Scottish Memory Lane
- Medical and Health Services



Royal Infirmary, Glasgow



Medical advances in the last century have meant that some medical conditions can be treated differently and often more effectively now than used to be the case.

I'm hoping that readers will send in their own stories and memories of their own childhood in Scotland. All contributions should be sent to Scottie@RampantScotland.com.


Polio

I was born in Dysart, Fife. I had Polio in September 1949 and can remember going into the ambulance - there are pictures of me in Cameron Hospital but really it’s very vague. (The graphic here of Cameron Hospital is ©James Allan via Wikimedia Commons)

At that time my parents couldn’t see me for a month after admission, so it was a worrying time for them. I remember going to the hospital in Edinburgh to be fitted for a brace and seeing the Polio patients outside in the sun.

We met and made friends at the hospital in 1950 and to this day I keep I keep in touch with them. They were kind as they gave us eggs and butter because of the rationing. I can remember going picking currants by the side of the road and Mum making jam.

Wee School in Dysart



Irene Locke (who has an entry in the "Washing Day" page) and I were at the Wee School in Dysart at the same time. The graphic of Dysart Primary School is © Ian Calderwood via Geograph. Irene remembers me coming into the classroom with a brace holding up my right arm. At school I remember writing on slates and getting milk in bottles. I can remember going up to the co-op shop with my Mum, Peggy Beall Lawson, and putting the ration book in the slot when it was the next number in line. Also my Dad, George Lawson, would go down the to the shore and collect sea coal, which gave a great fire.


My Mum would be out whitening the steps like the rest of the neighbors in those days. We had a motorbike and sidecar and when my Gran Lawson went in it she carried a hot water bottle to keep her warm! Then we got a 1936 Ford, three on the floor and my Dad tried to teach my Mum how to drive but she couldn’t shift the gears.

My Parents



We came to the United States in 1953, but like Irene, Fife is still "home".

We went back to Fife to celebrate my parents' Ruby and Golden Weddings as they didn’t have a celebration when they were married. In 1944 my Dad was preparing for D-Day when he received word that my Grandfather Lawson died, He came up to Scotland buried him, got married on June 1st and was in D-Day on June 6th, 1944.

Every time we were home there were new memories. I’ve attached pictures of my parents when they got married in Fife in 1944 (on the left) and for their golden wedding (below).


Mum and Dad Lawson on Their Golden Wedding

Briony, in Detroit USA since 1953.


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Where else would you like to go in Scotland?




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