The driver for this website is simply to act as link between my past lives, and the present. As one ages (or this one anyway) one tends to forget who knows what, about where & whom.
I was born in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis. I suppose I’m a “baby boomer”, in that my birth coincided with the start of the post-war boom, and the end of rationing. Sometimes it’s called the “New Elizabethan Age” (by the English chattering classes mostly, it’s fair to say).
Leaving that aside, there’s no doubt my generation has seen seismic changes. Not only in technology, but socio-economic.
For the 18-odd years I lived & grew up in Burncrook, Upper Bayble (or Bayble Stores & Post Office as it was also called) I saw the demise of the herring industry in the Western Isles, & the arrival of TV (The thrill of watching Doctor Who!). The reliance of the village on general stores such as ours, to the ready availability of cars with everyone doing their shopping in the big city of Stornoway (or SY for short). And now people think nothing of hopping on a plane or ferry and travelling to Inverness for a day’s shopping. Or even the megapolis of Edinburgh.
When I went to Primary school, only one other pupil was fluent in English rather than Gaelic. Now it’s the other way round.
I spent my entire full-time working life in the Inland Revenue (now HMRC, & no – I won’t be providing a hyperlink for that). I’ve lived in Edinburgh longer than in Lewis; leaving aside other places. I would never return to live in Lewis. I find it restrictive and its customs are not mine.
And yet the place calls to me, and I visit.
Compared to children today, I seem to have had an idyllic childhood. Our home, Burncrook, was comfortable. I was secure within an extended family, but relatively free to play & explore. Near the sea, able to fish & swim.
I have had many lives, as all who live for any time do. I have changed my love of fishing for a love of beer, with a concomitant effect on my waistline. I’ve joined CAMRA, Museums and Galleries. I’ve metamorphosed into a typical well-off pensioner. Not really a look I like. But not as much as I dislike being a widower. But an appreciation of my beloved late wife Liz, is another work.
But I’ve retained my love of history and Scotland. I haven’t wavered from my affiliation to the SNP from boyhood, when I first read the story of William Wallace in Primary 7; a privilege I believe is currently denied our primary school children. My interest in politics is strong, if my activism is less so.
And I still read, if not as avidly as once. Books are precious, and I don’t have, or want, a Kindle.
My Gaelic, alas, remains erratic, although when I go back home, I return to Edinburgh improved.
So here I am, in my declining years. Immensely lucky compared to most in this turbulent world.