AULD ABERNETHIANS

JENNY WHITE

Jenny White was born Jenny Bett on the 29th October, 1926 at 34, Main Street known as Betts Close.

She was the eldest of seven children born to Arch Bett and Annie Hutton. Her brother Charles is 91 and lives in Canada, her sister Anne is 80 and her brother Ian has also featured as an Auld Abernethian. Sadly her brother Stewart and the twins Archie and Arthur are no longer with us.

She attended Abernethy School where the teachers were all very good, but strict. After finishing at Abernethy she went to Ross’s Commercial College in Perth and hated it. She wanted to be a nurse but her father thought she would be better learning shorthand and book keeping so that she could be on hand to help her mother with the younger siblings at home. She worked for Condie McKenzie the Solicitor and then the GA.

As a child she used to play a lot in the Square and enjoyed going round with Gladys Beatson and her father to light the gas street lamps in the evening. Mr Beatson had a long pole to reach the gas mantles in the lamps. The Tower Bell rang at 8 o’clock to tell the children it was time to get home but this was a rush if she was playing in the park. The Girl Guide Movement had begun on the same day as she was born and she joined on her 11th birthday. They met in the Guide Hut at West Park  and Janet Paton’s mother was Guide Leader with Bertha Powrie and Miss Guthrie.

It was a frightening time during the war. The siren was on Brian’s shop and so was very loud in Bett’s Close. Dad was an ARP Warden so had to get up and report to the Town Office while Jennie jumped into bed with her mother. She remembers swapping her sweet coupons for soap coupons because she didn’t like chocolate!

She met her husband, Bob at her friend Isobel Kemp’s 21st birthday party at the Moncrieffe Hotel in Bridge of Earn (now the Care Home). He had just been demobbed from the RAF after a long time in Burma. They had three girls and a boy, all now retired. Margaret was a nurse, Aileen was a dental nurse then a phlebotomist , Joyce was a head teacher and Jim was in the Scots Guards and was a  helicopter pilot in the Army Air Corps.

She remembers Abernethy as having a lot more shops and a lot less cars. Everyone had to help with the berry-picking and the potato picking. Where the Surgery is now was Ritchie’s Grocers with a billiard table at the rear. The Martin’s house was Miss West’s Photo Shop. Brian’s shop was Scott’s General Store.

 She lived in Newburgh for a number of years but now is back in the house where she was born with her Super-Carer, daughter  Joyce.

AH

Jenny White

Jenny White was born Jenny Bett on the 29th October, 1926 at 34, Main Street known as Betts Close.

She was the eldest of seven children born to Arch Bett and Annie Hutton. Her brother Charles is 91 and lives in Canada, her sister Anne is 80 and her brother Ian has also featured as an Auld Abernethian. Sadly her brother Stewart and the twins Archie and Arthur are no longer with us.

She attended Abernethy School where the teachers were all very good, but strict. After finishing at Abernethy she went to Ross’s Commercial College in Perth and hated it. She wanted to be a nurse but her father thought she would be better learning shorthand and book keeping so that she could be on hand to help her mother with the younger siblings at home. She worked for Condie McKenzie the Solicitor and then the GA.

As a child she used to play a lot in the Square and enjoyed going round with Gladys Beatson and her father to light the gas street lamps in the evening. Mr Beatson had a long pole to reach the gas mantles in the lamps. The Tower Bell rang at 8 o’clock to tell the children it was time to get home but this was a rush if she was playing in the park. The Girl Guide Movement had begun on the same day as she was born and she joined on her 11th birthday. They met in the Guide Hut at West Park  and Janet Paton’s mother was Guide Leader with Bertha Powrie and Miss Guthrie.

It was a frightening time during the war. The siren was on Brian’s shop and so was very loud in Bett’s Close. Dad was an ARP Warden so had to get up and report to the Town Office while Jennie jumped into bed with her mother. She remembers swapping her sweet coupons for soap coupons because she didn’t like chocolate!

She met her husband, Bob at her friend Isobel Kemp’s 21st birthday party at the Moncrieffe Hotel in Bridge of Earn (now the Care Home). He had just been demobbed from the RAF after a long time in Burma. They had three girls and a boy, all now retired. Margaret was a nurse, Aileen was a dental nurse then a phlebotomist , Joyce was a head teacher and Jim was in the Scots Guards and was a  helicopter pilot in the Army Air Corps.

She remembers Abernethy as having a lot more shops and a lot less cars. Everyone had to help with the berry-picking and the potato picking. Where the Surgery is now was Ritchie’s Grocers with a billiard table at the rear. The Martin’s house was Miss West’s Photo Shop. Brian’s shop was Scott’s General Store.

 She lived in Newburgh for a number of years but now is back in the house where she was born with her Super-Carer, daughter  Joyce.

AH