School Bus Memories 1950s
Kenneth Hart recalls travelling on the school bus from Wormit to Madras in the 1950s.
“In my day the school bus going to Madras was run by Gordon Ogilvie from Balmerino. From my home in Newton Park (it will never be Kilmany Road to me) I could see the bus coming down the Gauldry road so I knew when to go out. Madras had fallen out of favour with Wormit School pupils who passed their ‘qualy’(*) and I ploughed a lone furrow for a year or so. I recall getting to East Newport and Bruce Robertson and Margaret Clark getting onto the ‘bus and after that the day brightened a bit. I remember very little of the ‘bus journeys although when my liking for Katherine Grayson became known to the girls they would present me with photos of her cut from their magazines. I daresay we were quite wild on that ‘bus but then Alison Don, a teacher at Madras, started to travel with us and attempted to impose some discipline. On one occasion Jack McLean and I were put off the ‘bus shortly after it left Tayport on the way home and walked the rest of the way. I did not really think too much of this but of course I arrived home somewhat later than expected and my father made a bit of a fuss about it all. In these days we thought nothing about walking quite long distances. I recall walking a girl home from near the top of Bay Road in Wormit to the council houses up behind the Rio Cinema in Newport and then, of course walking home to Newton Park. During the tattie picking season the few who were not allowed by their parents to take the time off school were driven to school in Gordon Ogilvie’s old Daimler ambulance while others made vast fortunes tattie howking.”
* The ‘qualy’ was the qualifying exam, the dreaded exam undertaken by P7 pupils. The results of the exam determined the type of education and school to which the pupil would progress, either academic or more vocational.
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