Travelling to Scotland

Pictured above on the right  with Rachael's sister Margaret, was one of the Grant sisters - Rachael's aunt.  She lived in Church Street, Old Croydon.  She was a widow and childless but lived with her husband's 2 brothers, Don and Sandy.  Don was blind and had guide dogs.  Later she would be joined by Hamish and Peter, her great nephews who travelled south from the Grant family home at Alt na Goire  to find work.

Julie was a much loved dog with a taste for TCP (a disinfectant).  At night people used to soak their false teeth in TCP,  One morning when Madge came down looking for her false teeth there they were in Julie's mouth where she had licked the TCP from around them.

As children we frequently visited/stayed with Aunty Madge.  She had a front parlour with a piano where we could "play" away with no-one telling us to keep quiet.  Her bed was so high you had to climb up into it from the floor and then you sank into feathered comfort.  You were lulled to sleep by the loud ticking of the pendulum clock on the dresser.  In the morning you got tea and biscuits in bed.

No stay with Aunty Madge was complete without a trip to Kennards, one of 3 department stores in Croydon.  Grants -upper range; Allders - middle range where Rachael would shop, but Kennards was great.  It had donkey rides and a small zoo upstairs with monkeys and exotic birds.

Robert's first year at Selhurst Grammar School was spent not in the main school pictured above but in the Annexe in the Old Town.  He went to Aunty Madge's for lunch every day and became rather portly with daily helpings of pudding with custard with a sprinkling of sugar to build a young boy.  Just as Rachael began to get worried he suddenly shot up in height to be taller than his father or his brother.