Placing the pegs

“The letters about tattie picking have brought back many memories to me,” emails Janice Shepherd of Blairgowrie. “At a young age I was put on half a bit. The bits were measured by the gaffer stepping them out and placing a peg (a bit of branch) in the ground. Eventually, I went on to a whole bit.

“There were two types of diggers – the elevator and the spinner. There were cries of dismay when the elevator broke down and the spinner was brought in as it was much harder to pick from the spinner. One digger driver always went very fast and we were always thinking up ways to slow him down.

“The money we got was put to buying our school clothes, but we usually got one treat for ourselves. One year I got a watch and I still have it yet 65 years later but, like the digger driver, it does go a bit fast.”