Hogmanay Memories

Stories memories and people

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sheilajim
Posts: 787
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:42 pm
Location: san clemente california

Re: Hogmanay Memories

Post by sheilajim » Fri Jul 08, 2011 2:15 am

Reading Moonwathers stories are always fun even though I was born in Canada and things were different there.

My mother was born in Scotland and I remember when I was a kid that among our presents for Christmas were pajamas. Now I know where she got that tradition from. :D Pajamas and tangerines were almost as much a part of our Christmas as presents, a tree and turkey. My mother would always say that Christmas was for children and New Years was for adults.
Sheila

Bobbydem
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Apr 06, 2016 10:25 am

Re: Hogmanay Memories

Post by Bobbydem » Thu Apr 07, 2016 12:23 pm

Oh my! What a wonderful opportunity for reminiscence this has offered. Shared with my sister (70 this year) , I will be sixty eight and oh the memories. We lived with my mother and grandparents in Glasgow. The drop leaf table would be 'set' with the best China out of the china cabinet , the trifle bowl was prepared with the most glorious,delicious confection for which only the best spoons would do from the green leather and velvet box. The steak pie....a triumph topped with only golden puff pastry...my sister and I would have been dispatched to the co op butchers for the steak and kidney with a stern message to deliver to the butcher about what quality was expected...( when we went for mince the message always was..."a pound of best steak minced please and Gran says to wash out the mincer first as she doesn't want anybody else's rubbish"...and he did!! This then evoked memories of carcasses hanging on hooks along the butchers wall with sawdust aplenty on the floor to catch any blood. The carcasses made great leaning posts when there was,as ever, a queue. We can't remember food poisoning, hygiene certificates or pre packed meat..coincidence??
Anyway, New Year was indeed a family night ...and family included the extended family of neighbours and friends. Papa (grandfather) had six brothers with of course their families, all the brothers played musical instruments...piano,accordion,squeeze box,violin,mouth organ....all of which were utilised not only, but especially,for Hogmanay. Neighbours from across the road,through the wall and upstairs would join in. It was probably the only night when alcohol (sherry,whisky ,beer,crabbies green ginger, advocat) were a plenty...with homemade raspberry and black currant cordial for the younger people. Not once can I remember drink having a negative effect on the atmosphere. Just before midnight, a guest was dispatched to the path outside to wait for the last peel of the bells. Papa would throw open the door to welcome this person with their lump of coal and black bun into the house with the new year. This person always had to be dark haired to bring in the luck...what a responsibility. Laughter and 'hooching' and dancing abounded(the drop leaf table had by now dropped its leaves again) and only when the first strands of light on this first day began to filter in, would the night begin to recede. The pans would be clashed with bacon sandwiches being served to all to ensure nobody left hungry ...probably impossible after a full meal, shortbread, Christmas cake, mince pies , sandwiches on pan loaf (not plain bread)
around three a.m. Around seven a.m. It was time for bed and happy dreams...in those new pyjamas.

sheilajim
Posts: 787
Joined: Fri Jul 01, 2005 10:42 pm
Location: san clemente california

Re: Hogmanay Memories

Post by sheilajim » Fri Apr 08, 2016 1:37 am

Bobbydem-Good post. =D>
Sheila

paddyscar
Site Admin
Posts: 2418
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 7:56 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: Hogmanay Memories

Post by paddyscar » Sat Apr 09, 2016 4:35 pm

So Moonwatcher has inspired you to contribute some of your own memories! Nice work Bobbydem!
John Kelly (b 22 Sep 1897) eldest child of John Kelly & Christina Lipsett Kelly of Glasgow

Orlaith17
Posts: 194
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2011 10:50 pm
Location: Highlands

Re: Hogmanay Memories

Post by Orlaith17 » Mon Jul 18, 2016 9:46 pm

I grew up in a tenement in Dundee. We didn't have a bathroom in the house, just a toilet halfway down a lobby we shared with the neighbours. We were on the top, one of my aunts lived downstairs and my gran lived downstairs from the aunt. So three levels in the building and relatives living close together. I shared a tiny bedroom with my two younger brothers. We didn't have a kitchen either, just a living area with a sink in the corner. My parents also slept in that room in an alcove. There was another room, kept for "best" but never actually used.
We loved Hogmanay when we were kids. My dad, tall and dark haired, would go down to first foot my gran right after the bells. Mum would open the window to let the old year out and the new year in. Dad would stop at my aunties on the way up to first foot them, then my uncle would come up with him to first foot us.....traditionally, dad couldn't be his own first foot, as that was bad luck. Some of the other neighbours would come in to first foot one of us too. From then on, we kind of came and went between the houses until we all ended up in one place, usually our house, and a sing song would start. Us kids got cordial to drink, and the adults had various alcoholic drinks. People got merry, but it was never out of control. Everyone had food prepared for any visitors, so there was always a selection of sandwiches, crisps, shortbread, fruit cake, black bun, sausage rolls etc. Sometimes some of the younger kids just fell asleep right where they were, but the party carried on, and the kidsslept through it.
I think youngsters now might be horrified by the housing we lived in, but we were happy with our arrangement. We felt like we were going out at Hogmanay, and it felt so exciting, though we never left our tenement, and we felt so safe.

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