Rab Wilson Collection

Many thanks to Rab Wilson for sharing his collection of photographs from the Town School taken before its refurbishment in 2008 and showing little change from Rab’s time there at Primary School some 40 years before that.

The Auld Toon Schuil bi Rab Wilson

The Cooncil’s daein up the auld Toon Schuil,
A banner proudly boasts its restoration,
Swarms o men in safety hats buzz roond,
An scaffolding cleids evri eik an en.
Gleg slaters slate, an jyners plane an saw,
Whiles boys wi barras breenge an bawl an shout,
Wi clatty glaur clung tae their steel-taed buits.
Ah’m stuid wi camera, capturin these things,
A nemless man, stuid jist ayont their yett,
Gaitherin up a hauntle photiegraphs.
The auld gym’s bin torn doun, whaur aince ah danced,
Wi Ann MacSween, the doactir’s bonnie lassie!
Blue-eyed, her chestnut hair tied back in ribbons,
That floatit oan an air o fiddle tunes;
A Caterpillar digger trundles ower,
Whit aince wis its braw vairnisht wuiden flair,
Nou jist a mound o mangled steel an gless.
Nine million pound, they’re spendin oan this re-fit;
There’s muckle drains an reinforcin mesh,
An dumpers cairtin jaupin loads ae concrete,
A termite nest o eident, eager labour.
Ah notice, in ae corner o the yaird,
Naitly stackt, the ane oan tap o tither,
Aa the auld cast-iron radiators,
Pentit broun, else ither shades o Hairst,
An somethin draws me tae the chain-link fence,
The bairntid mindin o some cranreuch playgrund,
Fou o screichin weans an slides o ice,
Haunds rid-raw wi flingin piles o snaw-baws,
Then cletterin back tae clesses at the bell,
Tae roast oor fingers oan that scaldin iron!
It maks me smile tae think nou there they lie,
Jist twa-three feet awa, upon a pallet,
Ah rax ma haund tae aiblins reach an touch thaim;
But, aye-an-oan, they bide, jist oot o reach.