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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.
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