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Recollections
1.
Sandy Sievwright
Penicuik, Midlothian,
Scotland |
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Sandy Sievwright remembers some of his journeys to
school by bus, a few miles to the south of Edinburgh, from Penicuik to
Dalkeith.
Sandy wrote: |
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Service Bus
"I
went to St Davids RC Secondary School at
Dalkeith, The school's catchment
area included Penicuik. In the early
1960s, we had to travel by
SMT service bus
which went via Roslin, Loanhead and
Bonnyrigg.
A group of youngsters on a bus was never going to be a good idea.
There were, too often, scuffles
although usually just a bit of a grab for the front or back seats
upstairs."
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Sausages
"On the odd occasion, trouble would break out. One particular
day all Hell erupted. One
of the girls had picked up a pile of discarded sausages from the
butchers bin.
It
didn't take long until these meaty objects
were flying around the upper deck. Whack!
Splatter! Thud!
as they hit the windows,
the roof, the back of our seats and
the top of our heads when we didn't duck
quickly enough.
Next day, we were all up in front of the
Head and the ringleaders were punished.
It was still the belt in those days."
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Sausages
"We had a funny trip one day which left us
all in stitches. On the way home as the bus enters Roslin and exits
at the other end of the village were there were
two railway bridges.
One of the boys was on a dare and his mission was to get off the bus
then run along the railway and try to be at the
second bridge, at the Penicuik end of
Roslin in time to catch the bus again.
Hah!
You've guessed it, He was running but his
schoolbag was still on his seat.
Well not for long! I
saw it being hurled out the window and
onto the roadside below. Loud
peels of laughter kept us going until we got back home."
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Drivers
"Some of the drivers were,
quite rightly, fed up of some of the wild
behaviour. One in particular was a
well known pupil hater. As his bus
approached the kerbside to begin his uplift there was a higher than
normal pushing and shoving to get on first,
Indeed, it was probably quite dangerous.
Next thing I knew, the driver he was on
the bus giving us a good talking to and he announced:
"I've been driving this bus for the last 20 years and YOU LOT are
the worst I've ever had!
After a moments pause a voice began singing 'Happy
Birthday to You', and next thing the whole
bus were in full voice.
Poor old crabbit driver (lol).
I bet he had a good few pints when the council provided
a non-service bus with an adult to control
the pupils on the journey from Penicuik to
Dalkeith."
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Sandy
Sievwright, Penicuik, Midlothian, Scotland: July 2, 2012
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