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Memories of a childhood in wartime 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.
The girls and boys had separate playgrounds. The cacophony of sound emanating from them must have been ear splitting. Numerous games were played there and the variety of these was determined by the games of the season.
Bools (marbles), whip and peerie, conkers, cigarette card swapping, cuddy hunkers, water pistol shooting and even guessing film stars' names after being given their initials.
The girls had their own games such as beds (hopscotch), diabolo throwing and catching with a string between two sticks, skipping ropes, knitting and crocheting.
Differences of opinions among boys were to be expected then as now. Often these spilled over into an exchange of blows. Many were the times a circle of spectators would form around the two pugilists as they swapped punches, each with their supporters shouting them on.
The resultant rumpus would attract the janitor who would then take hold of the culprits and march them into school for their reprimands from the highest source. No lasting ill feeling ever came from them.
Came the time of the smallpox epidemic and the mass vaccination campaign that was waged against it. We all wore red armbands on our left arm where we had received the needle scratch. This was to warn off any who might have knocked against you. To this day I still have the vivid scar mark as evidence of my vaccination.
Who can ever forget the enforced visits to the school clinic in Link's Place? It was always my dread to be infected by impetigo and have the obligatory gentian violet applied to the sores. If you were unfortunate to be infected with this, you were avoided like the plague as having scabs.
Only the poor from the slums were expected to suffer from these. Boys from the poorest families could always be identified with certainty from the shoes they wore. They were provided with heavy tackety boots from the Leith police station.
Toothache was another problem that the clinic treated. Cure for this was gas and extraction. No fillings were ever considered. You left the building with a scarf tied tightly around your mouth to keep infection out.
John Stewart, 2001
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