We were like little magpies
Recorded 5 years ago
About this recording
Enjoy reminiscing with Catherine Patterson as she talks about the changes that took place in Upper Pulteneytown during the 1960s. The demolition and construction sites surrounding the row of newly built houses in Macrae Street proved to be a playground for Catherine and her friends as they searched for treasure and explored the overgrown gardens.
As a young girl, she thought, ”Pulteneytown was a playground, a wonderland of adventure, although the old houses were creepy, dark, intruding and mysterious.”
This was a transition time in Pulteneytown when many of the old buildings were replaced by modern flats and houses. Catherine particularly remembers the old South School surrounded by green railings. It stood on the corner of Kinnaird Street and Macrae Street and she recalls searching for treasure in the rubble, after its demolition.
Catherine describes the sights and smells of the many shops in the area and recalls spending threepence on sweeties in Emmas, the comforting smell of the leather in Patty Cooks shoe shop, and the closing down sale in the Co-op store in Macarthur Street, where she purchased a blue and white polka-dot bikini.
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