Look after the pennies and £40k will look after itself

The charity of pupils and staff at a primary school casts Fiona’s mind back to a time when a penny would buy a big bag of sweets...

As they say, look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves. And that is certainly true for a little school I visited this week. For 60 years, youngsters at Lochmaben Primary have been putting money into a box. Each week, a penny has been given by every pupil and member of staff. More, if they could afford it.

This simple scheme was started in the summer of 1959 by the then headmaster.

The charity they were raising money for was Save the Children. Which, interestingly, started 100 years ago.

Yet in those days, the penny slot was a big one. It had to be because the older among us will remember what this particular coin looked like.

This old-fashioned piece of legal tender was huge – and back then, would have bought a sizeable bag of sweets.

It may seem trifling. But for a child of the 50s, a penny was a fortune.

Today it might not even buy you one single sherbet lemon. And it certainly wouldn’t get you into a public loo.

Anyhow, to mark six decades of collecting, the pupils held a concert. They recited poetry and sang songs from far-off lands.

And they had reason to celebrate. In the first year that the scheme was run the school collected £67.

Sixty years on and these youngsters have raised a staggering £40,000 for the charity.

And still, they are filling that penny box. To send money to help other children around the world.

Save the Children reckons they are its most loyal school supporter. If anyone knows any different, please get in touch to tell us about it.

Back at home, meanwhile, the chief is doing a bit of saving of his own.

The log burner is lit – and they are needed because the nights are drawing in, the chill is in the air, and the MacGregor does not like to put the central heating on early.

Yes, for many years, it has been an unwritten rule that the boiler at Armstrong MacGregor Towers can only burst into life when November arrives.

And if it is a mild November, that can always serve as an excuse to defer the switch-on for another few weeks.

After all, heaven forbid, we cannot feel too comfortable, or we might be in danger of getting soft.

So, the fire blazes away in the hall.

For many years, it has been an unwritten rule that the boiler can only burst into life when November arrives

And we try to get near. But it is difficult as the MacNaughties take up their rightful position close to the flames.

They snuggle on the mat, sigh, and doze off. It is as if they know that the time to hibernate is fast approaching.

We, meanwhile, put on extra jerseys and get on with it.

I suppose it is good discipline. As you, too, might have done, I grew up in a house with no central heating at all. And it did not do me any harm.

So, there we are. Waste not, want not. Look after the pennies and all that…

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