Autobiography
My twin Marion and I came from a large family, and headed off to Morgan at age 5 with some trepidation. However, school turned out to be a pleasant experience for both of us. When I left Morgan I spent three years at Dundee Training College along with a good number of former classmates. My first teaching post was at Auchtergaven School in Bankfoot. I stayed in digs and spent two happy years there teaching Primaries 4 and 5.
I applied for a job at Aberfoyle Junior Secondary School as I wanted to teach P6 and 7 stages. I intended staying there for two years and then emigrating to New Zealand but I met up with Jim, a native of Aberfoyle. We got married in Dundee in 1965 after I had two short spells of teaching, firstly in Coupar Angus and then at Ann Street School in Dundee.
We stayed in furnished rooms in Gartmore, a small village south of Aberfoyle and I resumed teaching in Aberfoyle for a year. (Aberfoyle had a connection to Morgan of course, since the annual Forestry Camp was based in Aberfoyle Primary School in the 50's).
During that time, Jim, who was a joiner, had almost finished building a bungalow in the Port of Menteith. We moved into it two days before our first baby girl, Helen, was born in August, 1966. Neil followed in 1968, Morag in 1970 and Hamish in 1972. We've stayed in the same house that Jim built for 44 years, except it's not the same, as he extended it as the children grew up.
In 1972, just before Hamish was born, Jim opened a craft shop in Aberfoyle. It had been the local garage's office and also served as the Doctor's surgery. He installed his mother as manager and it was the first of its kind in the village. Jim's joiner's business was flourishing and I was his very disorganised bookkeeper. In time we employed an efficient boookkeeper and by the time our youngest was six I had got part-time employment as a Learning Support teacher for just two afternoons a week in a local school. When Jim's mother's health failed I took over the running of the shop - not a job I enjoyed, especially as other similar shops had opened and business was not so good. After two years I applied for more Learning Support work and we appointed a shop manager. Since 1991 the shop has been let.
My circuit of schools was wide spreading but, it was a job I thoroughly enjoyed. I retired in 1997, Jim the following year but I did a bit of supply teaching which tapered off in the next four years - I then did some years working with adult learners.
Holidays were spent mainly in Caithness where we had a holiday cottage by the shore of Sinclair's Bay. Jim's mother was from near John o' Groats so there were plenty of relatives to visit. My sister, Elizabeth, also stays with her family in Caithness so it was ideal for family holidays. We sold the cottage in 1998.
Leisure interests still include walking, playing Scottish Fiddle music, church and W.R.I, activities, charity fund-raising, and gardening. In retirement, we do a lot more together. Jim's great interest was fly-fishing and that hobby has taken us to many interesting places. Our five grandchildren are close at hand and we enjoy helping out and watching them grow up.
Our two daughters are social workers, one in Paisley the other in Fort William. Our sons are in partnership and run a busy joinery business in Callander.
Port of Menteith, February, 2011
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