Arrived dripping wet

“I was interested in the recent item about Dundee’s Swannie Ponds,” says Reg Mulheron of Tayport. “I was born in Baldovan Terrace and spent the first 20 years of my life there, so the ponds provided a backdrop to my early life.

“Like your correspondent, my pals and I spent many hours ‘fishing’, carrying our jars with string round the neck. It’s a miracle that anything we caught even made it home far less survived on the breadcrumbs we fed them.

“In those days, the ponds were well used and well kept. So many youngsters were around that at least one boy fell in or was pushed every day and I can remember my younger brother arriving home dripping wet.

“Another memory is of the beautiful model yachts that were sailed on the ponds. Those racing them used to check the wind direction and then set the yachts off on their journey. Then they would run round the pond with the long sticks that they used to stop the models bashing in to the sides. However, as often as not the yachts beat them to it.

“At the top ponds you could row on boats and there was an island in the middle of the water. It was man-made, but to young boys with fertile imaginations, it held all sorts of mysteries and we speculated wildly on what it might contain.

“When I think back on those days, I realise how lucky we were to have all the freedom that we did. We got fresh air, exercise and were out for hours – all free and an experience that youngster these days seem to be losing out on.”