April 26^th 1945 was the day I was born, at No. 7 Quay Street Saltcoats, my mother was born in 1911 in the same house and I believe her mother before her, as far as I know the building is still there but is used as a storeroom. It was still there in 2001 when I had my last visit. My mother was Jeanie Black from Saltcoats and my father John (Jackie) Bone from Stevenston. I had two brothers who preceded me at that time, being Kenny, 6 years older and David 1 year older. Coming down from Countess Street you crossed the junction of Dockhead Street and Bradshaw Street into Quay Street and No. 7 was on the right hand side about 50 yards down. There was a pub there at the time and we lived directly above the pub. The close was to the right hand side of the pub in between it and the Chiropodists Salon, which was owned by a Mr. Peter Allwell who lived downstairs behind the salon with his wife and daughter Margaret.

Access to our place was through the close to almost the end, left and up the stairs in a semi-circle, past the communal toilet on the right and back along the passageway to the end where there were two doors on the right and one on the left. At the end of the close was a backyard with a large washhouse and a big boiler for boiling the water, mum would load up the fire underneath with wood and light it up to boil the water on our washday. There was also a great hand wringer with two big rollers for squeezing the water out of the clothes. The house itself consisted of a large room, which was the main part of the house; into the wall was an alcove into which was built a double bed, this was where mum and dad slept. Next to the alcove was the fireplace, which also doubled as a cooker, it had a hotplate for boiling water and there was an oven built into that as well for baking. Off the main room was a small scullery which had a gas stove a small cupboard and a sink, there was no hot water, it all had to be boiled. Mum would bath us kids once a week in the sink using water from a large saucepan of boiled water. There was another room but we never went in there except to sleep.                                                     John and Marilou Bone with friend Colin

There were two other families who lived upstairs besides us, there was the Hughes family who would move out before us and go to live in Mayfield Road, and the Lumsdens who had no children replaced them. Across the passageway lived Archie McCubbin and his wife Mattie with two daughters Margaret and Eileen. They moved away just before us and went to live in Thurso in the North of Scotland.

The Second World War would close in Europe some 12 days after I was born though the effects of food rationing would be felt for many years to come. My dad worked in the shipyard in Ardrossan and was not allowed in the forces, as his job working on ships was important, he had two brothers who served in the army and one with the merchant navy.

Mum went to work in Ardeer factory when I was 4 years old, a Mrs Langen who lived in the esplanade cottages used to come and look after us, sometimes she would take us to her place and take us back when mum was home. I can remember she had two daughters one of them was called Marion.

February 1950 and it was time for me to got to school. I remember the first day well. Kyleshill Primary School was the place, mum took me there and I was registered early. Miss Ness and Miss Wilson were the two teachers who were there on that day registering us as we came in. Some kids were crying when they had to leave their mums. Miss Ness’s room was the first room that all kids who went to school had their first lessons in. It was in the Wee Side of the school, as there were two buildings in the school, eight classrooms in the Wee Side and five in the Big Side, the final five classes were spent in the Big Side, this was where the headmaster’s office was and also any administration was done. The headmaster when I went was a Mr. Clark, he retired after a couple of years and Mr. Weir became the headmaster.

On my first day I can remember sitting at the back next to another young boy looking at the kids coming in to be registered and I asked him his name. He said to me "You tell me yours first" I told him mine and he said "My name is Robert Brown" we were to become good friends all the way through primary school. 11 o’clock arrived and we were all given a bottle of milk and a straw, the bottle was one third of a pint and the cap was a little round piece of cardboard which had a perforation in the middle to pop with your finger and put the straw through. I didn’t know how to use a straw, we always had cups at home and this was all new. I can also remember we got a smack on the back of the hand from Miss Wilson if we made that awful noise when you reached the bottom of the bottle, we were told to leave a little bit in there so it wasn’t noisy.

I enjoyed my time at Kyleshill and was always 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd in the class and No.1 when it came to getting the belt for being mischievous. After a little while I got to know who all the teachers were there. In the Wee Side there was Miss Ness, Miss Wilson, Miss McGarvie, Miss Goldie, Mrs. McMurtrie, Mrs. Shore, Miss Dickie and Miss Miller. The Big Side was Miss Reid, Miss Barclay, Miss Dickson, Miss Kenyon and Mr. Burnett who went on to the public school around 1955, about the time the Wee Side burned down due to the Pringles Garage fire. We must not forget Mr. Sproat the Janitor; he always had a smile for everyone and was always in a good mood. The only time I saw him sombre was on the morning of 6^th February 1952, he knocked on the door of Mrs. Shore’s class popped his head round and Said. "Mrs. Shore news has just come in, The King is dead.

One other thing that sticks in my mind is that when Easter and Christmas came around they used to make us learn hymns and march us down to the Landsborough Church at the top of Bradshaw Street and sing them in there,

Just a few doors down from us and before the braes was a close which housed Howie’s bakehouse at the back, I would go down there and watch the men bake the bread and make the cakes. They didn’t seem to mind us kids just standing and watching, they knew who we were anyway. I was always fascinated how the men could pick up a large bread board full of pies, cakes and bread, then balance it on their head and head off up to their shop in Countess Street. Round on the braes there were no flats at that time, going up and beyond the back door of Woolworth’s there was a two-storey building, which jutted out at right angles. The bottom of the building I only knew as the Old Men’s Club, it had window on three sides you could look in and all I ever saw was old men. There were two families upstairs; I remember them being the Donnelly’s and the other the Dallas’s. Lots of families I remember were the Andersons who lived opposite the braes, farther down were Jimmy Dickie, John Ronald, Sandy Hindmarsh who lived up round the corner. Sandy was one you kept in with for his father had a wee motorboat called the Snipe and Sandy sometimes took us out in it. More