The Lady On The Bus - 1952

Every morning at a quarter to eight
Gullyferry, she gets on the bus there
Wearing the same dress, sits in the same seat,
Faded straw hat, the smell of unwashed hair.

Her journey's end is the railway platform
Where she will meet the first train of the day,
Searching the faces, hoping, then forlorn,
Until the last train, - and she turns away.

It is seven years since the War was won,
Seven years of daily journeys that she
Has been coming to 'meet' her only son,
She disbelieved "missing, presumed drowned at sea".
JB

An Afternoon With Bessie

In my childhood years our bread was delivered by Ronnie and Herbert and Bessie the horse which pulled the baker's van. One glorious school-holiday afternoon, my friend Averil and I went with them on their round. We clambered up onto the driver's perch and were allowed to hold the reins. Bessie clip-clopped up Broadway and Broadoak Road, she knew all the houses where she had to stop and would stand waiting whilst one of the boys delivered the bread in a large basket, - it was usually Herbert, the one with cottonwool stuffed in his ears. Ronnie was the sparkling one who, when we reached the farm, pretended that a loaf had fallen off the van and then fed it to the ducks and moorhens waiting on the pond.
To us, our afternoon with Bessie was an adventure, - the sort that is no longer available for today's children.

On Leaving Scotland

The skies were sad to see us go,
Clouds weeping copiously,
So intent upon their own grief,
Noticing not our misted eyes.

Their tears became rivers, creeks,
Cascade and waterfall,
Our tears were but salt upon our cheeks,
Serving no purpose at all.

JB

The Last Journey

Dressed in brilliant colours,
Detached by the breeze.
Floating, gliding twirling,
With memories of green.

Glinting in dappled sunlight
On the journey down,
The first leaf of Autumn to
Fall and lie still on the ground.

Dressed in brown, there is a chance
To live again, albeit brief,
When lifted and carried by the wind,
Or scuffed by joyous feet.

JB

Backyard Jeweller

Diamond necklace in the early morning light,
Transformed into filigree and silvered by the midday sun.
There on a side strand, admiring what she's spun,
Sits Arachne, - waiting..............waiting.
JB

TEANNIE

When Eartha Kitt died in December 2008 her obituatists wrote of her resentment at being 'given away by her mother, forced to leave their home on a cotton plantation and live with an aunt in New York's Harlem'. One could be forgiven for wondering if it were the 'giving away' or the horrendous environmental shock of which she was resentful.

I immediately recalled my maternal grandmother's childhood when she left her Aberdeenshire roots. Christina Pirie, always 'Teannie' to the family, bore no resentment to her adored parents for being 'taken away' from them (as she always referred to it) nor to the childless aunt and uncle who 'took' her to live at their home in Bootle which was not far from the docks and about 4 miles north of Liverpool's city centre.

Born in 1871 Teannie was the 8th child of John and Catherine Pirie of Tweeddale where her father farmed 74 acres in the parish of Kinkell. Teannie had enjoyed the happiest early childhood surrounded by her loving family and the Aberdeenshire countryside. She found no joy living as an only child in alien urban surroungings. Her guardians were not accustomed to the ways of children, especially one who had previously only known life in the countryside. There was no porridge on the menu at number 28 Campbell Street, - instead it was bread and warm milk for breakfast taken in the basement of the stern house. Passers-by on the pavement above could peer in through the kitchen window and see the child struggling to swallow the contents of the bowl in front of her. One such was a classmate who would later announce at school "I saw you eating your 'pobs' this morning!"

Once a year Teannie and her aunt journied to the Aberdeenshire farm where they spent the Summer holidays. Came the dreaded day of return to Lancashire and the child secreted herself in one of the farm's many hiding-places in the hopes of being left behind, - but she was always eventually discovered. (The photograph shows Teannie during one of her 'holidays' standing centre surrounded by her family)

On the 4th May 1886 when Queen Victoria visited Liverpool, Teannie was there to see her getting into an open carriage and would later describe Her Majesty as 'a little lady with a parasol'.

