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Chapter two
The 1970s: Ceilidhs and controversy
The 1970s was a time of change for guiding particularly the second half of the decade when more people in continental Europe started to travel to the UK and Scotland and vice versa. German born Kristine Sander joined the STGA course in January 1970 three months after it had started. She had met two established German speaking guides at a Christmas party in the Lutheran church in Edinburgh who told her about their jobs.
‘I said that is really interesting,’ said Kristine. ‘They said we are retiring. How about doing the course?’
Despite the fact it had already started Kristine was able to join the other 17 or so trainees which consisted of full-time bus drivers on shift with the Edinburgh Corporation, a number of course repeaters, who had failed the previous year, together with a ‘lovely lady’ called Mysie Robertson whose passion was Scottish History.
She particularly recalls one lecture about Scots Law which was ‘a noble attempt to excite students about the Scottish legal system rendered in legal speak by a court advocate.’ Naturally Kristine did a lot of reading for the course and one recommended book she recalls was Highways and Byways of the Borders which was originally published in 1913.
Long serving guides organised full day training excursions, and gave comments en
route. There were three tours put on at weekends. Kristine attended two of the tours - one to the Borders, the other one to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.
‘Joining late I had missed out on the tour of Edinburgh. I promised to prepare that one myself,’ she said. ‘I put my son Olaf in the pushchair and walked taking notes in the Old Town, St Giles, and the Chambers Street Museum. Other days took me down to Leith, the New Town with the Scottish National Portrait Gallery which then shared its building with the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland before it moved to Chambers Street in 1998.
At the end of the course there were exams and the first part was in class time with questions and answers. The second part consisted of an oral 'test ' on the microphone while on an exam city tour. I was tested in German - although nobody understood any German!”
Michael Glen who was organising the lectures for the STGA decided he wanted to train to be a BBG as well and went on to qualify in 1972 but never practised as a professional.
‘I decided I would take the classes myself because I always had aspirations of doing something like guiding if I wasn’t sitting in an office,’ Michael said.
‘So I turned up at most of the classes when I could. They were either in the afternoon or early evening which was family time. Neither was it the best time of day when working full- time. What I do remember was organising bus trips for the trainee guides. They went to such places as the Borders and Fife as well as Edinburgh of course. I had to work out the stages each person would do on the tour. I didn’t have any part in the teaching or examination because that wasn’t my role.’
Glen also made his mark by designing a new badge for the STGA and commissioned Birmingham-based Fattorini and Sons to make them.
‘Fattorini employed lots of women with stoves at home who having got a brass mould with depressions in it then poured in the enamel using the particular colours that were required,’ Michael continued. ‘I had pretensions among many other things to be a graphic designer. I was involved at a very early age in school in lettering and printing.’
Certificates for qualified guides were signed by Scottish gynaecologist Sir Hector MacLennan who was chairman of the STB.
According to the July 1984 newsletter, in the spring of 1973 a need was felt for an independent agent through whom reservations for guides in Scotland could be made and, in April George Cochran was engaged as its man on the telephone who could be contacted at any time for a guide from the registered list. Edinburgh-born George had served with the RAF during the second world war in Shetland and India and returned to his home city and
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