Home > General > Doctor, No.

Doctor, No.

When Irene, AJ, Susie and I arrived in Gullane, 50 years ago last May, Spud Bennett was the primary school headmaster, Doctors Barr and Blackett were the GPs, and it was a question of who arrived on your doorstep first, The Welcome Wagon or Doc Whiteford, the minister. The WW led on to The Housewives’ Register, which brought people of a similar age together, the main purpose being to have parties and get very pished. Today we have Facebook, Gullane News Group, the fledgling GVA, a few hundred new high-end houses, a medical centre with more doctors than I could name, a primary school that is growing exponentially, and the same unspeakable and inaccessible beach toilets. Knowing what I know now, if we were back in 1971 and a Time Lord offered to take us 50 years into the future, would I accept? Not a chance, because I would lose out on all the friends I made then and who are still with me today, physically or in my heart. If today’s twenty and thirty somethings are half as lucky, they’ll have done alright.

Categories: General
  1. Tam Martin
    August 2, 2021 at 5:06 pm

    Dont think anyone would stay in the present, I’d stay in the 70s if I could

  2. Alfie Brown
    August 2, 2021 at 7:48 pm

    You were indeed very lucky most people nowadays live in neighbourhoods that don’t have neighbours just people who happen to live next door most don’t even no there names & they wouldn’t piss on you if you were On Fire .
    We moved to our house in 1973 (brand new) just twelve family’s we all helped one another, we did babysitting & everything else Sadly a thing of the past

    • August 2, 2021 at 10:33 pm

      Oh yes, we had a babysitting circle too, with its own currency, plastic rings.

  3. Colin
    August 18, 2021 at 10:06 pm

    Ah, 1970’s Gullane – Bissets, The Golf, The Queens, The Old Clubhouse and The Mallard. Only one left in existence. Not to mention a school full of great teachers 😉

  4. August 18, 2021 at 10:11 pm

    And Spud.

    • Colin
      August 18, 2021 at 10:31 pm

      Put the fear in you as a kid, thankfully he retired not long after the new school opened 🙂

      • August 18, 2021 at 10:37 pm

        An unpleasant little bastard with a drink in him.

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