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Chapter Three
The 1980s: You just can’t get away from us, no matter where you go
It was a hot August Saturday afternoon in the 1980s and Marilyn Hunter had been waiting in Charlotte Square for over two hours for her coach full of German visitors to arrive for their tour. In those days there was no mobile phone for Marilyn to use to find out what had happened.
‘The coach had broken down on their journey south on the Forth Bridge, and there was no way they could let me know,’ she recalls.
‘We used our home phones a lot to accept tours and offer them to colleagues if we couldn’t do them. We used snail mail and cheques. A fax machine and an answering machine were modern aids. These were the days of making arrangements well in advance and sticking to them – you just couldn’t change the meeting time or place. Such was life – any difficulties – no mobile – try and contact the agent.
‘There was much less traffic. Coaches could pick up on Waverley Bridge, drive right up the Royal Mile, park on the Esplanade where we bought tickets at a booth. In the Castle guides and drivers were offered a tea/coffee and a meal. I remember getting the first (free) permit for Holyrood Park. At Holyrood, we accompanied the Palace guides on their tours, translating if necessary. As each one had a different little story, we got to know the Palace well. There were public toilets at the foot of the Canongate on the site that is now the Scottish Parliament.
‘Coaches could go up Calton Hill – it took time for manoeuvring up and down the narrow road, and it was very stinky at the top with the exhaust fumes. Cruise ships were a novelty and we were sometimes invited on board for lunch. It was hard to get good quality and good value meals for the visitors. It was either expensive high end, or poor quality.’
Marilyn was a student on the STGA guiding course in 1980 and it cost her £100.
‘We had lectures on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for nine months,’ she recalls.
‘The history lectures by the very respected Dr Barclay were very popular. Most of the other lecturers came from Telford College. We had a drama teacher to help us with our breathing, eye contact and voice control. Guides took us on a few tours but there were no mentors. In those days members received a printed STGA Newsletter in the post to tell them about what was happening in the guiding world.
‘Once you qualified there were lectures in the winter and occasional study days and excursions out of town. Annually in January a few guides would meet to stuff guide lists into envelopes to send out to agents all over the world.’
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