| Memories (Continued) | |
| There was much to interest a growing boy as our diversions had their seasons. Sometimes it was the bogie season and we all produced a wooden box mounted on pram wheels, - or the kite season, or the time for girs and cleeks. Another favourite pastime was catching minnows down at the "Baggy Burn" near the pit pumphouse (see Picture8). Harvest time brought a convoy of tractors through the village hauling trailers loaded high with hay. We used to chase these, jump on the back, and get a hurl down to the end of the village. | |
| I used to love the shops in the village, of which there were several. Mair's shop was at the top end of Haugh Place and they sold "Vantas" - a sort of fizzy drink. McPhee's, half way down Haugh Place, was a newsagent and perhaps my favourite. Comics and lucky bags were purchased with alarming frequency. There was also a shop I visited called Dempsey's, down at the bottom end of the village in Douglas Place, I think. | |
| The main shop in the village was, of course, the cooperative, and many hours I spent there after posting our store book and waiting for our name to be called. Purchases were made using checks instead of money. A round black check had a value of a penny, a rectangular red one was five shillings and a oval turquoise coloured one was ten shillings. When paying for goods, you gave your store number (ours was 258) so that you would earn a dividend. I remember a plain loaf cost 4d and a 2lb pot of jam was 10d. I was fascinated by the system of sending the checks up to the office in the centre of the store. They were dispatched in a little cup which was fired along a wire up to the office. Shortly afterwards the little cup came whizzing back with your change. Every department in the store was connected to the office by the system of wires. Names of the staff come back to mind, Andrew Sloan, John Anderson, Danny Naylor, Lizzie Finlay, Muriel Walker, John Robinson and the manager's name was Wilson. Having to feed four men, meant many visits to the store and the picture shows my grandmother and Uncle Jimmy sitting at a table which was always set for a meal to accommodate the various shifts of the workers in the family. |  |
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