Dear Editor,
I see Fiona Manson is researching and looking for photographs of her grandfather's grocery shop which once stood on the corner of Rodney street and Heriot Hill Terrace (Breaking news 10.9.10). I'm afraid I don't have any images of the shop but do have memories.
As a boy in the 1960s I worked for Fiona's grandfather delivering groceries. For a couple of hours every day after school, I'd stack up a sack barrow with boxes of groceries and deliver them to the Bellevue area and the New Town. It was really hard going, all up hill!
Mondays were always my easiest day as they were reserved for folding flat a mountain of boxes that had built up in the storeroom. I remember always being concerned not to crush the shop's cat as it had the habit of hiding somewhere within.
At the end of the '60s I was leaving Edinburgh to live in England and sadly had to give the job up. When asked if I could recommend someone to take over, no sooner was the word out, I was besieged by all the kids around – so it seems it was the job to have.
Kind regards,
Donald Graham
Staufen, Germany