Lockdown gives author Freddy Gillies cause for reflection
Covid-19 lockdowns and associated restrictions have spurred many people, including Campbeltown man Freddy Gillies, to revive interest in abandoned leisure pursuits.
Until the pandemic struck, Freddy had ‘retired’ from his erstwhile favourite spare time activity as the author of Kintyre and fishing-based books. His return to the keyboard, however, has resulted in the publication of an interesting tome which is now on the shelves.
Entitled Coal Fires and Tuppence for the Bus, the book is described by Freddy as a mini-social history covering life in 1950s/60s Campbeltown.
He said: ‘The book looks back from today’s consumer-driven society to a time when life in the town was altogether different, and we forget how little people had in comparison. Working class priorities were a roof over your head, food on the table, an occasional holiday with relatives and one or two luxuries such as a wireless or a vacuum cleaner.’
Freddy’s introductory piece is supplemented by candidly descriptive recollections – via taped conversations – of nine of his contemporaries who lived through the era.
He told the Courier that the overall message from his friends was clear: life was happier and less complicated, despite the paucity of material possessions and tighter financial situations.
Freddy is also hoping that younger readers will appreciate how growing up in the town then was totally at odds with modern times.
Included in the book are evocative photographs, a collection of advertisements from a 1962 Campbeltown guide book, and images of a number of articles Freddy wrote as a Courier reporter in the 1960s.
Coal Fires and Tuppence for the Bus is available from The Old Bookshelf, Campbeltown.