Perth's Old School Pictures

28 October 2019

They say that school days are the best days of our lives, and if this gallery is anything to go by, they'd be right.

We asked readers of Small City, the Auld Perth Bairns and members of Pictures of Perthshire and Beyond, to dig through their memory boxes and send us their favourite photographs of their school daysin Perth.

Dating from the 1940s to the 1990s, and running between the Cally Road, St Columba's and St Ninians to name but a few, this wee trip down nostalgia lane brings football teams, fashions of the fifties and straight rows of haircuts you no longer see, all in glorious old black and white!

It reminded us of this great old poem, by one of the Mersey poets of the 1960s which captures the sense of a first day at school: being unsure what to make of the other children, wondering what the railings are for, what a lesson might be.

First Day at School by Roger McGough

A millionbillionwillion miles from home
Waiting for the bell to go. (To go where?)
Why are they all so big, other children?
So noisy? So much at home they
Must have been born in uniform
Lived all their lives in playgrounds
Spent the years inventing games
That don't let me in. Games
That are rough, that swallow you up.

And the railings.
All around, the railings.
Are they to keep out wolves and monsters?
Things that carry off and eat children?
Things you don't take sweets from?
Perhaps they're to stop us getting out
Running away from the lessins. Lessin.
What does a lessin look like?
Sounds small and slimy.
They keep them in the glassrooms.
Whole rooms made out of glass. Imagine.

I wish I could remember my name
Mummy said it would come in useful.
Like wellies. When there's puddles.
Yellowwellies. I wish she was here.
I think my name is sewn on somewhere
Perhaps the teacher will read it for me.
Tea-cher. The one who makes the tea.

Gallery Photographers: With thanks to the Auld Perth Bairns and other Small City Readers for their help in curating this wonderful gallery.