Everything stops for tea

CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT family meals has prompted another Craigie reader to ask if anyone still drinks tea out of a cup and saucer.

“Most places I go visiting,” she says, “we are handed a mug – often very pretty and sometimes china, but they hold quite a lot of tea and sometimes I find it too much.

“I actually prefer to use a cup and saucer for my midmorning refreshment. Then the choice is mine whether I take another cup or not.

“I know times change, but I do like my cup and saucer. I wonder if tea-sets are still given as wedding gifts?” “I ENJOYED seeing the photograph of Nicoll’s the grocer’s in Hilltown, Dundee,” emails Peter Cameron. “These old photos have so much character about them and are such a big part of our heritage.

“Sadly, many are now gone and we have superstores on the perimeter of our cities – it must make shopping difficult for the elderly and non-motorists, although in some places there is still the odd shop which sells almost everything.

“I recall as a youngster in Stanley just after the Second World War there were two or three grocer’s shops, two butchers, two bakers, two or three sweetie shops and we all had jobs as message laddies delivering groceries, milk, newspapers and morning rolls.

“The picture of McDonald & McCrindle’s butcher’s shop in Dunkeld was taken in the late 1930s. On the left is Mrs Anna Black (nee McDonald) and on the right is her older sister, Mrs. Jessie McCrindle, whose husband, Jimmy, was a partner in the business.

“At the front is Jessie’s daughter, Mrs Rena Ramsay, who lives in Stanley. Anna is now in her 95th year and ran the premises as a tearoom for over 20 years along with her daughter, Joan, as The Singing Kettle Tearoom.

“She still lives above the shop and plans are afoot to open it as a charity shop, the first in Dunkeld, to provide funds for the three churches in the town.”