I Can Go Where Life Leads Me....

In my lifetime, there used to be a Garage in this picture. Just beyond the two little grey stone cottages.

There used to be a railway bridge, made of clinky iron, and wooden slats which rotted with each year. The railway line ran down to the harbour carrying coal to be shipped away. The line and the bridge are long gone.

There is actually another row of house between the little white cottages and the football park (Troon Jnrs aren't that big), and that never used to be there either.

Once there was a huge big Gas Tank, which sat on the Corner, and marked the road from Troon into Barassie. The Gas Tank sat behind a big red brick wall, and grew and shrunk according to how much gas was about. There is a big block of retirement flats there now, still in the red colour, but not quite as scary.

One thing that hasn't changed is that pipe. That pipe has been in the water for as long as I remember. It doesn't pump sewage any more - just out of sight of that picture is the new pumping station which sits between the retirement flats and a posh block of flats on the other side! Nice view for those at the back. The sewage is pumped far out to sea now, so that the beach isn't spoilt with the debris normally associated with my childhood memories of Barassie beach.

The pipe was actually there when my mum was little too. My mum lived in a room in one of those stone cottages, with her Mum, a widow, and her big sister (My Nant). My dad once told me that my mum, when she was wee; used to stand on the edge of the pipe to watch what came out.

She says it was because she had never seen them before!

Ahem. Yes, and she doesn't fart either.