Thursday 6 August 2009

MID 70'S AIR SHOT - CRAIGIE

My old area...
The Arbroath Road/Kingsway roundabout splits the picture in two - with Craigie on the left and Craigie High School to the right.
Aboyne Avenue is the main road far left going up towards the Gotterstone area. The shorter road to the right of Aboyne, running parallel to it is Huntly Road, going up to Monymusk Park (belonging to Dundee High School!). Sandwiched in between Aboyne & Huntly are the shops (Huntly Square).
In the 60's there used to be a disused Power Station along Huntly Road, we called it "The Powerie". This became obsolete early 60's when the Douglas Road Electricity Station opened (bottom left of pic). When we were primary age we used the empty Powerie location as a play area. Hide & seek, kissy catchy, truth dare and so on. Later we got a rope swing up on one of the trees. In the late 70's, the Powerie was knocked down and housing built on the site.
Behind Huntly Place are garages (the lock-ups). We had some brilliant games of football there. It was also an area we'd go plundering the nearby gardens for apples and plums during the dark Autumn evenings.
In the early 70's, I had a few stints at delivering the papers around Craigie, usually only filling in for when the regular paper boys couldn't manage.
In 1973, when I was at Craigie High, I had a better paid regular job for a while, delivering rolls (Cuthberts, I think). Slightly further afield this time - Craigie Drive, Dawson and Gotterstone. It was a bit of a killer after a few months though, getting up at 5 in the morning then having to go to school after it. The long days did seem to be forgotten about however when it came to Fridays...pay day!!
When I left CHS in '74, we used to play futba in the evenings still using the school pitch. Mind you, it meant we had to climb over the closed gates on Arbroath Road and chance not getting caught by the jannie. 9 times out of 10 we got away with it though!!
Click on the image for a larger view.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks Retro for bringing back the days playing in The Powerie, sitting on the huge metal pipes and then sliding off them. I can remember the garages as well, getting into trouble for screaming down the brae on our bikes!

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  2. Kym Gray previously Goldie14 August 2014 at 15:03

    I lived in the police house next to the
    'powerie' and the tree with the rope swing. Also remember my Dad organising the annual unofficial bonfire night there. Happy days.

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