What Success Meant To Me 

To many people success comes in different guises.  Often the person them self didn’t even see it as a success,  just another thing that occurred in their lives, not something that particularly stands out from any other action or deed.  This includes myself and it was not until someone else actually pointed out to me how difficult it must have been to do this or that I actually realised that it was a success.

Several months ago I was given a leaflet with information about the Big + and in that leaflet I noticed that Creative Writing was listed.  It interested me a bit but I wasn’t sure if it was right for me.  I was invited to have a discussion about the class and duly attended at the appointed time.  I was so nervous I felt I couldn’t go through with it.  My husband came along with me for moral support and I felt a little better.
 
The time came for me to attend my first one to one  session.  However, when I stepped through my front door I really felt like turning around and going back inside.  I knew if I didn’t make the effort I would never go through with it, so I took that step out and set off for the session.  Going along the road my knees were shaking and I felt like turning around and going back on more than one occasion.

Job done I thought, but no… having it checked over brought all the errors to light.   Once they were corrected and some photos strategically placed it made all the difference.  When it was checked again I was thrilled with the praise I received for my first “piece”.
By now you would be forgiven for thinking that my success was finishing my first story but you are mistaken: my success was actually getting myself through the door for the first time; that was a huge personal success for me.

Sandra 16 October 2007

Forever

You arrived in the autumn.

We held hands, visited gardens, the cinema, went shopping and cleaned the car.

Always laughing.

Always talking.

Always together.

I had had moments in the spring.

I chased my desires, let my heart rule my head, love was everything.

My fingers burnt, my heart broken, I hid, ran from my hurt.

Spending my summer.

Building my career, rising to the top, gaining the respect of my peers.

Never opening my heart, concealing my emotions bury them deep.

We dined by candlelight.

Led the dancers, gliding around the ballroom.

We strolled along sunset beaches and kissed under the stars.

My passions soared to heights I had never dreamed possible, and my heart trembled with desire.

As you held me, we rested our ageing bones, I thought we would be forever, that we would spend our winter entwined in each other’s arms.

You started to ache and the aching didn’t stop.

You let go my hand and went though the door with no handle, which no one should open but have opened for them.

Yet all pass through, to walk in the garden of no pain, living forever in the heart of those whose arms we once filled.

I winter alone, until the door opened for me.

We held hands once more, forever.

By VICTORIA

June 2002

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Lana

We got her back in 1995 from Ayr she was one of 9 pups, she had a lovely nature but she had a mind of her own at times. Whenever Alex rattled the car keys she was up at the door waiting , and the first at the garage ready to get in the car

When. Alex fell from a tree and caught his leg in a vee of a branch it was Lana who alerted me, and I had to get some help from the neighbours. Anyway Alex ended up in hospital, and I had to rely on one of them, “Annie Robertson” and she would take Lana out every morning at 9.30, she did this for quite a good few months.

Lana was really good when Alex came in after their walk ,she would get his slippers for him, then wait for her treat which she would rattle the phone so she would let Alex know what she wanted.  

Lana would come up beside me on my chair and just squeeze in and made sure she had enough room, and if I left my seat, she would be right there and when I went to get it back she would be very annoyed and not very happy with me. She never went for Alex’s it was always mine, but she was a great friend.

Well we had her for 11 years and 10 months. She died in February. It was cancer and she just went to sleep in her own home which was better than her having to get put down by the vet. She is sadly missed.

Ann

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                  Ann

                                                                 Memories

                                                 The games we played as children

These days you very rarely see children out playing like we used to, like we did back in the 40s & 50s in Edinburgh. We would play games such as rounders, skipping, peevers (hop scotch), statues, dodge the ball, peeries (spinning tops) and also if you were lucky diabalos.  We would be out at every opportunity

Statues, one person would have their back turned away from the rest and count to ten, while the others would move. Then the person who was it would try and get you to move .You had to stand as still as possible. If you moved you were out.
 

Dodge the ball, we would stand in a circle with your legs apart and one person would bounce the ball ten times and wait and see whose legs it would go through, then the person with the ball would try and hit someone. It went like that until everyone was out.        
 

Peeries (spinning tops), you had a stick with a piece of string , which you wound round  the peerie then placed it on the ground and pulled the string to get it spinning, and to keep it spinning.you had to keep hitting it with the string.

In the forties you improvised: the girls would sit on the back step and champ stones. We used a hard stone that you could use to crush down the softer ones into a powder and place it on anything that would hold the powdered up stones. Then you could play at shops.

There was another thing that we used to do: when an ambulance drove passed, we would touch our collar and say “touch my collar I’m a scholar never have the fever”, It’s funny how things come back to mind.

Another thing that girls used to do, they would have a book with scraps in it, it’s hard to explain, and so I still have some from my childhood, so I will copy them, and add them to this piece. What we would do, we would exchange books and pick out the ones we wanted to exchange. Then we would bargain to see which ones we could get.
 
There was the dressing up dolls, which were paper and you used to cut out the dresses, skirts and hats, everything that went with getting dressed, you could spend hours with it.

The boys would get old bicycle wheels without the tyres, a piece of wood and run hitting the wheel to keep it going, they called it a gird. Then the usual cowboys and Indians, bulls (marbles) and kites which you made yourself.

The boys also made guiders (in borders they call them bogies.)They had some contraptions, especially with the big wheels from the silver cross pram or any other type of wheel they could lay there hands on, some had orange boxes to sit on.

There was another thing they boys played, tap door run and all the neighbours would be very annoyed with them, also there was conkers in the autumn.

Ann