1950 - 1957

I spent the first 3 years of my life in Scotland, living upstairs in a tenement building in Thistle St, Kirkintilloch. I used to look out the window to the kids in the school playground opposite. (I was to return here and attend this school, Townhead Secondary, after living in Australia for 3 years.) My grandparents, McGilvray mother's side, had a farm on the edge of town. My brother Andrew was born in Glasgow, Stobhill Hospital. We moved as a family to York Road East, Middleton Junction, Manchester, England. My sister Nancy was born here. The stork flew in the window I was told. At 6 and 7 years of age I used to walk to school. One saturday I decided to take my 3 year old brother and a couple of other 5 year old friends on a trek across the fields to the town centre. I had a good sense of direction. We got back after dark at 9pm when everyone was out looking for us.