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I was in with the very first group of pupils who attended Craigie High School when it opened in 1970.
It was great having the whole place to ourselves without there being any older kids around. However, it did mean we had to start everything from scratch, for example setting up the first football team, hockey team, etc, etc.
Needless to say, living in Craigie brought about the fact that we used to actually play in the area where CHS now stands, when it was just fields and wasteland, so we saw the school being built from scratch too.
This is a picture of it under construction in 1969.
Photo by DC Thomson.
MY BROTHER WENT HERE IN 71, AND I WAS DUE TO FOLLOW TWO YEARS LATER, BUT WE WENT TO LIVE IN PERTH, AND I NEVER WENT TO A SCHOOL WITH A SWIMMING POOL.
ReplyDeleteI was in the first intake at Craigie High. Used to live in Kemnay Gardens. This site is bringing back alot of happy memories as Im now living in Essex anddont get up the road that much these days.
ReplyDeleteI was in the first lot at Craigie high. I also lived in Kenney gardens.im also living in Essex. Dave Donaldson
Deletemy name is brian tkaczyk aka naz and i was with the first lot to go to craigie high im still in the area would be good to hear from the rest
ReplyDeleteHi Brian, came across your note on a Craigie High retro site. Terry O'Neill.
DeleteNaz, do you remember the Blairgowrie Bundy incident during the school trip to Belmont Camp in 1973? Other names that spring to mind are Gratz and Dek Whitton? Mr O'Rourke also got involve din the mega scrap from memory? Kenny Lees
DeleteJust found this site and it brings back great memories.. I was in the second intake at Craigie High. Naz did you used to stay on the Drive? If so I was married and living at 126 for years
ReplyDeleteStuart Heaton
I was also in the second intake at CHS, my sister was in the first intake. living in Douglas at the time I also remember playing in the fields etc where the High School was built, IIRC it was called Craigiehome Farm or something like that
ReplyDeleteWas in the 74 intake. Got egged on my first day. Best memories were Annie Oakley losing the rag. Mrs Johnston calling folk "Tumshies" and drinking Pomagne before the school Disco's.
ReplyDeleteUsed to have a great school hockey team in the 70s-whatever happened ?
ReplyDeleteWe all left in '75/'76. Had 6 representatives in Midlands team: Doogy Jamieson; Richie Robertson, Kevin Hackney; Andy McGregor; Ramsay Brunton and Kenny Lees. Last two also got into Scotland team (CHS first Internationalists).
DeleteI was in the first batch too - I remember walking through the front gate and being chased away by Mr Johnstone the jannie.
ReplyDeleteBest thing for me about Craigie High was the Photography Club run by Mr Munro, Mr Mudie and Mr Alexander all from the technical department.
It's been a long time since I was at school but I've never lost my love of photography thanks to the club.
I also remember the college of education being built, little did I know that I'd spend over 20 years working there.
I was fae the hulltoon but came to play with my cousins denis and michael graham who lived in kemnay gardens and we used to cyclecross over the heaps of earth left by the builders when CHS was being built. great times!
ReplyDeleteI’m guessing that its my cousin Joe “thebear” who is referring too me and my brother Michael in the previous post. I attended CHS in the mid 70’s and immigrated to Canada in 79.
ReplyDeleteRetro Dundee really brings back good old memories, of CHS and the shops and pubs of our youth.
Good times indeed.
Hello to Stuart Heaton.
Dennis Graham
33 Kemnay Gardens
Cragie, Dunndee.
hello tedd ?
ReplyDeletewhen did you get back to dundee
jmjordan@btopenworld.com
played against craigie when we beat them 3 1 in urquart cup final 71 72 season and i scored j wallace
ReplyDeleteI was also in the first intake. Stayed on until 74 when i got a job. Class 1/10. Was also in Moray house which was mentioned elsewhere.It was a pretty liberal school and i remember it as being a friendly time between staff and pupils with a few exceptions who still liked to use the belt at any excuse. Have not been in touch with many of the school mates from that time. We had a school reunion in 94 when a lot of the crowd met for the night.
ReplyDeleteI was in the 1st intake, Mr Murphy the assistaint Head christend me with my knickname, It was a Monday morning and I was sporting a new "Crew Cut"........ "Clark" he shouted! "What have you done to your hair" "You look like a Hedgehog"......Yep it's me "Hedgie"
ReplyDeleteAh the memories, I wish I still had hair :}
I remember your story well Steve, hope you are well. We started on the same day, class2 Bill Cook
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ReplyDeleteMy name is Fraser McDonald and I first attended Craigie High School in 1974 and have some hilarious memories of our antics with all the teachers there such as Mr Gordon the history teacher & Mrs Mcmain the English teacher or Mr Mazumder the maths teacher anyone out there remember them
I was in the first intake as well.. Mr Mazumda and I had issues because I was useless at maths... I feel sorry for him now, as a teacher myself at St Paul's I know how disinterested kids can drive you bammy..... Jim Stanhope
ReplyDeleteI remember you Jim, we were in Mr Sharp's music class. Mike Owen aka Walter
DeleteI was in the first intake as well lived in douglas but now in Australia Graeme Johnston
ReplyDeleteStill biting your nails Graeme?!
