Fort William Public (secondary) school 1922. Now the schools are back, note the sartorial elegance of staff and pupils of yesteryear. Locals will most certainly spot family members in the line up. No prizes for guessing the identity of the teacher on the right.
Wet, wet, wet
We certainly haven’t seen quite so much rain so far in in 2012.
But here’s a look back at the Rainnet precipitation figures for 2011.
In descending order - if you’ll pardon the pun.
Scott McCombie, Coupal Bridge, near Kingshouse, Rannoch Moor, 5157mm/203"; Scott McCombie, Achnacon, 3803.7mm/149.8"; John Cameron, Kingie, 3563.2mm/140.3"; Willie MacDonald, Blackwater, 3365.8mm/137.5";
Elizabeth Boyd, Ardgour, 3242.6mm/127.7"; Ian Campbell, Anaheilt, 3158.3mm/124.3"; Andrew Bootman, Achnabobane, 2964.5mm/116.7"; David Craig, Lettershuna, 2619mm/103.1"; Ian Lamb, Ardtornish, 2587.4mm/101.9";
Willie MacDonald, Fersit, 2369.7mm/93.3"; Willie MacDonald, BA Factory, 2016.4mm/79.4"; Ranald Coyne, Arisaig, 1825mm/71.9"; Willie MacDonald, Glenshero, 1773.6mm/69.8"; Ian Watts, Mallaig, 1422.2mm/56"
A Blue do
NOW, after all those rainfall statistics - how was YOUR "Blue Monday"?
According to "research", Monday of this week was the most depressing day we are likely to experience this year.
This state of affairs was, apparently, attributable to winter weather, the waning of the festive spirit, and waiting for credit card bills.
I don’t believe a word of it.
Happy Days!
Out for a stroll
ON the day before "Blue Monday", in sub-zero temperatures, a group of climbers from Edinburgh University were freezing in their tents, alongside the CIC Hut, in the shadow of the North Face of the Ben.
Quite early in the morning they heard some melodious whistling, looked out, and saw a local - in the "North Face" anorak - happily making his way towards them.
"Great, you’ve brought the key of the hut!", they hailed him.
How wrong they were.
The Lochaber man was simply taking the air, out for a gentle stroll.
As he remarked to me on "Blue Monday" :
"Sauchiehall Street didn’t have a look-in up there.
"Or, as a Glasgow Polis - from the Highlands - is alleged to have written in his notebook :
"Sausage Roll Street".
Many thanks
I’VE received the following heartfelt Thank You note via Steven Hamilton, head teacher at Caol Primary :
Dear Roamer,
Through your column can we please thank the wider community of Caol and Fort William for the support given to Caol Primary School in the wake of the recent break-in.
We have been inundated with kind offers of support.
Many thanks to Liz MacMillan, Norma Gregor and Jean Innes who have volunteered to fundraise on our behalf, and a special mention to Fort William Football Club who have replaced our Nintendo Wii.
Many Thanks,
The Pupils and Staff,
Caol Primary School
A real comfort
AND another BIG Thank You.
Dear Roamer,
May I, through your column, thank Joan at Crianlarich Hotel for taking my handbag along to the Crianlarich Police.
I had left it by mistake on top of the wall at the Crianlarich "Comfort Stop", but the bus driver wouldn’t let me out again for a couple of minutes to look for it.
It was such a relief to get it back, when it was kindly delivered to my house, via Fort William Police Station.
When I got off the bus at Fort William, I was penniless, but Caol Cabs and Alasdair Young helped me out, and I am so grateful for their kindness.
I will be calling in to Crianlarich Hotel and the village Police Station the next time I’m down there, to say my personal "Thank You".
Regards,
Helen E Cairns,
Lochyside
30 years on...
Just a few selected items from the Lochaber News of January, 1982 :
* Sixteen members of Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team helped to safety two climbers swept down Point Five Gully in an avalanche (Not a lot of change there, then, in 30 years).
* After five years as chief executive of Lochaber District Council, John McGhee headed off for West Norfolk.
* David Anderson was guest speaker at the January meting of Kilmallie WRI, on the subject of "Visual Welfare".
