a personal scrapblog

No.7

What does this remind you of?

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I've already shown this photo elsewhere in the scrapblog. It's where we lived in Regent Square. The terrace, along with many other properties in that part of Lenzie, was based on designs by the architect Alexander "Greek" Thomson (1817-1875). A photograph of part of the terrace was used by the Scottish Field in an article about Thomson by the broadcaster and writer Maurice Lindsay.

When we first took occupancy there, we didn't have a good start with one of our neighbours. It was Jean who met the husband, a retired Army major and Conservative Party agent who complained that my piano-playing was upsetting his wife. (No funny remarks, please.) In fact they turned out to be quite nice folk and our family continued with the music - piano, organ, guitars, recorders, viola, clarinet and bassoon!!!

Our neighbour on the other side was Thelma Barlow the actress who played Mavis Riley in the TV soap “Coronation Street.” She was very pleasant and on one occasion when Jean locked herself out Mavis came to the rescue by supplying a ladder and a friend to climb in an upstairs window.

When we moved in 1983, the new occupants to our house were the Breslin family. At that time the mother was a local librarian but much later she became known as the award-winning author of teenage and children's fiction Theresa Breslin.

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Jean and I were married in 1954. Our first house was a 3-apartment in Loch Road, Kirkintilloch. Ten minutes walk in the direction of Lenzie led to Woodilee Hospital, better known locally as “the asylum”.

We found that quite a few of our friends from outwith the district had reservations about living so near such an institution. Of course I had always been used to seeing patients out walking and knew that the more serious cases were kept locked up.

One of the patients I knew quite well. Peter King was a very good dulcimer player and appeared regularly as a solo artiste at local entertainments. The dulcimer is a stringed instrument belonging to the zither family. The strings are struck with two handheld hammers.

Peter kept a little notebook in which he recorded every tune he could play plus every one of his engagements since the 1920s. His big moment of fame came when he performed on a early STV show hosted by Bill Tennant. It was said that Peter could have been discharged from the hospital any time, but his family wouldn’t agree to “sign him out”.

Some of the patients just appeared to be eccentric. There was one man who seemed to be very wealthy for he possessed an astonishing range of expensive suits; sometimes he appeared in full highland dress, sometimes in cowboy attire. I remember that he used to visit the small shop near us and buy a large number of loaves to feed the birds, (though I may be getting him confused with another patient.)

Built in 1875 the Woodilee grew to be a very big place (in 1930 it had 1250 beds) with its own successful farm. When the hospital staff held their annual dance in the ballroom, there was always a tremendous rush by the general public to obtain tickets. I often played at functions there, and for a couple of years provided the music for the staff’s pantomime in the Town Hall.

As time went on there were big changes in mental health with more and more patients able to live in the community. So the Woodilee gradually treated fewer people until it finally closed in 2001.

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The “Total TV Guide” magazine publishes letters from viewers, and the following, which appeared in the 14th-20th March issue in 2009, was the Prize Letter of the week -

“Being a dog, I don’t watch much TV. However, I loved Five’s Mr and Mrs Wolf. I’m a basenji, a breed dating back to 3,000 BC, and I really respect my wolf ancestors. I also admire Shaun and Helen for their courage in getting up close and personal with those wonderful beasts. I’m not able to bark, but I was able to howl along with them. I hope we get an update soon.”

The sender was Kindu Kodi Sonovason (plain Cody to the rest of the pack) of Macduff in Aberdeenshire, and the Editor had added “Cody’s owner Lesley Farrell has asked for the £50 prize to go to Bark (sic) a charity that re-homes dogs.”

Yes, that was Lesley our youngest daughter who was a great lover of horses and dogs, and especially basenjis.

Cody always claimed a comfy chair

I suspect that Lesley wrote the following -

CODY’S MANTRA

If I like it, it’s mine.

If it’s in my mouth it’s mine.

If I played with it EVER, it’s mine.

If I can take it from you, it’s mine.

If it’s mine, it can never be yours.

Even if it looks like yours, it’s mine.

If you’ve had it, put it down, it’s mine.

If I chew it, all the bits are mine.

If it was yours, get over it

Because once it’s broken, IT’S YOURS!

After Lesley's death, Cody was re-homed by the charity mentioned above. BARRK is the Banff and Aberdeenshire Rescue and Rehoming Kennels organisation barrk.co.uk

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I expect everyone recognised the silhouette of Mickey Mouse's head.

He was created by the Walt Disney studio in 1928 as a replacement for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The original choice of name for the character was Mortimer Mouse, but Walt's wife persuaded him to change it to Mickey Mouse. One piece of information astonished me - 45,000 drawings were involved in producing a six and a half minute cartoon!!!

A good many years ago, United Artists proudly announced to America that nationwide there would be a special school holiday to celebrate Mickey Mouse's birthday.