Deletewould like to hear from anyone that remembers me my e-mail suej.2@hotmail.com Graeme johnston
ReplyDeleteI also was one off the first pupils to go to craige high contact me for a blether email address
ReplyDeletetony_belli@hotmail.co.uk
great school .best mate Keith Mcluckie is still in the area...good times those 70s,,samnoble@outlook.com
ReplyDeleteis still at craigie
ReplyDeleteMe too, Its a great school.
ReplyDeleteTerry O'Neill. I was also in the first initial intake. Fond Memories but where has the time gone? Best wishes to all who were friends of mine.
ReplyDeleteI began attending Craigie High School in August 1970. I had a severely autistic younger brother at home who, for many of my teenage years, I spent lots of my time looking after him, ensuring he was safe, didn't self-mutilate, smear, or destroy what was left of our home. I ran home from school at lunchtimes and at four o’clock to look after him and allow my mum some respite. He didn’t go to school. I hardly slept at all some nights (most nights) to give my folks a break when he was disturbed and wouldn't sleep.
ReplyDeleteSchool lessons sometimes felt like contact with what a 'normal' upbringing might have been, and I loved French because of the audio-visual 'Famille Bertillon' stories where the kids had things – like real breakfasts and even toys they got peace and time to play with.
I got bullied a lot when I was, physically, weak following a serious illness I suffered at the very start of first year. To compensate, in following years, I gave Michael Dalgarno a 'Glesca Kiss' in techie, scone-d Coke Croll in Mr French's Science lab and walloped "Hedgie" 'en plein geulle' in Miss Couts's geography class. Later, I scone-d Bill Caswell in Annie Oakley's reggie class for an inappropriate comment, and Kevin 'Horace' Broon in English just before the 'O' grades when he ought to have behaved better. These were invariably defensive reactions to a little more than perceived, exaggerative threats. Graeme Pearson, Ralph Donaldson and Scottie Milne probably didn’t deserve it, but all three provoked me unnecessarily and by then, I was – quite literally – feral.
I played in that hockey team with Ramsay Brunton, Kenneth Lees, Bogle Ferris, Richie Robertson and Dougie Jamieson towards the end of my schooldays on 1975/6. I even scored some goals. It was the closest thing to fun I had at school. I had played footie but that got interdicted when the 1st eleven decided to claim the Grove Academy kids to a gang fight after we’d been beaten by them in a cup tie. I was still in the dressing room when the Grove kids retreated. I advised them to tell John Lusby because it was out of order. Our names all got read out at Assembly the next morning, mine included, and I got banned from representing the school at sport by the rector, George S. Scott. Real peach, Georgie, huh? I’d done the right thing. Later, I got snuck back in on the hockey 1st eleven. My best sport was rugby, I was the first team captain until we ran out of players, and if anyone remembers Bill Tate, he was one of the best blokes I ever met. He respected people who showed they had guts.
Anyone remember the school’s rock band 'Pegasus' with Gordon McQuillan on drums, Kenny Lees on making a noise, and John James playing something unmusical before punching the drummer? I attended one practice with a front man called Frankie Murray from the Morgan who could almost sing. We rehearsed 'Killer Queen' which was a hit back then. I never went back. I could really play - violin, guitar, and a bit of piano.
Graeme Johnstone and I got ‘conscripted’ by the Eric Sharpe’s (E Sharp??) Music Department to play for a production of The Creation Jazz at the Caird Hall one year. I am sure that if either of us could acknowledge a guitar teacher, we would, but we had both been self-taught. Graeme preferred steel strings rather than classical nylon. Graeme was one of the good guys and I hope he’s done okay in Oz.
I harboured a romantic notion for Dierdre Caldwell through school years since playing chess with her in a league match in first year. I liked the way she thought about her moves, her unaffected looks, and how she smiled at me.
I was in the original intake too (Mike Owen - I was about the only kid in the school with an English accent, man that was tough), I started my musical career in Jimmy Harris's school band where John James and Gordon McQuillan were too. We moved to Perth at the end of the year though, Mike Owen.
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ReplyDeleteFollowing school, I did lots of different stuff. I restored Regency period house furnishings, got a degree from Dundee University, and a better one from St Andrews, buried my folks and my kid brother, didn’t finish St Cyr, fought in a war, became a teacher for a while, toured with a band, restored antique violins, lived in France. I tasted what it means to be alive. I don’t do nostalgia, I had a good today and there’s always a better tomorrow. Bless all of you. One question though, why is it that only blokes write this stuff?
Started craigie in 71 coming in from Balerno primary. I enjoyed my time at craigie and made numerous friends.I enjoyed school until 3rd year then started getting bored and plunking but because my dad was a taxi driver I always got caught walking about and got taken back!!!! Mr Fleming was one of my favourite teachers and also Hazel 'The Hun' Lusby. Mr Sharpe got me into rock music and I loved singing in the choir. I remember Pegasus the school band with Frank Murray who was the singer who unfortunately passed away last year.John Muir also played in the band with Cozy Powell Mcquillen.
ReplyDeleteHi just been browsing old comments. I was the first intake my name is Heather Menmuir now Lindsay. I’m sure someone out there will remember me and the funny good times was had. Would love to keep in touch with you out there to reminisce old times
ReplyDeleteHi Heather yes I remember we used to walk to school at lunch time your dad was a gardener?
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