Going through old photos tonight, as one does on the eve of one’s birthday. I must have been only two-years-old in this one. I still have the small black-and-white original of it. It was taken in a photograph studio in Albany Street in Edinburgh. The date stamp says March 22nd, my birthday! Years later, my Mum has scribbled in pencil on the back of it the instructions for it to be enlarged and coloured by a family friend. The latter instructions read: “Eyes – brown. Hair – black. Compl – fair. Jersey – red, blue & white (fairisle). Trousers – pale blue. Socks – white. Shoes – pale blue.” I have to hand it to Mum. She would have had two toddlers and a baby to contend with by that time and been heavily pregnant with a fourth child. We all lived in a tenement in Clark Place in the Ferry, which she often described as “a rat-infested slum”. And her and Dad wouldn’t have had two ha’pennies to rub together. But she made damn sure that her wee boy was all dressed up to get his birthday photie taken in the Toon.
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