet up with my sisters and their families as we all lived in Dundee at that time. This photo shows myself with Merle and my niece, Jacqueline (Thelma's daughter) on a day trip to Aberdeen. We also went to Edinburgh Zoo, St Andrews in Fife and, when Thelma moved to Scone in Perthshire, arround that area too. These trips were great fun!
In Barnhill, there were raspberry fields behind the house and Sam was told to pick what he wanted as they were moving to another field. We lived on raspberry jam and raspberries and ice-cream for a long time and there was some in the freezer for Christmas.
One morning, I looked out of the kitchen window to see a horse in the garden trampling over Sam's new lawn which had only been sown two weeks before! I knew that it belonged in the field accross the road, so I went out armed with a carrot in one hand and a slice of bread in the other still wearing my dressing gown and slippers. I got him out of the garden on to the road, but no way did he fancy going back into the field! My slippers now being filthy, I went back indoors and phoned the farmer who came and got the horse who was munching grass on a verge just down the road.
We had lots of visitors whilst at Barnhill. One regular one was my cousin, George Prain. He came to visit one day armed with a cine camera. He took footage in the afternoon and then in the evening, we had a film show. He had taken some of Merle going down a hill, but when he showed it, she was running up the hill backwards! There was some of me running bakcwards out of the garden into the sun lounge. It really was very funny! He used to take Merle on the train to Monifeith (one stop) to the beach too.
Memories - 1980s
By this time, Merle was awya at school in Edinburgh (she went in 1978) and only came home weekends and holidays. For this reason, she did not have friends locally, but had lots at school, many of whom came to stay. There were her second cousins Maureen and Sheila Hood who lived at the other side of Dundee but they spent a lot of time together. There was also Diane Pender from Hawick, Katherine McRitchie from Fife, Wendy Armstrong from Fife and Mary Anderson from Edinburgh. Later there was Lesley Wood from West Calder, Gwenyth Thomson from Newton Stewart (both are still in touch regularly with Merle) and Lyn McLean from Banff. Merle's second cousin Dougie Robertson has remained a good friend - he now lives in Inverness. He used to come to Barnhill often, sometimes with their friend Iain Strachan who now lives in Glasgow.
One time, Gwenyth and her Mum and Dad (shown with us in the photo above) came to visit us in Dundee. George's cine footage was unearhed once more and we showed it going backwards again. Well, Gwenyth's Mum - Jessie - who is well-known for her contageous laugh, was rolling around the floor clutching her stomach! This set us all laughing hard. The next morning, we were all having breakfast in the sun lounge. Gwenyth's Dad - Benny - is a bit of a joker, so I thought I'd play a trick on him. I had two plastic fried eggs which I put on his toast and served up to him. We were all holding back smiles as he tried to cut the toast - got him for a change! After breakfast, Benny cleared up the crumbs onto a place mat and went to throw them out of the window; but the window wasn't open so all the crumbs bounced off it and went over his head and down his shirt.
When we moved to Hurlford (near Kilmarnock) we had a housewarming party. Everyone we invited came except Jessie and Benny. Then the doorbell rang; there was a couple there announcing themselves as Mr and Mrs Thorn. You should have seen them! They were dressed like buskers. He was wearing a pin-striped suit and a tile hat. She was dressed in a black coat and fox fur. We did let them in and things soon livened up. As youi'll have guessed, they were Jessie and Benny!
My Mother and her sister Annie often came to visit too. Mother is shown in this photo with myself and Marlene. I remember one lovely sunny Summer's day we were all sitting in the garden on deck chairs when Annie's collapsed and she landed in the flower bed! Luckily, she saw the funny side.
My sister Marlene sometimes turned up unexpectedly and we'd have a wee run in the car. She had one of these Morris Travellers with the wood trim. We would go over to Tayport in Fife maybe on a Summer's evening. It was lovely. One time, they were having a car boot sale at the Fire Station beside our house and Marlene - who often sold stuff at car boot sales - bought more than everyone else put together!
In 1985, Merle left school and went off to Strathclyde University to study English Literature, so we didn't see so much of her then. She still brought friends home though: there was Tricia from Edinburgh, Tamsin from Dorset and Kathy from London. Kathy now lives in Edinburgh with her partner, Mark and we see them regularly.
Sam and I both took early retirement in 1988. The next year was spent house-hunting in Ayrshire. We had been to various bits of Ayrshire when Merle was boarding with her friend Gwenyth in Ayr in 1987 and liked the area. So once we retired, we decided to move down there to be nearer Merle who, by this time was studying in Edinburgh but had met Robert who lived in Coylton near Ayr.