Thruppence Worth o' Chips?

I guess most Dundonians will be aware of "The Pearl" Chinese take-away at 258 Clepington Road, adjacent to King's Cross Road. It's been there for years and although I haven't had anything from there for a while I always remember their food to be good. However I have fond and vivid memories of it being an Italian "chippy" before that. I don't know what it was called but I remember an elderly Italian woman serving us.

During the dark nights, over the autumn and winter I guess, when you got home from school you couldn't really go out with your pals. I lived with my grandparents and if the weather was good my granddad used to like taking me out for walks. So we would head up from West March, go along Gillburn Road then past Fairmuir Park to the chip shop. I also used to remember jumping on some big rocks that were outside the "Copper Beach" pub in Derwent Avenue. However my treat was thruppence (threepence - three pennies in pre-decimal money) worth o' chips with salt and vinegar. My granddad used to have a knack of tearing the newspaper wrapper in a certain way so the I ended up with a little bag to eat my chips from.

Trying to determine your age at that time, from memory is a difficult thing to do. I always use to like looking over the railway bridge that went under Strathmartine Road at Fairmuir Park. I think the trains had stopped by then but I now know that it was the line of the old Newtyle-Dundee railway.

The other thing that I remember was that the "DLB" (Direct Labour) offices and yard were being built at the time. This has now been remnamed Tayside Contract Services but it still serves the same purpose.

My main memory however is those lovely walks with my dear granddad, topped off by hot chips served by an old Italian woman. I can still smell the salt and vinegar as I type this.