A Day Trip to Kilmarnock

[meekan]

Yes Susan I remenber going to that building for night school but it was Kilmarnock Academy then. The "tech" that Penny and I went to sat on the corner of Soulis Street or at least the main entrance did. I went to day release there. I can't remember who the head teacher was but my main tutor was a man called Mr Brainey well named because he was a very clever man. He was a Sid James look alike, and was a Spitfire pilot in ww2.
There was a wee shop between the cross and the college that sold the most amazing pies, but you had to lean right forward with your hands well in front of you to eat them because they were swimming with grease but were very very tasty.

[chriso]

WMH,

You made me laugh. I sometimes feel like 100 but I haven't had the telegram yet . I'll tell you what though, I never knew that first Techy existed. It looks like it was a very grand building, and I must have seen it previously because I once visited the Dick Institute, which is another story for another day.

When I was about 12 I used to go to Kilmarnock baths every Saturday morning with a couple of mates. We went to the Dick institute a few times after we came out the baths.
I remember going through a large opening which had the jawbones of a whale up either side.
My favourites were the gun collection and the spiders and scorpions and snakes.
Hmm, I think it's time I went for another visit.

[Penny Tray]

There was a wee shop between the cross and the college that sold the most amazing pies, but you had to lean right forward with your hands well in front of you to eat them because they were swimming with grease but were very very tasty.

Meekan,

I remember that shop very well, on the left-hand side as you walked up to the college from the bus station. And I remember how you had to eat the pies. The décor of the shop was, as I recall, very basic and was freezing in the winter. To this day I like my Kit-Kats and other chocolate straight from the fridge, a taste acquired from those very premises.

[Penny Tray]

When I was about 12 I used to go to Kilmarnock baths every Saturday morning with a couple of mates.

Chriso,

Susan, will doubtless keep us in check but I suspect she will let us play about with the Tech for a wee while and then maybe take us to the Baths, a location we often went to when we 'plunked' the Tech .

[down south]

Sorry to have found you the wrong Tech, PT ! Never imagined there would have been as many as three successive buildings.

Interesting to hear about the Dick Institute; I take it that would be the local museum .

And I'll happily visit the baths next, but you'll have to tell me where they were first....

Susan

[Penny Tray]

The baths were in Titchfield Street. The following is an extract from the 7 October 1940 issue of the Glasgow Herald:-

KILMARNOCK CORPORATION'S NEW SWIMMING POND

A new swimming pond erected by Kilmarnock Corporation in Titchfield Street were formally opened on Saturday (5 October 1940) by Mrs Wilson, wife of Provost G. H. Wilson.

The swimming pond is 100 feet long by 42 feet wide and has a capacity of 215,000 gallons.

[brian f]

Kilmarnock baths was a massive large freezing outdated pool by the time me and my friends went to it .
The only good thing about was the wave machine came on for about 5 mins every hour .
Kilbirnie baths was tops, smaller, warmer and up to date diving boards .

[Penny Tray]

Brian,

I was visiting the Baths circa 1960-62, always in the winter after the open-air pool at Saltcoats had closed. This being the case my rose-tinted recollection is that it was always warm and pleasant. I also attended during my lunch-breaks throughout 1963. The Tech wasn't my happiest experience in life and swimming provided some light relief.

Throughout this period the wave machine, as you suggest, certainly added to the fun.

During the latter period too, I always remember being impressed by a woman, Eleanor Stewart, who was quite a big name in 'swimming' at the time. She had a special lane set aside for her at lunch-time and swam back and forth non-stop for an hour, alternating between the crawl and the butterfly. She was certainly dedicated.

http://kilmarnockasc.org.uk/html/eleanor_stewart.html

[wmh]

PT
those recollections were not rose-tinted at all .Kilmarnock baths were brilliant , always spotless, great warm water and roasting hot showers to stand in after your swim .We frequented the baths around 66-67 regularly and loved it . When we headed back to Saltcoats or sometimes Troon in the summer months , I could get out the water faster than the time it took me to dive in ,it was so cold.
wmh

[Hughie]

Spent many a day at Kilmarnock baths. You had to walk through an ankle deep disinfectant pool to enter the water. There was no diving allowed from the boards when the wave were on, in case anyone happened to dive between the waves into shallow water.

You only got something like a forty-five minute session, and then everyone was out so the next session could start. A wee bit startled one day while dressing after a swim, this man-like woman, an employee, came walking through the changing area which was more or less just a long corridor as I recall - no adults there, just us boys.

I remember us walking back to the A1 stance many a time and going up a close and getting a big bag of hot chips - that was always looked forward to 'cause we were always famished after our dook.

[Penny Tray]

Hughie,

Why was it the diving dales always looked so small from the side of the pool but when you climbed the ladder, especially to the highest one, you might as well have been on top of the Empire State Building. I vividly remember my trip up there, saying to myself, "What have I done, why I am here, if I climb back down the ladder will anyone notice me, can I get away with doing a 'bomber' or will I really have to dive, if I do dive will my head hit the bottom, why are there so many girls my own age here today, why is everyone looking at me. I might be kidding myself but to save face, I think I eventually dived but I don't remember being up there again.

On our way home I seem to recall the group I travelled with visiting a café. I think it was called the 'Moka'.

[morag]

Thanks, PT..made me chuckle!