29 Seagate, Irvine

A Memory of Irvine.

Hi, my name is Colin, I live in Lowestoft, Suffolk. The picture you have of 29 Seagate, Irvine is part of the building we lived in, the part you see was used as a workshop when we lived there, he did upholstery. We had no electricity, gas only. I loved to see the part in your picture, it brings back memories. We used to take our accumulator up to the High Street to a bicycle shop to be charged up for the radio, near there Willie Kilmarnock had a toy shop, they didn't have any children, they were such nice people, I don't suppose they are still alive, they used to give me toys that were damaged. I remember Mcnab the plumber's son, he had a large train set which went up and down the back garden, being young I had never seen one that size before. There were some cold winters in them days when the river froze over. I was going to Loudon Street School at that time. I wonder when was the last time the river froze over, just as a matter of interest. I remember going to Irvine Royal Academy, there was boy called Robin Lefevre, he was older than I was, he seemed to be a bit of a bully; years later I was watching a play on the telly, there was man who was a chaffeur and I looked and thought that looks like him but surely not, I looked at the titles at the end and sure enough his name came up on the titles, where is he now I wonder. I could rabbit on all day, I can tell you. There were some nasty pieces of work at the Academy, eg it was an art period, we came in to the classroom, there were about 5 subjects on the board, he said "Pick a subject and start drawing, I will come round and ask what subject you have chosen and if it doesnt look good you will stand in front of the class and get belted". Luckily I had some artistic ability but he ended up with about 5 standing and he did belt them all. I am going to end on that sadistic note. I am aged 63, we lived at the harbour, previous to that above Maggie Lamb's shop but obviously I was a lot younger then so I don't remember much. I remember Juno the albino who worked at the Corner Cafe in Montgomery Street I think it was. Anyway hope this is of interest to you, thanks for your website. Bye for now,
Regards,
Colin.