My Bogey

Thanks Sam Millar for the photo..

The Bogey

I loved my bogey, now the Bogey was great on hills, But !! no good on flat roads, so !!! a very good mate was needed, to push, my running board extended beyond my seat so the pusher could jump on and hitch a lift, Irwin St. was good going down, but quite a way to get back pulling it back to No. 2

In the 1940's, as I have said before there was no money about, more than once mother had no money when the coalman arrived, and there was no tick from him, so my Bogey came to the rescue " Right Lad, I need a bag of Cinders and 6 Briquettes " mother would order, where Ladyburn Bus Garage is now, there used to be a big coal depot, the bus garage was across the street, on the turning up to Ladyburn School, now I had to have a good mate to help me get this coal cargo from Ladyburn up the Gibby Hill to mothers at Irwin St., Ian McDonald from 3 Smillie St was always there for me, one pulled the other pushed, and we took turns,

Cinders was a poor substitute for coal, you couldn't light the fire with it, so mother kept a small storage of coal in the corner of our bunker in the scullery ( Kitchen ), which also served as a work top for mother, Sunday's was my favourate day, lunch time, mother would put 2 Briquettes on, Cinders, and all the potato peelings, and veg peelings, soaked in water, then put on our fire, which was the old black grate then, it burned for hours and hours, couldn't have done it with-out my trusted Bogey

Now I was something of a hero among my Gibby pals back then, I was daft enough to think, I could start from the Smillie Street shops, go down the Gibshill Brae, and take the bend under the little railway arch at the bottom, NO !!!! two broken collarbones, I was taken to the Royal Infirmary on the Big Gibby Bus, all they could do was strap me up, the photo that I posted earlier of Irwin Street Rovers, I had my strapping on then

Old prams were like Gold Dust, we thought , the bigger the wheel, the faster our bogey would go, father gave me some paint and a brush YELLOW !!! and one of my sisters blokes showed me, that while the paint was wet, if I held a lit candle flame to the paint quickly it left a black feather mark, I had the best Bogey around Yellow with Black flashes all round