FANCY GAUN FOR A WALK? Ardrossan

[morag]

how sad, Leprikon...

[Milda]

Yes that was a sad story.

[Penny Tray]

Leprikon.

That was an extremely moving account of a traumatic experience. Sadly there are too many families in the three towns, including my own, that can relate either to the frightening experience of a 'close call' involving a young child or worse. Sadly my family's experience was the latter. The loss neither diminishes with time nor does the part of the town where it happened disappear, serving as a constant reminder of the tragedy, something you very vividly explained.

I think Morag and Milda have posted already and along with them many others will be moved by your very personal description of a sad day.

[morag]

Too true, P.T. I remember when a pupil, John Turkas(?), at St. John's was killed. I believe he was hit by a car just at the Caley corner. Never could look at that place without thinking of it.

[Meg]

Leprikon - what a sad story. Like PT, I remember a sad tale when a wee five year old was playing up (Whitlees) dam and slipped in. There were so many weeds at the side of the water that he got trapped under the water and drowned. I remember the lights erected late at night whilst they were searching for him. I might be misremembering his name, but I think it was Tommy Phillips.

Meg

[chriso]

Morag wrote

Too true, P.T. I remember when a pupil, John Turkas(?), at St. John's was killed. I believe he was hit by a car just at the Caley corner. Never could look at that place without thinking of it.

Morag

John Turkas was my wee cousin. I remember that day vividly. It was at the level crossing in Stevenston.
John went down to the shops next to the station for morning rolls, it was around 7 or 8 in the morning.
There was a train sitting in the station heading toward Saltcoats, when he came out of the shop and got on his bike.
The story I heard was that he must have thought that the gates were shut to traffic because of the train sitting in the station. He came out of the side street and was hit by a smt western bus which was heading for Ardeer factory
I was going to the BB camp at Aberdeen that morning and we were going to the station to get a train.
The bike was still lying on the road. I had a suspicion that it was Johns bike, but as no one had heard who it was at that time. I chose to believe that it couldn't be his bike.
It turned out that the BB oficers knew, but after talking to my parents they thought it best to keep it from me and let me go to the camp.

A few days later I spoke to one of the boys at the camp telling him that I had a feeling it was my cousin and he told me that it was and that they had all been warned not to say anything.

Chriso

[morag]

Tragic, Chriso. All the students at St. John's were in shock when we heard. It was beyond belief to us that a young person could be gone, just like that.

[morag]

Sorry, P.T., we've sabotaged your wee stroll there, back to it laddie!

[Penny Tray]

Morag,

Sometimes these wee diversions are theratpeutic and do folk the world of good. I'll come back in just shortly.

[Penny Tray]

The next recollection I have is the "Top Marronis". I can see both Mr. and Mrs. Marroni as if it was yesterday. Over the years the Palazzo has tended to to grab the headlines and deservedly so but Mr. Marroni made a mean fish supper himself. And to his great credit he stayed open at least an hour after the Palazzo and certainly never closed until after the last AA had passed around midnight. As a regular traveller on that bus I eagerly anticipated getting off at the top of Glasgow Street, getting a generous proportion of both fish and ships which would otherwise have gone to waste and savouring them along Eglinton Road and as far up the Dalry Road as they would last. People often ask you what your favourite food is and I could throw in a number of suggestions but nothing has ever matched the experience of thinking I had finished my Marroni's fish supper and then finding a last chip between the cardboard container and the newspaper wrapping. It always happed (or that's my rose tinted recollection). Maybe Mr. marroni planked it there. And how was it that particular chip tasted better than all the others?

I think the shop has been converted into a house now. I wonder how many folk over the years have stood in what is now the folk's livingroom?

[Hughie]

Spot on again PT. Mr Marroni's fish suppers were to die for. Loved that shop, it was so very unque and probably started out as someones living room. I can still picture Mr Marroni behind that high counter chatting away to all the customers. Somehow in retrospect he reminds me of our Wullie's faither though no as tall or thin. His daughter wrote to me a few years ago - there was a boy too, both a little younger than me.

[Penny Tray]

HUGHIE,

I suspect there were two sons but I definitely remember one and a daughter. I think all would be a few years younger than you (with the greatest respect). Something runs in my mind that the oldest son left Ardrossan to train as a priest but that might not be accurate and I don't know if it ever came to be. The children are vague in my memory but as I said earlier I can see Mr. and Mrs. Marroni as if it was yesterday. I think the family lived round in Anderson Terrace, somewhere around the footbridge that took you over to Barrie Terrace.