More Memories from the Fifties and Sixties in my Village
Aerial view of Addiewell in the late 1950s, as the old village gave way to the new.
West Lothian Local History Library. All rights reserved.
By Tommy Woods
At school there was Lucy Callaghen (school teacher), Harold Brady (headmaster) and Miss Lavery- the latter taught my Dad. There were wee bottles of milk and drawing in Harold Brady's class; Stuart Watt could always draw the best and I used to draw Spitfires and tanks. There was also the school dentist, the "fitba" team and the nit nurse.
There was Helen Conroy taking us "cubs doon the Skolie Burn for a sausage hike," which had to be a link sausage because lorne sausages were a no-no. Also, the circus at Addiebrownhill with the "big boys" trying to stay on the donkey for a fiver. It wasn't until years later that we found out that there was a burr under the saddle.
I remember Russell of Bathgate lorries when Shug Campbell used to say 'you will be a lorry driver Tommy and you will work for Russell.' He was right and I did! There was also the sound of John Conroy's two- stroke- commer -tipper lorry leaving Dykes on a cold and frosty morning and also Pat Tierney's coal lorry. I used to carry coal with Pat on Saturday morning, which he would gave me a fiver for- I thought I had won the pools! That fiver got me to the poly on Saturday night and the steading on a Monday night: happy days. (End of part one).