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The pictures are lovely Bob,there is many a wee boy would have given his eye teeth for those lovely walks and adventures.

In her reminisces Maggie T mentions MacNamara's in Factory Place. Tommy MacNamara was my great grandfather and he had a horse and cart from which he sold fruit. My father would tell us children that in order to show the quality of his wares, he would take a knife and rip open two oranges, hold them above his head, squeeze them and let the juice run down his arms. His battle cry was that he had to sell all his fruit as he had all the way back to Kirkintilloch to go to get home. Why Kirkintilloch, we don't know, but we do know that everyone knew he lived in Canal Street.

Great Grandfather was fond of a drink and would often sell the horse and cart to fund his "hobby". After one such occasion, he bought a circus horse and was making his way along Manse Street, towards Ardrossan, with a full load of fruit when the Salvation Army band appeared. As soon as he heard the music, the horse got on his hind legs and started to "dance" whereupon the cart couped and there were oranges all over the road but not for long: weans and wifies appeared as if from nowhere to gather them up.

When I was about 13/14, as part of a church group, I visited an old lady, Mrs Badger, who lived in Manse Street. She asked who I was and when I told her, she told me the self same story and how she had got some of the oranges. So now I had heard it from two sources, so it must have been true.

Great stories - makes me homesick for the Ardrossan I grew up in - I know I am only in Ayr, but even the AA bus couldn't take me back to that Ardrossan. Here are some of the things I remember :

Getting into a tattie field when the howkers had finished and getting a plastic shopping bag full of Ayrshires
The taste of Maroni's chips on the way home after a long sunny day at the shore
The A1 bus conductresses with a line of old pennies that they clicked together to let you know they were coming for your bus fare
Saturday afternoon matinee at the Lyric
The smell of frying onions coming from Eugene's in Princes Street
A Howie's roll filled with Lothian's sausage fried crisp for Saturday lunch
The queue in the butchers on a Saturday
The men who stood at the corner of Glasgow Street and Princes Street sorting out the world's troubles
The Shell hooter at half past four
Getting bathed in the deep sink
Buying lucky bags for 3d - with toys that didn't work and sweeties that were old and soft
Lucky tatties with their plastic toys in the middle
Sweetie cigarettes and licorice pipes
Chalmers in the Melbourne playing his "old" songs on the jukebox
The red stretchy swimsuit that was handed down and on so often no one can remember who got it new
The foghorn going off at night when I was snug in bed
Sitting at the side of the road writing down car number plates
The wonderful smell of Robertsons the butcher hen he was making his own black pudding

Just realised that most of these are about food - suppose you know where my priorities lie then

Meg

When my wee sister was born and we'd take her out in the pram, strangers would coo and fuss over her and give us a coin, usually a half crown, maybe a shilling, seemed a silver coin was the order of the day, for good luck. Does anyone know why? My older sister an I were surprisedbut my mum seemed to think it normal (yes, we did turn the money in, good wee lassies that we were!).

Morag it was a tradition in Scotland that
if you peeped into a new born pram
you gave the baby a silver coin for
goodluck I even used to do it here in Oz

Babies were presented with coins to see if they were a "grippie", who would hold on to money all their life, or if they would grow up letting cash trickle through their fingers.

(Think I must have been the latter )

Just a supplement with more things that have come to mind.

Sailing one of my 2 model yachts in the Saltcoats Boating Pond. Each of Dad's 2 brothers made me one.
Camping around the shoreline of both Arran & the Mull of Kintyre.
Visiting Uncle Robert & Aunt Isabel who lived & worked at Seafield School until emigrating to Canada in 1966.
Art lessons in Mrs. Skellie's class at Eglinton. One of the girls posed in front of the class as a subject. There was a student teacher present at the time who thought my effort very artistic & took it to show her tutor back at the Teacher Training College (which I think was in Glasgow).
Riding a double decker bus where my favourite seat was right up front on the upper deck. When I did that again when back on a visit in 1974 I realised I'd forgotten how it shook & rattled on the upper deck. We don't have double deckers in New Zealand in regular use.

