The Adam family in Baberton Mains 1974 -1978

In 1974 Jim & I moved from our 2 bedroomed flat in Forrester Park Grove, Corstorphine  into 13, Baberton Mains Drive a small 3 bedroomed semi- detached . I remember our very 1st visit well. The house was owned by a doctor at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. There was very little furniture in the house, but I can remember that in one of the bedrooms, all that was there, was a bicycle and a set to weights ( dumb-bells) . On entering the next bedroom, it was really obvious that there was someone in the bed under the downie! How we kept the laughter at bay I just do not know! At this time the bypass had not been built and from the front upstairs bedroom windows we could see the bus stop on Wester Hailes Drive. There were no buses running round Baberton at that point. We could wave to my relatives at the bus stop as they went home to Leith in the 32 bus.

 I was still working at the Microbiology Labs at the Western General Hospital and drove there each day. My route was via Balgreen and Ellersly Road. I crossed the traffic most of the time which made it quite an easy journey until  one  morning turning from Ellersly Road into Murrayfield Ave, I was taking great pains to watch the traffic coming uphill from the right but had not realised that the traffic was actually piled back and as I moved forward into the rear of the car in front. Was I embarrassed, to discover that the other driver lived in Baberton Mains Court. Fortunately it was only his rear number plate that had been damaged!

 We got to know our next door neighbours at No 15.  Jim & Sandra Cunningham ( Fifers). Jim worked for the  S.S.E.B. and several of his colleagues lived close by, The Gents went out one evening a week to play darts at the Kinleith Arms in Juniper Green. I remember them having to walk or stagger home through the building site at what is now Baberton Mains Wynd.  My Jim had a penchant for making home-made wine and beer and so in the summer evenings we would have barbeques and parties in the rear gardens. I even remember a Burns Supper where only one man came in a kilt but by the end of the evening every man had tried it on and had his photos taken.  One man called Peter Cafferty was famous at these parties as he always came along in his baffies ( slippers).

I remember watching two mums passing every day with their prams. They came down from Baberton Mains Loan and headed to the Wester Hailes Shopping complex (now Westside Plaza). Why they had to go every day I just do not know!! I was sure I recognised one of them as having been in the Brownies and Sunday School with me in Leith. On talking to her she told me to watchout at the Ailsa Supermarket at Wester Hailes as another of our  Brownies worked on the checkouts there. This was the renewal of old friendships and to this day we still meet once a month. Uniforms are not compulsory!
 
In February 1978 we looked at a house in Woodhall Terrace , Juniper Green. It was very similar in style and age to the houses that we had been brought up in,   and although it seemed way above our price range decided to put in an offer and we were in luck. I am sure we paid £24,000. Our house here in Juniper Green became a stopping off point for friends with children who needed to use the toilet! I can remember our Baberton Mains friends telling us that we would not like Juniper Green. They thought that if you had not been  born & bred in Juniper Green you would never be accepted! Fortunately this was not the case and the older people in the village made us so welcome and one old man Tommy More would hang over the garden wall and tell us the history of our house and who had owned it etc. Here I am 36 years later still in the same house!