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Chance meeting reveals old snaps

Every picture tells a story – or so they say.

The old adage was proved correct by a casual reader of the Selkirk Advertiser – who actually took the photo featured in the paper in a View of the Past feature about 1960.

Photographer David Johnstone, who used to work on the Soutern Reporter, left Selkirk in 1964 to join the Edinburgh police.

Now exiled from his old stamping ground, it was pure chance he got to see his old work printed in the paper.

The photo was one of several views he took from the top of the tower at Selkirk Sheriff Court.

David told the paper he was waiting for the bus to Edinburgh, found an old friend on board, who handed him the paper to catch up on news from where he used to live and work.

He said: “When we got into to Edinburgh, Ian said to me ‘Here’s a wee present for you’, and handed me a copy of the wee paper.”

“It wasn’t until after that that I read the paper. I got a real shock when I turned to page four, to see the photo I had taken all those years ago. Seeing it got the old emotional batteries re-charged with a trip down memory lane.”

And he sent a copy to another old friend, Bill Keadie, a former chief reporter and assistant editor with the Soutern Reporter, who lives in London.

Bill has since written to the Advertiser, to tell of his delight at seeing the photo and the paper.

He told readers: “David took a series of shots with his plate camera, north, east and west.”

The two exiles meet up every year at their annual pilgrimage to Selkirk Common Riding.

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