Sports Center Saturday – NO SPEEDOS!

Hurry up with the photo and fetch the brandy!

OMG – just look at the get-up that this lot are wearing!  Still, they seem to be having a good time despite most likely being in Scotland and having been in the freezing cold water. Those lovely (hand-knitted?) items of swimwear must have been a joy to wear when wet 🙂 If it was a colour photo,  I bet you’d see that they are all blue from the cold.

These pics are more from my Great Granny’s album of family frolics, which is turning out to be a great source of amusing blog posts.  Well, they amuse me 😉  As Sports Centres (just slipping in the UK spelling so no one this side of the Pond complains to me) didn’t really spring up in Scotland for about 50 years after the photos were taken, you made your own entertainment, which they did admirably, and as usual, I am cheating a bit.

Naturally, the ladies showed a bit more decorum in their golfing gear.  But, on closer inspection, the lady on the right isn’t holding a golf club, it’s Sir Harry Lauder’s walking stick – in fact, I think they’re all doing some kind of dance pose with sticks or canes!

Yes, the silly dance runs in the family, even the youngsters are at it, with or without the knobbly stick…  No doubt some dance which was fashionable at the time.

I wondered if I could maybe zoom in on the badge on the girl’s school blazer (on the right) and try to identify the school (possibly in Perthshire or Edinburgh) but I think it will need higher resolution scanning.

But Mum it's TOO HEAVY!

This photo was taken during a weekend away at Tayport in May 1928.  According to other similar photos in the album, the family was staying at Elmslea House which is at 325 Perth Road, Dundee and was subsequently used by the University as the Principal’s residence.  There’s Granny on the right at the back.  All the family can enjoy a game of tennis, even if the racket is nearly as big as you.  Looks like it made the little one more than a wee bit grumpy!  Check out her fizzog*  You can right-click on the photo, open in a new Tab and enlarge and then press the Back button to come back here.

And for the rather more genteel gentleman, fishing was, and is, the sport of choice, preferably at Loch Earn.

Father fishing at Loch Earn 1928

Saturday morning 7th July 1928

There’s a rather sad note on the back of this picture  “Father fishing at Loch Earn.  Last snap I took of him.  Saturday morning, 7th July 1928.  Out from Lochearnhead Hotel.”  This must have been a  much-treasured photo of “father”

Jo

Sports Center Saturday is a series suggested by Susan Petersen of Long Lost Relatives – you can view other Sports Center Satuday at Geneabloggers.

*fizzog – from my interpretation, this is a Scottish version of Physiognomy, which is (according to Wikipedia) the assessment of a person’s character or personality from their outer appearance, especially the face.  The accent is on the second syllable.  And she was having a right strop that day!  Not that I don’t have lots of photos of me with exactly the same face…