New Years
Remembered
Short
of time as usual, so this may be a quick rake through some diaries.
1971:
Seems a long time ago but compared to the millennium that's just finished
it's like yesterday.
I was
sooth visiting Mary and staying at her parents` house in Broughty Ferry.
Mary's dad was the lifeboat coxwain, so there was always the chance of
getting a trip if the crew had an exercise. Plenty people to visit:
Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Anstruther, where I met Mary's uncle Wilsie who
claimed to have been ashore on Fair Isle, and in a house where the reek
from the fire escaped through a hole in the roof. Now that wasn't
yesterday.
1974:
Mary and I just made it back to the isle in time for the end of the year.
The trip had been to Lerwick and we were proud parents as Paul was born on
Christmas Eve. A bad `flu in the isle, so we didn't see many visitors that
Hogmanay.
1977:
Wild weather at the end of December, so we spent lots of time in the
lookout at the top of the Heid. Repairs to some storm damage in daylight
and I was out guising with Jerry Eunson. A temporary halt to our
celebrations when word reached me about Alan having pierced his head after
falling on a toy car. Fortunately Betty had the measure of the task and
plucked the offending article out. No further record for that evening, so
Lord knows when I got home.
1979:
Not much time off this year as the Hall is getting built and there may
have been a finish by date to aim for. A fishing trip on the 29th December
yielded olicks and piltocks, then the darts club had a reestit mutton
supper that same evening and it turned out to be a memorable gathering.
Plenty
guisers on Hogmanay, then the party later on was in the school classroom.
1981:
Once again the years end was dominated by bad weather and a southerly gale
removes most of the slates from the Auld School roof. Fortunately the
building was empty, but we waited a week for a quiet day to remove the
rest of the store slates and clad the roof with plywood sheets to keep it
safe. Several old portacabins left over from the new slipway job also
threatening to come apart in the gales so they were demolished and any
good timber recovered.
Junior
and senior guisers on the 31st, but no word of a party after midnight.
1983:
Lots of socialising during the last week of the year and the Houll folk
are out four nights in a row.
The
Sheltered houses are almost finished, so most of the work is inside and
the weather didn't hinder progress.
A
marathon craigs session at the north pier on the 29th then we all had
sillocks for tea.
New
years party at Skerryholm, where we all came alive again after getting
soaked in the hellish weather.
1987:
The seasonal festivities were a bit restrained this year as Willie Eunson
of Leogh had died not long ago.
A
yoal in the workshop for repairs and we ended up scraping all the old
paint off so the job took weeks instead of days.
A
whist drive on the 30th and our Alan won the men's first prize, not bad
for a ten year old.
Birdwatching
on the last day and the idea was to see as many different species as
possible. Shortage of daylight kept our count a poor fifteen.
Koolin
was the gathering place once the New Year had arrived and the whole house
seemed to be full of people.
Enough
for now, there's a whole millennium of years to celebrate and record.
Brian
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