Keep on running

“The recent correspondence regarding the bus service No 2 in Dundee brought back memories,” writes Stan Barrie. “When I was a young boy in the 1930s and early 1940s, being brought up in Church Street, the street was our playground with games like kingball, relief-o, pinner, catty and batty, amongst others.

“Motor cars were few and far between, but the No 2 bus came down Church Street on its way back to Shore Terrace. While playing, we always listened for the bus engine revving as it left the stop in Mains Street, then our street playground would clear like

magic to let the bus pass before we could continue with our games.

“Those street games have all now disappeared with the increase in traffic and I feel sorry for today’s children who will never know the joy of playing kick the can or relief-o.

“Later, as a teenager and serving my time as an apprentice painter, I would sometimes walk to our base, a shop at the far end of the Nethergate. If I was a little late, and I heard the No 2 bus about to turn into Church Street, I would sprint to catch it at the foot of the street.

“If I missed it, I would keep on running, down Carnegie Street and Forebank Road to a handy bus stop on Victoria Road. Here, I could wait for the No 2 to emerge from William Street and pay my three ha’penny fare to Reform Street and still be on time for my eight o’clock start.

“Back then, I thought nothing of running down those streets with my lunchtime piece in a haversack. Now I can’t run the length of myself without gasping for air.”

To have and to hold

A reader has been in touch to say that one of the benefits of the current restrictions is the number of photographs she has been sent by family and friends. “These days, when so many pictures are confined to social media, it’s lovely to have pictures to put up on the mantelpiece,” she says.