More memory lane items from the Roamer columns of 30 years ago
The council has designated two new road signs for Polmona in Claggan. However, both proclaim ‘Polomona’. One board is firmly in place but, apparently, the workforce ran out of cement to embed the other one. So it continues to lie on its back. Meanwhile there are plenty of Clagganites moaning, justifiably, about the ‘Polomona’ bit.
There was this needle primary school shinty match at Inverlochy last Thursday. Wee Gordon was all keyed up, waiting to get into the action. An hour before the game he was kitted out with his strip, his tracksuit over the top of it. Comes the throw-up, with Wee Gordon ready to give it stick. Until he realised he had taken the field wearing his drawers instead of his shorts. Then there was a rush to do a cover-up job! When he is asked in later years for the most embarrassing sporting moment of his youth, I’ve no doubt Wee Gordon will recall the time when he was 11 and playing shinty in his drawers.
There was another match which rated the attendance of a number of Lochaber fans. It was at Anfield. Between Liverpool and Chelsea. Fourteen members of the Marine Harvest Liverpool Supporters Club went down to the game. But only 11 came back home in the coach. It seems a particular trio missed the bus from Anfield. They’re back at work now, though, I think.
The leisure centre will soon have a new bouncy castle for youngsters. Or, if you prefer as does Councillor Iain Thornber, a bouncy fort. It will be sited in one of the squash courts during our long, hot summers when squash isn’t quite so popular. Councillor Brian Murphy has proposed the leisure and recreation committee members should inaugurate the bouncy fort. I’m sure all the councillors will have a high old time.
‘If I don’t see you through the week, I’ll see you through the window.’ That was the craic from Willie Anderson the other day. Fortunately, Willie had remembered to take the glass out of the tourist office window prior to pushing a gondola cable car through it. I was going to say ‘pushing the boat out’, but Willie doesn’t recognise that expression. Anyhow, there is now a gondola cable car on view inside the Cameron Centre. Ideal for tourists to get the hang of it and for those locals who might not yet have ventured aboard at Aonach Mor.
Donald MacPherson’s discovery at Achintee could be of major importance to our local natural history heritage. Donald’s cat resides in the garden shed. It has its own cat flap entrance. And the cat sleeps in a particular corner of the shed. So you can imagine Donald’s amazement when he went in the other morning and found six newly-laid eggs in that very corner. Donald is mystified, so he’s planning to contact the Egg Marketing Board. You could be on a winner, there, Donald.
Have you seen the latest glossy guide to Lochaber? Printed in Manchester, this four-page special contains a map of Fort William. But, where is the railway station on that map? You might well ask. It is pinpointed where it always should have been - at the pierhead. British Rail area manager Clive Evans commented in between Burns Suppers: ‘It looks as if our station has moved again. But no-one told me. In fact, I went to Glasgow on the train on Monday and when I came back, the present station appears to have been wiped off the local map!’
That was a hugely hospitable idea by Lochaber Mountaineering Club (LMC) to entertain a visiting Polish climbing group last week. A ‘Highland night’ was arranged for the Poles and LMC really pulled out the stops. One kilted member played the pipes. Another kilted member bore the haggis to the table for the next kilted member (Ken) to address it. Kilted Ken then plunged his sgian dubh downwards. But it skited across the haggis before breaking the skin – of Big Sam’s hand. Strangely the Polish contingent thought this was all part of the ritual!
If the manager of the Clydesdale Bank in Fort William has been here for three years, what does that make him? The longest serving bank manager in the Fort, which has four different bank branches in the High Street. Aye, Derek Walker is now the oldest established local manager.
A retired headmaster, in from the country, pointed out to me the other day that, since the canopy went up all the way along Tweeddale, the pavements below it have never been clean. He argued that the faithful Fort William rain hasn’t been able to get through to the sidewalks to hose them down. Mind you, he lives in Duror, via Inverlochy, where there are no pavements to speak of, so he would obviously have a keener eye than most.
The look on the face of the Portsmouth skier whose car was lifted off a local bridge by Kilmallie shinty team on Saturday must have been a study. With the help of a tree that the Pompey skier’s motor had knocked down, the players levered up the car, which had skidded into the bridge, and manhandled it clear. Good practice for the Kilmallie lads to lift a league title and a trophy or two.