Your Memories: 'We went to North Berwick – you'd kid on you had a shop'

Published on Saturday 6 June 2009 11:34

JEMIMA Reid, 79, of Firrhill, grew up in the Christie children's home in Haddington. Far from the

harsh image many people have of life in a children's home, she has some fond memories.

She recalls: "The staff were nice – they kept you in order. We stayed in the dormitories – it was good, we used to have pillow fights and the staff just took it all in their stride.

"We used to go to North Berwick for the holidays. They had a house there that they took us to and we used to go into the water, and we built castles and things with the sand, and made pies – you'd kid on you had a shop.

"There would be quite a lot of us, and my sister was with me.

"We played a lot of skipping rope games and played at shops and mums and dads – well, not dads, because it was an all-girls place!"

She went to Knox Academy, where life was a little different from that experienced by pupils today: "I think the teachers were a lot stricter then than they are nowadays because you respected your elders."

In many ways, however, life was not too different: "We learned spelling and arithmetic when we were younger and when you went to the secondary you got science and languages and cooking – you got a choice and I took cooking. We used to cook wee cakes, mostly.

It was after she left the home that life became tougher, however: "I left when I was 15 and went home to my mum and then I lost her. I went into private service for a dentist and I used to do housework and I served there, dinners and things.

"He was quite nice. I stayed in private service until I got married."