Lament
Tae The Store
I
wandered today tae the store, Maggie
Tae
see whit my tokens could buy,
But
when I got doon tae the store, Maggie,
‘twas
enough tae make anyone cry!
‘cause
when I got doon tae the store, Maggie
The
windows were shuttered a’ roon,
And
that’s just like maist o’ the rest, Maggie,
The
rest of auld Kilsyth toon.
O
they go in their cars, or the bus, Maggie
Tae
Glasgow or Falkirk, and whit’s more,
They
come back wi’ bags full o’ stuff, Maggie,
They
could have got doon at the store.
O
they said that these shops were too dear, Maggie
I’ll
tell ye, they don’t have much sense,
They
travel for hundreds o’ miles, Maggie,
Just
trying tae save a few pence!
So
if ever you walk doon the toon, Maggie
And
find all the shops have shut doon,
You’ll
ken wha’s tae blame for the mess, Maggie,
And
for making Kilsyth a ghost toon!
ă
1994 Tom Jarvie
Hi, Tom Jarvie here, Born at Garrel Mill House 30/01/49. Lived at various
places after that, Kingston House ( long since gone ) , Berryhill
Farm, Kingston House ( again ), Kingston Flats till 1972
I left Kilsyth in 1972 to go and have a look at New Zealand, where I lived for
five years before getting married and heading back to Scotland to show the
country to the Kiwi Wife. We lived at Baldernock for a while, where my
wife had a job as house cleaner/general dogsbody in the Baldernock Glebe.
After a couple of winters in Scotland we headed back to NZ after being offered
a job with the Co. that I had worked for previously in NZ. Two years passed
and we moved to Tasmania where we now have lived for 21 years. During my
employment with G E Medical Systems as a Xray & Medical Systems engineer I
was fortunate to be able to travel to USA with stop-overs in Kilsyth
almost once annually for 12 years.
I was dismayed to see the deterioration of the Kilsyth shopping centre ( Main
St ) over the years with most of the old familiar shops closing their doors,
being victims of the proliferation of motor vehicles and hence, people going
further afield to go shopping.
The attached is a wee poem that came out of my heid after a visit
home to Kilsyth.
Feel free to use it in print or on the website provided the copyright and name
stay with it.
Have a good one mate !
29/5/03