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Memories of growing up in Leith. The trials and tribulations of the period, allied to the camaraderie of the community in facing up to an uncertain future made a lasting impression on John Stewart.
It was 1948 and I was progressing into my teens. The War had finished three years earlier but we were living in a period of austerity. The benefits of peace were still a long way off. To quote the Government slogan, 'export or die'. All our material good things in life had to go abroad to pay off our war debts. Rationing was still with us.
However, my age group had known nothing else. We were still at school so our interests were as yet simple. We all loved football and our favourite teams were either Hibs or Hearts. Every alternate Saturday afternoon we would attend Easter Road or Tynecastle.
My own preference was the Hibs. I loved to see the likes of Gordon Smith, and Jimmy Cuthbertson, established players with the club and the youngsters just breaking through, Laurie Reilly and Bobby Johnstone.
This team would peak a few years later with the renowned forward line of Smith, Johnstone, Reilly, Turnbull and Ormond. To this day I can still name the eleven players.
By 1950 I had joined the Leith Branch of the Hibs supporters association. It met in the Painters Society Hall in Yardheads. Home or away, we would support the team. I was a complete fan.
During the week we would attend the cinemas or just play football in the 'Coppy', the colloquial name for three polished red brick tenements of four storeys each with communal balconies at the rear that looked inwards towards each other.
Life was just so simple until we all left school in 1949. Then life took a turn for the better. We all started to earn some cash from our jobs. We began looking further than our own doorsteps.
By now we were beginning to look at girls in a different light. One of our favourite places to meet with them was at the Grand cinema in St Stephens Street, Stockbridge. We never attached much importance to what was being featured; rather we used the cinema as a meeting place.
During the films, we would all promenade around the theatre, chatting up girls we fancied. If we were lucky, we might be able to see them home and possibly arrange a future date.
The cinema staff gave up trying to usher us into sitting quietly and watch the film. The Grand became known as the mecca for dating.
Greyhound racing in Edinburgh was confined to the stadium in Beaverhall Road. However we would view the races from the old Bailey bridge that spanned the Water of Leith just to the rear side of the totalisator board.
Each Wednesday and Saturday evenings racing would take place. There were many like us who used the bridge just to watch how their previously laid bets with the street bookmakers fared.
We would often pool our money and set ourselves up as 'bookies'. We would take bets from others based on the odds that we could see quoted on the tote and take our chance. More often than not we ended up having to pay out our all, in other words we were skint.
Other times we did win and with the extra money we made our way to the ground entrance in time for the last few races. The doors had previously been opened to allow the losing punters to make an early exit. We slipped in then. There we would place our bets with the bookies inside the ground.
On our way home we would buy some freshly made pies and rolls from the all-night bakery that was nearby.
On the Sunday afternoon, we would congregate in the open stairwell in the buildings nearby the 'Coppy' known as the new buildings. They had been built in the thirties.
Here we would play cards, the favourite game being Brag as we sat on the cold steps. Other times we would play Pontoon. We would gamble away our previous night's winnings.
We never got involved with the more adult Pitch and Toss that was often clandestinely played in the 'Coppy'. This was asking for trouble for often the police would raid it and take away those that were too slow in avoiding them.
John Stewart, 2001
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