THE SCRATCHER - Janet McCran

There was a place here years ago. where a' the bairns would meet
It was the pride of Prestonpans and it stood there on the street.
We queued up on the Saturdays, to enter that hall of fame.
We paid our pennies at the door. the "Scratcher" was its name!

The penny seats were wooden hard, we'd squirm this way and that
But if the film was really good we never bothered about that.
The threepenny seats were just as hard. the fivepenny seats the same
And if you had a carry-on, McNicoll knew your name!

The film would break down regularly, you'd hear the stamp effect.
From the back came a shower of orange peel. at the front they stood up on
their seats.
"Sit doon in yer seats!" McNicoll would shout, the lights would go up and
you'd hear.
"I'll pit yese oot!" that poor man would yell. and a pellet would fly past his ear!

But for the winchers, it was just the place
Up the back, in the one and nines.
But there at the back, McNicoll would stand
With his torch that he liked to shine.

Alas. the "Scratcher" is no more, they've pulled the old hall down.
In its place there stands "The Store", the mainstay of the town.
But all you folk that still recall the Scratcher scats when winching.
Remember, please, the hordes of fleas, that surely got a lynching!