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Norman Faulds - Back to School...Norman went to Holmston from 1948 to 1955, in the same class as Susanne Nixon (now McMillan), who told him about the planned FP Association, and our pages. Susanne sent us a class photo by e-mail, where you can see her, Norman and their 38 classmates. Norman wrote to us from the Edinburgh area with some thoughts on being summoned "back to school". "Having been invited to join the Holmston P School Former Pupils' Association by Mrs Susanne McMillan (nee Nixon), and having received a primitive e-mail from the Web Page Editors on my Easicom Telephone, and having at last gone on-line properly with a lap top (a far cry from the slate and chalk I used in Primary One), I now feel obliged to answer and ask to be enrolled. "Going back to Holmston after playing truant for forty-five years takes some doing ! "I once played truant for a day with Telfer Ross, a frequent absentee then, but soon became bored and returned to my desk the next morning. "On that same road beside the County Hospital where Telfer chucked his bag over a wall and headed off for town I remember walking to school one winter's morning when everyone was excited by news of the disappearance from Westminster Abbey of the Stone of Destiny. "I recall the day when 'The Heidie', Samuel Hunter, told us proudly that the school had a badge of its own, explained the meaning of 'Altiora Sequamur' and showed us the scroll from the Lord Lyon. "At an earlier morning assembly we each received the largest apple I've ever seen and two sweets wrapped in coloured cellophane from an FP in Canada - rare treats for children in the austere days of rationing after the War. I wish I knew the name of our gracious benefactor. "Funny to think my old classmate Susanne now lives in Canada herself, that I used to go to Westminster Abbey when I worked in Covent Garden, that Malcolm Innes served on a committee of which I was convener in Edinburgh Presbytery, and that recently I stood beside Ian Hamilton at Nigel Tranter's funeral. They say that if you live long enough in Scotland you meet everyone ... "It was Miss Knox whose marital status Susanne could not recall. In those days a Ms was the abbreviation for the word 'manuscript'. And it was that gracious lady who gave the school a board in 1955 to record the names of the school Duxes. I imagine in these politically correct days it may have ended up as firewood, but then it was unveiled in the Gymn/Assembly Hall. "I have some books which the school gave me long ago, which you may wish to have back. If I can pass these on to a teacher when you're through in Edinburgh in June I'd be glad to do so. "Although late on my first morning, I attended fairly regularly thereafter from 1948 to 1955. If you are organising a bash on St Andrew's Night I'd be interested in more information. "Congratulations on a most impressive web site. Holmston P School (which my late father attended when it was Smith's Institution) is still, quite clearly, going on to higher things. "Best wishes to the honest men and bonnie lasses," - Norman L. Faulds
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