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.