Autobiography
As I lived in the top flat at 64 North Court Street and had only around 200 yards to go to Clepington school my daily journey to Morgan was something of a shock as it was at least half a mile each way! Nevertheless, I overcame my reluctance to participate in long distance walking and spent five very happy years at Morgan.
I decided that I wanted to be a primary teacher and went to Dundee T. C. to train and spent my summers at Lindsay’s in Long Wynd printing other people’s holiday snaps. If I ever see the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge again I will scream! During my time there I met Bill, my future husband. Initially, my interest in him was purely educational, he had been at Harris Academy and needed civilizing.
On leaving T. C. I started work at Clepington School, becoming a colleague of my own old teachers, a strange experience but it was good to be once again living only 200 yards from my work. However, all this was about to change. On Boxing Day 1959 I married Bill and because he was working at Dounreay, moved to Caithness. At that time accommodation was difficult so we spent the first six months of our married life in a single room in a village five miles outside Thurso.
I started teaching in a small country school about six miles away and continued to teach 28 children with an age range of five to twelve for another three years before obtaining a transfer to a new school in Thurso only a hundred yards from our house! We continued to have a busy and happy life in Thurso until 1966 when Bill transferred to Harwell in Berkshire. I resumed my career as an infants teacher in Didcot until I left in 1969 when I was expecting our son, Alistair.
Shortly after Alistair was born Bill changed jobs and was working in London. This meant another move, this time to LeightonBuzzard where we remained for about three years, Bill commuting daily to London and me being a stay-at-home housewife. A promotion meant that Bill had to work from the Manchester office and we moved to Congleton. My parents gave up their house in Dundee and moved in with us and I started a new career as a supply teacher. In the three years I undertook this work I worked in the infant departments of over twenty schools and learned a great deal!
Another promotion meant that Bill had to return to Scotland and we bought a house in Cumbernauld. This was to be a temporary measure but Alistair settled well in his new school and I had agreed to work in the local special needs school for a week - and stayed for fourteen years before returning to first stages teaching.
In 1987 we moved to Falkirk, a town that we had always liked and since retiring, Bill in 1992 and me in 1997, we have been leading a busy and enjoyable life, enhanced over the last eight years by the arrival of our two grandsons. Apart from being a granny I am involved in reading for the local talking newspaper, an art class, a Scrabble club and various church activities. I have greatly enjoyed the reunions and having the opportunity to see that I am not the only one who has grown old gracefully. I am already saving up for the next one!
Falkirk, November, 2010
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