By Jeanie Ramsay
To my Bill
When thouchts o’ hame to mind return
There’s the Wee Wood road and the Wal Brae burn
There’s the wheeling lark ascending higher
Its liquid notes a heavenly choir
There’re meadows dappled wi’ floor & fern
And there’s a peerie made o’ an auld bit pirrn
There’s auld Rab sitting by the single neuk
Spinnin’ philosophy use fund in the book
His good wife Jenny toasting some scones on the grate
Thankful for simple things one gives them prate
There’s a tub o’ warm water wi’ sapples that froth
And as I wash off the pit dirt I’m thinkin’ o’ broth
That’s aye in the wee pan close to the fire
The tastiest drink your heart could desire
There’s the shriek o’ lads at play in the street
They’re kickin’ a fitba, and yin starts tae greet
He’s clipped a blaw wi’ a tackety boot
He’s as black as the lum and he’s torn his suit
And there’re bum-bees that strain at the end o’ a thread
The mair they struggle the sooner they’re deid
There’s the scent o’ the flourish on the warm spring air
There’s the hiss o’ the gas lichts and sometimes their flare
There’s ma’ mither and faither a’ dressed for the kirk
As I’m pumping the organ and makin’ it work
There’re lassies wi’ bloon on their cheeks like roses
And bearded auld men like patriarch Moses
Their grimy seemed faces a’ men frae the pit
Ah’ve kent them and loved them and their ready wit
Their hanes sae pair yet shining and bright
Tae step inside was always a delight
But the picture that comes to mind o’er and o’er
Is the Muirend Hoose wi’ the wide open door
That Muirend Hoose wi’ the bed in the wa’
And the fire in the grate that never got cauld
My mither working sae happy an’ gay
Raisin’ twelve weans on a collier’s pay
That hoose where neighbouring mothers cradled their weans
When they stopped at the threshold to speak a kind word
Or exchange a bit gossip just newly heard
Aye the thouchts o’ hame tae my mind oft return
And its oft for the auld hoose and the auld scenes I yearn.
The above poem was written by Mrs. Jeannie Ralston to her husband William of Cranston, Rhode Island, USA and appeared in the December 1980 issue of the Scots Magazine. We are delighted to re-publish it here as a prime example of the culture and camradrie of a byegone era in Baillieston.
baillieston.net 2004
