Growing Up In Kelloholm 1959 1969

A Memory of Kelloholm.

I was born to Janette (maiden name Fowler) and Charlie Ross in 1959 and lived at 13 Main Street and then 15 Guffock Road. My granny and grandad were Isabel and William Fowler(aka 'Slip Fowler' the bookie!). I too, remember long summers swimming up the Killie and longing to go to the Dead Man's pool, swam in the Coal Hole too. My great granny and grandpa were Maimie and Puffer Muirhead, they lived in the small holding at Old Kelloside. My wee sisters and I were often taken on picnics up the Baker's Burn too. My dad worked in the pit, he met my mum in Frankie's where she worked. I remember going to Frankie's for hot orange and getting really spoiled by Frankie, his daughter Amy(she used to give me Lucky Number sweets!) and Oriano too. My Granpa used to take me to visit Mrs Jean Sloan on the main street (I remember the big glass amber door handle and the toby jugs on the mantlepiece). Every Sunday my Granpa's pal Gavin Dalrymple (he looked after the swing park) came to visit and they smoked their pipes, which my granny said were reeking the place oot! My aunt is Ann McHugh (nee Ross) married to Peter 'Hammy' McHugh - she worked in Jim Haining's shop. My mum has two sisters Ellen and Mary and a brother Alex (deceased). My uncle Wullie used to come round with a van selling eggs and tatties on a Friday night. My Granny always gave him and my cousins their supper before they went back up the road to the Burnton farm at New Cumnock. I have fond memories too, of all the mobile shops - Cutter Harvey and the long deliberations over the penny and ha'penny trays. Jimmy Glendinning and his chip van - I can still smell the aroma and feel the excitement as we all squawked for chips or if you were really lucky, fritters-yum! Geordie Milligan and the best ice cream ever as I remember it. Andy Gallacher and Jamboree lucky bags, Jim Hendry the grocer, Hawthorn Stewar t(who also got tea at my Granny's), the fish van and Jock Dryffe the butcher, who sometimes gave you a sheet of paper you could trace through- no fancy computer games for us.
I can rember being at Kelloholm Primary - Mrs Roy was my teacher in Primary 1 and I remember getting Mrs Watt too. In my class I remember Lorna Gray, Morag Milligan, Linda Keggan, Jim Wallace and Jim Queen, Robert Wilson, Graham Auld and Colleen Hughes. When I was a wee lassie in the pre-fabs, we lived next door to Jenny and Geordie Williamson - their son Billy went on to play for Aberdeen FC - scored a hattrick against Celtic .I used to play with their daughter Ann and pick their blackcurrants. As my Dad worked for NCB we got free coal, which got dumped at yours (on the street) all the neighbours pitched in to help put it away in the coalhouse. Sometimes I used to go to Fergie Blacks for fish and chips for my Mum and Dad. It seemed like miles away across the fields and past the buildings where the Co-op was, and then away past the football field. The lady who worked there was lovely, she used to give you a wee poke of crispy bits to eat on the way home - I cant remember her name, maybe Mrs McMillan? We had an idyllic childhood, we wandered all over the place, walked for miles along the Back Road,up the Kirkland woods -everybody knew you and your family. Happy days walking up the Sewerage Brae into Aggie Smith's shop and up the hill home. I used to swing on the big chains between the posts all the way up the Sewerage Brae. I remember cutting across the fields towards the Nith and over the Mill Hill and walking along a big black pipe that ran along the river.
Happy Days!

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