More Memory Lane items from the Roamer columns of 30 years ago
An anti-smoking lobby in the council means one or two members are baling out of the chamber and into the ‘lobby’ during meetings to have a quiet drag. When one particular councillor got up and left his seat, Miss Maclean thought he was blowing her a kiss. In fact he was exhaling an imaginary smoke ring as he exited temporarily. He was followed by a fellow member on a similar mission (emission?). At the end of the proceedings (in the chamber) Miss Maclean remarked to the local press that their representatives looked as if they had gone to sleep. No wonder!
Coach driver making his first foray to the Fort. He had been advised by Midlands HQ to look out for Ballachulish Bridge on his way north. After going round by Kinlochleven he finally spotted the bridge and dutifully crossed it. It wasn’t until he found himself back in Glencoe he realised that his was one tour party going round in circles.
Mr and Mrs James Taylor from Great Missenden went up the Ben last week. Nothing unusual in that. They had been up the Ben before, this time last year. However, on that occasion they forgot their camera to record the fact they had stood on the summit. Last week they were better organised, complete with camera. Reached the summit. Then, mission accomplished, they smiled proudly for one another. Back down to earth. Met by their daughter to whom they gave the camera for her to take a few more sea-level shots so that the spool could go in to be quickly developed. Daughter took one look at it – and roared with laughter. There was no film in the camera.
A quartet of characters from Invernevis House were in the Nevis Bank the other night. At ‘time to go home’ time one of them organised a taxi. Taxi arrived and three of the elderly gents piled into it to be taken, literally, across the road. One stalwart declined the ride, however. After many years of driving for a living, Banny MacDonald preferred a late evening stroll.
A first year class was hearing about the almost human attributes of dolphins and monkeys. The teacher told the pupils that dolphins are ‘super intelligent’. She then asked if any of them knew the names of other clever creatures. Iain Gillies from Morar put his hand up right away. ‘Please Miss, the Mallaig sheep.’
Hard on the heels of Dudley Moore at Letterfinlay came Anneka, aka Mary Sandeman. And just across the water was Dee Hepburn of ‘Gregory’s Girl’ fame. Aye, the Great Glen’s getting the glitter these days.
You’ll have read that a 4,000-year-old axe head was dug up last week at Kneep, Uig, on Lewis. You are now going to read of another amazing find on the island. On Barvas Moor, a pink hub cap was picked up by the locals and returned by parcel post to its owner Annette Steel, in Claggan. The pink accessory had fallen off Annette’s Toyota Tercel when she was back home on holiday. There are not many of them about, so no time was lost in dispatching it back to the mainland.
Cherokee chief ‘Shilo’ reckons his happiest hunting grounds would be in Lochaber. ‘I would love to put my wigwam on top of Ben Nevis,’ he is quoted as saying. But squaw ‘Little Elk’ isn’t so sure. ‘It sure must be kinda cold up there,’ she mused.
‘I wonder where he is now?’ ventured mine host on MacGregor’s Gathering on Monday morning. He was talking about Ginger Wilson, following a radio recording of Ginger’s exploits in escaping from behind enemy lines in WWII. Umpteen people phoned the BBC to advise that Ginger was doing fine, back home in Claggan, thank you.
I hear members of Fort William Community Council (FWCC) were understandably miffed at being missed off the invitation list for the opening of the Link Housing development at Maryburgh Court. It seems our city fathers – and mothers – who submitted the names of local notables, omitted the community councillors. Quite inexplicable, really, as FWCC had suggested the name ‘Maryburgh’ in the first place. Worse still, it was no solace to the community councillors to be advised in a letter from Link that they appear to have been forgotten by Lochaber District Council.
Great hilarity at the Mart at the weekend over a bull called Maurice. It seems, far from being offered as a ‘going concern’, Maurice was somewhat defective in that he was firing on only one cylinder. So, apparently, he went under the hammer just for his curiosity value, which gave rise to a raucous chorus by the farming fraternity of ‘Maurice has only got one...’
‘It’s nice to be nice,’ as they say in Lochaber. And that’s what happened in and around Fort William last week - twice. The Navy came up from Rosyth to the Polldubh Bothy - by minibus. They were bearing a beautiful iced cake and flowers which they presented to Achriabhach octogenarian Mary Bovill. Mrs Bovill looks after the bothy and is its keyholder till the next services group arrives. The Rosyth boys heard it was her birthday, hence the presents. Then the lady herself, feeling the cake was on the large side for one person, donated it to Belford Hospital where she had recently been a patient. Aye, it’s nice to be nice.
Passengers on a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong had a culinary treat which was different from the usual in-flight meal. Their food had been conjured up by Graham Newbould, chef at Inverlochy Castle. Graham was one of seven of the world’s top chefs chosen to create special menus for the airline and he was travelling on the flight to explain the various dishes to the passengers.
He was in good company, too. With him on the high flying haute cuisine exercise were the personal chefs of King Gustav of Sweden, President Bush and President Mitterrand.
Stop press: Over the past 30 years, Joan MacKintosh at Corran has amassed 14 ‘Wee Stinker’ t-shirts by winning that difficult Glasgow Herald crossword that amazing number of times.