Bob

Ahhhh, the memories

A pickled onion for a penny from wee Ida at the fish and chip round the corner from the bus stop on Glasgow Street as we headed to Sunday school at St Johns Church.

Looking down through a green screen at a Saltcoats shoe-shop where our feet were being x-rayed before we got our new shoes.

Climbing onto the top of the lion at the old station across from St John’s church.

The bike shop in Princes Street.

Strapping last years Beano onto a roller skate for heading down the brae at Alloway Place.

Being amazed at seeing roller skates with HUGE wheels instead of the usual wee ones.

Getting a tortoise every year and every year it either starved itself to death or wandered off.

Winning a goldfish at the fair in Saltcoats and taking it home in the wee polythene bag.

Getting a tipped single cigarette which always seemed to be from a 5-pack of Park Drive.

Candy threaded tobacco.

Woolworths plastic sandals. Usually I always got bought the brown ones!

Whoppas from the ice -scream van. Great wee bits of dark brown fudge.

Walking up and getting my weekly fishing permit at the Filter House close to Mill Farm and wishing I could get a ‘season’!

The smell of dung from the fields behind Clyde Terrace.

Big Mary McNae who scared all of us when she worked at the Countess cinema.

My gran's curds. The best dessert when I was a kid and a lot better than sago. Not forgetting her potted hoch which was my second favourite

C.

Oh Can Factory - I had forgotten about Mary McNae - she was scary!!!! Funny how a lot of your memories were about food too

Meg
ps - I remember the year you got the roller skates with the huge wheels - you beat me at every race - unfair advantage with those things !

LOL Meg, but you could always run faster than any of us!

Other things that came into my head this morning were ciggies. I can remember the white and blue packets of Extra and the white and red packs of No. 10! I never once stole a cig from my brother's own supply. It was a lot more than once but I don't think he ever noticed

Do you remember when you, Tommy C and I got clyped on? We had a wee fly puff as we walked our usual way to school (down Dalry Road to the bridge, over the fence and down past Parkhouse Dam) and the next thing we were in front of Mr McFarlane? Didn't he announce our names at morning assembly? We mistakenly thought we'd got caught carrying the wee Collins Gem dictionaries instead of the compulsory hymn books

C.

Arran coast boat then thumbing lifts in Arran to the Hostels where we I went on my first grown up holiday with my friend, Having a fry up when we arrived, enjoying the scenery,climbing the hills, going to barn dances with the locals on Arran having great great fun.

Enjoying the local dances and the ones at Ayr and Troon, train to Ice skating in Ayr on Saturdays,Eating ice cream, visiting my Great Granny also my 2 other grannys,of and on the buses with sisters,Saltcoats picture house,stevenston picture house.

Eating square sausage and rolls,black pudding, fried fruit pudding, boiled sweets,Whites fair ground where my granny from Kilwinning always win teasets, roll a penny where I never could win,rollercoaster. walking on Stevenston shore,having a swim with my Dad when he taught me to swim.

Doctor Carmichael kindness when we were ill as children, I could go on and on with all the happy times growing up in Stevenston that I remember, oh my Mothers great cooking.

arrangazer (Isobel)

Stevenstone shore, in paddling/swimming and standing on a flounder and getting the fright of your life, gathering wulks for a boil up ( plenty of vinegar). The kiosk with its shop and rooms where you could shelter when it was wet. Half the wall was glass, it wouldnt last nowadays. An old styled drinking well outside it, across the road was the first aid hut. The putting green with the wee hut where you hired the club and behind that the site of Whites fair, getting off with the owners daughter and getting harassed by the family. When the council , in their wisdom built a paddling pool at the shore. The swings, and in particular the Yankee swing it was dangerous.