* A hundred angry tenants "invade" Lochaber District Council’s debate on "the state" of the Lochyside housing. And the gavel was in overdrive.
* Lochaber High School’s pantomime, "Alice in Blunderland", opens to packed audiences.
* The use of the Swimming Pool rose by 25% in 1981 to 91,300 attendances.
Odds against
ABERNETHY!
Out again on Friday - at Musselburgh’s national hunt meeting.
And it was never, well, "in the hunt".
In the first race it eventually came in - last - at 66-1.
Shades of Glen
A few weeks back I was writing about Stewart Connor and Connor Stewart.
Earlier this month I read a newspaper report on the Raith Rovers v Morton cup match, by Fraser Glen.
Shades of our own Glen Fraser!
Signs of the times
INTRIGUING to read that Aberdeen councillors are in agreement for plans to be drawn up for a ban on many estate agents’ signs in Union Street.
And the idea has come from a leading Scottish property expert who reckons that the huge V-Boards attached to premises "To Let"and "For Sale" are making that well known thoroughfare look run-down, tired and depressed.
Most of the signage advertises upstairs offices, and have been in situ for more than two years....
Could such a revolutionary notion catch on here?
Jessie’s Journal
LET’S see what Wee Jessie Jamieson’s Journal is saying to it for this January week of 1959.
* January 16. It was a cold and frosty day. I am full of the cold, too, so I didn’t go to school. Mum bought me a navy skirt to cheer me up.
* January 17. I’m better. It’s freezing hard and the slide was great today.
* January 18. It was a damp day, and all the snow is away. I went to Bible Class, and wore my high heels.
* January 19. It was a dry day, but it rained in the evening when I went to Red Cross.
* January 20. It was a damp day. Helen and I went to the Pictures at night. It was an "X" film - Camp on Blood Island.
* January 21. It was cold and frosty. Then we had snow showers. Chalmers read out in class a note I was passing around.
* January 22. It was a dry day. I got the shield and nursing medal home.
Great Support
DEAR Roamer,
Could you please put a big mention in your column to thank Dinkie and Pat Cameron for their generosity in donating to LAD the £320 collected at Dinkie’s recent retirement party.
It’s marvellous that they thought of us in this way - and the money will be put to very good use.
Regards,
Laura Cheetham,
Manager,
LAD - Lochaber Action on Disability
Phee’s Plea
PHEE!
Phee has a Plea!
Dating back to 1944.
He recalls, in that year, "two guys, in hiking gear, camping near the Rifle Range in typical Lochaber weather".
Phee and other doyens of the Higher Reaches - the Peats and the Turners - got chatting to the "two Army-type guys".
And Phee, being all of ten at that time, invited them down to his Granny Smith in Mamore Crescent, for breakfast.
Not only that, but Granny Smith gave them (the campers) a couple of fags.
One of the duo then departed briefly to check at the Post Office if there was any mail for them at Fort William Post Office.
"Briefly", because he came running back up to the Crescent, clutching a letter ordering them back to base.
Phee tells me that, in a book written in the late 1940s/early 1950s majoring on D-Day, the author makes mention of being "fed and watered by a local family in Fort William, at the foot of Ben Nevis".
Anybody out there know anything about that?
On the up
I don’t know whether it was a "Bloodless Coup" or a "Freudian Slip", but I read somewhere that there’s been an internal managerial (WD) promotion at the Nevis Centre.
Whichever, it must be true.
It was in the paper!
Lock-out
THEN there were the two local public servants on the phone to HQ because they couldn’t get into one of Lochaber’s best known municipal buildings.
They hadn’t memorised the key code.
Egg-stra special!
THAT’s a cracking scheme they’ve hatched over at Moss Park.
You’ll read Stuart Taylor’s "Cockerel and Hens" story elsewhere in the LN.
So go to that page without further Cock-a-Doodle Do.
But, meanwhile, there’s no truth in the rumour that the idea for the "Egg and I" was poached from next-door neighbour Fr Roddy MacAulay.
That’s despite the fact that the parish priest - of "An Island Parish" fame - is a past winner with his entries in the Poultry Section at the South Uist & Benbecula Agricultural Society Show.
