On the 4th of September 1939...... my older sister and I were put on a train by our Mum it was filled with soldiers ........I was 7yrs old Bette was 13yrs old........we were being evacuated, by luck we were to stay with our Aunt.......so many had to go to strangers........ I remember only feeling scared with all these soldiers......but they were nice to us and we arrived at Galashiels yes Blod that is when I found the Borders and have loved it to this day.....my Aunt ( father's sister ) looked us over as thought we were juat children....I understand now why she seemed so distant....she had no children and no idea what to do with us....When we arrived at her home, is was a mansion to us with a name too St. Cyrus..... a large Dalmation named Niblick was bounding all around........ we did get settled and found our life different..... to teach us to lose our Edinburgh accents we were made to learn poetry and recite it in the evenings....it had to be correct.........I was tomboy then and loved to climb fences and tress with the other children in that row of 12 houses. on the Melrose Road.....My sister was 13/14 and so much more maleable, time passed we went home for christmas and found our old chums thought we were too smart........I suppose that could have happened to children sent to live with even relatives who were in a higher bracket........ all I reallly remember was the countryside and the fun all different I did not know it when I went back....but I still have the memories of watching lambing and seeing the tiny lambs frolic in the snow. we went to school and did lessons like all kids do ....my Aunt took sick in 1941 and we had to come home we had moved to the outskirts of edinburgh away from all things thought worth bombing.
One Sunday morning about 2 weeks after we had arrived home, Mum woke up frm the noise of a bang, she looked out our back window and saw black specks in the sky. She and Dad told my sister now 15 vto look after me now 9. and they went back to where we used to live.......Sounds funny now but whisky was really flowing in the gutters, a land mine had hit the Distillary just round the corner from our old house........Dad used to tell stories of the old men with bottles trying to catch this precious whiskey before ir went down the drain. Sadly the Aunt who had made such an effort to be a syurrogate Mother to her Brothers children, died in early 1942.
at that time no one said what was wrong now I believe she had cancer and then the cures were rare. That streeT which was where I was born in that house,id now a park.
which is why I say Edinburgh is no longer my town.
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
First 