As the years passed, Teannie Pirie, having done well at school, started to train in teaching. Aged 19 she and her guardians had moved to 57 Talbot Street, away from the docks and more towards the city. Miss Pirie had attained the position of Assistant Teacher. Two years later, fully qualified, she returned to Aberdeenshire and held the post of Teacher at Rathen school. This was a time of her life that she would later describe as one of the happiest and most carefree. In the village of Rathen she lodged at The Manse with the Rev and Mrs Kellas, but every school holiday was spent with her family back at the farm near Inverueie.

James Pirie 1838-1921

From time to time, as a child, I was told "Grannie's uncle was Mayor of Scarborough". It must have seemed a little incongruous how, at the end of the 19th century, an Aberdeenshire farmer's son became a leading light of the fashionable Yorkshire spa town - but I never thought to ask "which uncle?" or "how?" It was only recently that I decided to research the life of my great-great-uncle James Pirie.

On 25th July 1838, in the parish of Keithall and Kinkell, Aberdeenshire, John and Catherine Pirie had a son baptised James. The family lived at Hillhead of Leggat Farm with elder children Jane (17) John (15) and Alexander (10). Other sons William and Keith had died in infancy, and further tragedy struck in 1841 when their mother died. By 1851, the family had moved within the parish to Tweeddale Farm where John (49), helped by his elder sons farmed 74 acres. James was at school and on Sundays the siblings sang in the choir at the Auld Kirk, where their father was Precentor. The family and the farmhouse were looked after by housekeeper Christina Beattie (30) and 'out-servant' Barbara Angus. In 1852, John snr and Christina were married.

At the age of 19 James, in reply to an advertisement, travelled to Driffield in Yorkshire to work as a draper with a Scot by the name of Ross. After a year there, he left to work for a Robert Ritchie based in Hull, and for the next three years travelled the district from Driffield to Whitby, often finding himself in Scarborough. In 1860, aged 22, he took over the drapery business from Mr Ritchie and worked from home at 6, Atlas Place, Scarborough. A year later, he had moved to number 80 and was recorded there as being head of the household and employing a 43-year-old housekeeper who lived-in with her 12-year-old daughter. In that same year, James made his first investment in the Cliff Bridge Company. He also founded a Sunday School at Burniston.

In 1862, at the Baptist Chapel in Scarborough, James married Hannah Collingwood Smailes, a cabinet-maker's daughter. Never having particularly liked the drapery business, James sold it in 1870 but in the next two years suffered heavy losses, being, in his own words 'cleared-out' by stockbrokers. Undaunted, and with his pronounced ability to overcome obstacles, he began in business as a house agent and was appointed district rate-collector for the northern half of the town.

In 1881, he and his wife were living at 80 Castle Road, and James was in business as an auctioneer and commission agent. This grew so rapidly that he had to give up his office of rate-collector and devote all his time to his business until his health gave way when he was 45. Rather than take on a partner, James chose to sell up and take a complete rest over the next year. Having no reason to return to a business career, he went on to devote time to more than a dozen public companies of which he had become a director. He was chairman of the Public Market Company, the Central Tramway Company and the Board of Guardians, vice-chairman of the Filey Water and Gas Company, a director of the Building Society and the Coffee House Company, and Secretary of the Public Baths Company.

By 1891 the couple had moved to 105 Castle Road. James became a Town Councillor and in 1894 was returned unopposed as the Liberal candidate for the North Ward. Three years later, when opposed, he obtained the highest majority ever by a candidate in that ward.

In 1897, James Pirie became Mayor of Scarborough. In 1899, he was made a Justice of the Peace and was noted for being one of the most hard-working magistrates on the bench. In 1901 James (62) and Hannah (60) were still living at 105 Castle Road, where they employed a maid aged 24.

In 1906 James was elected an alderman. In 1907, he retired from the Board of Guardians, after 17 years' valuable service. He attended meetings of the Town Council up to December 1920 when his resignation, due to failing health, was regretfully accepted, as was his resignation from the Aldermanic Bench.

He died at his home, 105 Castle Road, in December 1921 in his 84th year. The Scarborough Mercury reported that "his passing removes a very familiar figure from the town".