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Social ClassBefore World War II, there were much stronger rules about communication between well-to-do "upper class" people and ordinary people, particularly in quiet country areas and smaller towns such as Ayr. Poorer people generally didn't speak to "their betters" unless they were spoken to! Younger people, too, weren't supposed to start talking to "upper class" grown-ups. You could easily get into trouble... "Once, when I was out walking alone near Belleisle golf course, I asked a well-dressed lady for directions. She demanded my name and I was reported to the headmistress at Holmston who spoke severely to me and warned me not to do such an insolent thing again!" (David McRobbie, 1941) The PoorhouseThe children from Kyle Home (the Poorhouse across the street) came to the school. One of Captain Smith's reasons for leaving money to start the school in 1825, had been to provide education for these and other children who could not go to school, as their parents could not afford to pay school fees. Even when other Holmston children no longer had to pay fees, there were still very poor children living in hardship in the Kyle Home. One pupil remembers them coming to the school after 1935."I can remember them being regimentally marched across the road morning and afternoon, boys and girls dressed in the same type uniforms, black coloured woollen and serge. They kept mainly to themselves and I only remember speaking to one lad one day and he remarked that they had to be in bed by six o'clock, after tea. Even at my age I found it hard to take." (Jim Fairlie, 1935-41).
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