Israeli couple seek help to track down good Samaritans who stepped in 45 years ago
It was August 1975 when both collars and flares were nearing their extreme, Harold Wilson was holding on to number 10 and a pint cost 20p.
And a certain band called the Bay City Rollers were on top of the charts.
For one young Israeli couple tramping the street of Edinburgh looking for a cheap B&B it would turn out to be a very lucky day.
Forty five years later Eitan Ravid, now 76 and his wife Sima, now 75, want to track down the good Samaritan couple who gave them a proper Scottish welcome.
But with just a sliver of old cine film and a smudgy image of their mystery hosts to go on, the couple are hoping the sleuth readers of The Scotsman and Edinburgh Evening News will help them.
Eitan and Sima had been looking for somewhere to spend the night during their trip to the city when luck intervened.
The couple had been walking around Morningside trying to find a B&B and flagged down a car to ask whether there was any accommodation nearby.
Mrs Ravid said: “We asked them if there was anywhere to stay and out of the blue, they said “well, why don’t you come stay with us?” We just looked at each other in shock.”
They were well looked after during their stay with breakfast and supper made for them. However, what Mrs Ravid remembers most was throwing up because of her pregnancy and everyone cleaning up together.
The couple had met as students in London where they studied and worked for over five years but had never been to Scotland and decided to visit a year after returning home.
A lecturer in human behaviour at the Bar-ilan University in Tel Aviv, Mrs Ravid added:
“We have wonderful memories from this journey, it was only one visit but the memories stayed forever.”
Throughout the years, the Ravids have been trying to get in touch with their hosts and even sent them a necklace as a thank you and letters thereafter but did not receive a reply.
They also posted a picture on Facebook last year to help in their search but have been unsuccessful in garnering a response so far. Although the couple can’t remember all of the details, they do remember that the man who took them in was named Bill who had a brother-in-law of Arab origin. Video footage reveals the couple had been staying in the Belhaven Terrace tenements in Morningside but they have not been tracked down as of yet.
Mr Ravid, a retired music teacher who studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London said: “It will be most interesting to know what happened to them after so many years - are they well, healthy and happy? It’s simply curiosity.”
If you have any idea who the couple are please contact the Scotsman or Edinburgh Evening News newsdesk.