‘Mr Bain turned a bit of pine into a sailing boat’
MY SCHOOL:
I went to Holmlea Primary in Cathcart – and spotted my picture in the class photo Margaret Nicol shared on these pages a few weeks ago. We all walked to school – there was a traffic policeman who got us all safely across the junction, underneath Cathcart Railway Bridge. I remember arriving late on Monday mornings because I had a clinic appointment in Florence Street, the Gorbals, where I sat in a circle with other pasty-faced youngsters receiving light treatment from a rotating UV lamp to treat chronic bronchitis. The school walls were tiled, and it seemed a grand place to be. But I felt comfortable in it, in spite of being a bit quiet and anxious.
FAVOURITE TEACHER:
Miss Thomson, who taught from P1 to P3 realised that I was bright, but not confident, and gave me a lot of encouragement. In P6 and P7 we had classes with a venerable old gentleman called Roy Bain, a retired seafarer. He asked us to bring in a rectangular piece of white or yellow pine – I begged a bit from a joinery company on my route home from school – and he turned them into beautifully made sailing boats, with a painted hull, a wooden dowel for a mast, and a varnished wooden deck. Mr Bain’s daughter had sewn cotton sails, and made rigging from thread. I remember a class expedition to Tollcross
Park to sail our wee flotilla one Saturday. The boat is a treasured possession still, occasionally taken out and sailed with my grandchildren.
SCHOOL DINNERS, PACKED LUNCH OR HOME?
I had school dinners for a time – overcooked cabbage and sponge cake and custard.
FAVOURITE SUBJECT:
I went to Queen’s Park Secondary School in 1963. My favourite teacher was the head of geography and modern studies, Patrick McPhail, a big, gentle man, who made my favourite subject, geography real and interesting.
LEAST FAVOURITE SUBJECT:
I was never academic, and I struggled with Latin. I finally got an O Level, thanks to Miss Muir. I did not enjoy history. It was an exercise in remembering dates, mostly for reasons that I failed to grasp.
BEST FRIEND AT SCHOOL:
Jim McLean (alias Toothy, or just Big Jim) was my best friend at school, and a loyal and dependable friend
through adolescence. We still exchange Christmas cards.
IF I COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT MY SCHOOLDAYS…
I would pay more attention to detail. As Rod Stewart sang, ‘I wish I knew then, what I know now, when I was younger…’
If you would like to share your Glasgow schoolday memories, answer the questions above and email with a school photo and a recent picture of yourself to ann. fotheringham@glasgowtimes.co.uk