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Even though I was born in Glasgow in 1968 my father Andrew Robertson and mother Jean Robertson decided that in 1972 Maybole would be the perfect place for myself my younger brother Mark and my sister Mandy to grow up. My dads family although from Glasgow had been in Maybole for many years , my grandfather William and his giant of a brother Samuel where well known faces in the town . When we first moved there my mother was distraught , she was away from her mother and sisters in Glasgow, but soon enough she would settle down after meeting two life long friends Jessie Bissett and Senga McBride . My mum wasn't the only one to meet a life long friend because this was when I met Jim Brown my best friend for over 40 years . We had left a room and kitchen and moved into a huge 3 bed room house at 154 Minnoch Crescent. ( it even had a bath) no more trips to the baths at the local swimming pool. My class were the first primary 1 at the brand new Gardenrose primary , a modern state of the art school that would nurture and guide young minds on to the path of great things .lol Growing up in " High Living" as it was known! was fantastic we had two great areas "the triangle" and "fine view" were our football skills would be honed to perfection. Every night a motley crew would assemble to play football , kick the can or team hunt .
Away from school we would spend long summers at "Maybole shore" were the whole town seemed to migrate too. Who can forget walking down the "rough road" or the fantastic site of Jimmy Hannah's minibus appearing around the corner , picking you up at the stones roundabout. I remember when no less than 20 of us would cycle out to Culzean to acquaint ourselves with the fruit in the walled gardens. I was very fortunate that my mother worked at the kiosk at the castle so for few summers anyway I am sure the National trust of Scotland's profits maybe were not what they should have been. On leaving school every body seemed to go and work at Douglas Engineering down in Murray gardens . A factory where all the men folk from the same families worked, everyone had a brother, father or uncle there . I still remember my first day walking down the stairs to the then known carport factory , where 25 of us would sit around a bench putting tape on the kodak camera bodies. Following on from a long week at the factory we had the Town Hall disco to look forward too on a Friday night were you had the chance to wear your newest MOD item of clothing or shoes, wearing a Merton parka in the summer wasn't fun! The great thing about starting to work was you got paid which meant you had money for beer. Then Maybole had an abundance of pubs , The Grey Man, The Star, The Carrick, The Gluepot, The Masons, The Greenside, The Saints to name a few. You knew the pubs your old man drunk in so you gave them a wide berth and usually you were ok.
So the question I ask is even though I wasn't born in Maybole , even
though I haven't lived there for 20 odd years, when some asks me
where are you from I tell them without hesitation I am from Maybole
and I am a Minnieboler .
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