Letter: Memory jogger

THE recent Scotsman supplements (In our time - 70 years of Scottish life) make nostalgic reading for those such as myself "approaching old age" and brought back a few memories of a different world.

The more pleasant side of that world, in my case, revolved around farming and railways in the Borders: very early memories of driving sheep to Kirkbank station for delivery by rail to St Boswells' sales; collecting feeds and beet pulp at Kelso station.

I recall being at a sheep sale at Hawick and being grabbed by my father to see an engine go by that had pulled the train that used to daily take him to school in Callander as a boy.

My greatest rail experience, 50 years ago next week, was loading a bull at Kelso station at teatime and, after an overnight journey, with a long stop at Crewe junction, unloading at Hereford station the next morning. The following year, another bull loading for Hereford, but at St Boswells, with Kelso station now "closed for livestock". That's life!

Denis Wilson

Kalemouth

Kelso