Catherine Street

On Springthyme SPRCD 1007
The Foundry Bar Band - Foundry Bar band

Composed by Jim in memory of the street in Dundee where he lived as a child - a street long since gone in the demolitions of the 1960s.

1: Ae day I wandered aa alane,
Ma thochts contrived tae mak me greet;
It wis on a wee bit skelp o grund,
That aince wis kent as Catherine Street.

2: The demolition squad’s been there,
And every stick an stane they cleared;
They said the hooses were nae fit,
For modern faimilies tae be reared.

3: I suppose I must agree wi them,
The conveniences I’m sure were bad;
Bit the fowk in thae auld days lang syne,
They hae made the maist o what they had.

4: And as I lingered there a while,
Ma sadness slowly turned tae joy;
When mindin on the pals I had,
An the games we played when just a boy.

5: At ‘pinner’ and ‘pig’ an ‘kick-the-can’,
At ‘closie-heiders’ an aa the rest;
Or at the fitba in the street,
The Craithie lads could beat the best.

6: Then we’d slip in tae Mrs. Pike’s,
That’s if we’d money tae oor name;
An a penny vantis we would buy,
Tae refresh us for another day.

7: In the march o time aa things must change,
Aa for the best, or so they say;
But sometimes I think it wid be braw,
If the clocks could go back for just a day.

'Pinner' an 'pig' and 'kick the can' and ‘closie-heiders’ were childrens' street games of the time.

c 1981 J Reid/ Springthyme Music