John Stewart now of Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland E-mail: livvyboy32@hotmail.co.uk
Unlike many of you, although away from the Port, I am not too many miles distant. However, a new life I did seek when moving here in 1966.
Having been brought up in Leith, I married and continued to live there in Buchanan Street. All that time, I had never had the luxury of hot running water, far less a fixed bath. When the opportunity of moving to a new town with all its improved home facilities presented itself, my wife and I grasped it with both hands. We relocated to our new surrounding in November of 1966 alongwith our two young daughters, Karen and Pamela.
We were one of 36 families resident there at this time. We wondered what we had let ourselves into. Despite the home improvement, a three bedroom maisonette, we were amidst an area of constant house, and road workings. The contractors used a lot of the blaize that was contained in the red shale bings that were dotted all around West Lothian for sub surfacing foundations and roads. As a consequence our cars were constantly adorned with this giving them red skirts as the wet stuff dried on them.
1968
Our first home, top right maisonette 1966 Present home 2007
Our first home, top right maisonette 1966 Present home 2007 McArthur Glen, part of the largest shopping malls in Scotland Welsh, English and Irish friends at our home in 1994 for our rugby 25th Anniversary Celebrations. Olive 2nd from right.
Over the years, the town continued to develop. Schools, churches, sports organisations and various other organisastions became established. Now Livingston has a population of around 45,000, becoming the biggest town in the county.
As a family we became involved in the community and never regretted the move. Although my wife, Olive died in 1998 I found great sympathy and support from my many friends and connections that I have made over the years. I have never regretted the move.
Posted 21June, 2007
Carol Ford (nee Crerar) now resident in Carnoustie, Scotland. E-mail: carol.jan@btinternet.com
Born at 18 Bowling Green St, Leith in 1948. Attended Bonnington Road Primary School from 1953 to 1959. Would love to
hear from anyone who may have known my family. Parents name Crerar, Grandparents, Ropper.
We left Leith in 1958 when offered a new home in Muirhouse. After living in Edinburgh then Livingston, running busy
businesses for years my husband and I came to live in Carnoustie two years ago. Carnoustie and the people remind me so
much of Leith which is probably the reason I have settled in here so quickly. That's what I missed about Leith. After living in big
towns most of my life It's nice to feel part of a small community again.
I visit Leith once in a while as my cousins still live in Granton and Newhaven. Unfortunately Bowling Green Street is no longer there
but the neighbouring streets are so I can still remember the places I used to play in as a kid.
Welcome
Town Shoreline Now what more beautiful
Carnoustie is getting ready for the Golf Open next month - streets being re-surfaced, flowers being planted and the golf
course is covered in tented villages, stands and press boxes. We're having a lot of famous people play the course just now
which makes walking over the course quite exciting. We play 'spot the stars'.
I have signed up for a job during the Open as 'left luggage/mobile phone attendant' (don't laugh). So if anyone out there is
coming to the Open - leave your mobile at home or you'll be asked to hand it in!! By ME!!
I have retired now (hooray) although I teach Tai Chi two mornings each week but don't count this as work and I have never
been so busy. There really is so much to be involved in up here and I have no regrets at making this move. To live right
beside the sea, which is ever changing, is a joy. I would recommend it to anyone wondering where to spend their retirement.
Posted 23 June, 2007
Jessie Newlands (nee Berry) now residing in Revelstoke, B.C., Canada. E-mail: newlands@telus.net
When Malcolm and I were first married we lived in a "But and Ben" in Easter Road (with inside W.C. and a cold water tap in the kitchen. 2 years later after our son Callum was born Malcolm had relatives living in the Kootenay Lake area of B.C. who kept telling us we should think about emigrating as our family would have a much better future out here. Had my parents been alive then I would certainly never have considered it for one moment, (also my sister and family had emigrated to Australia) we decided to "take the plunge". Our furniture etc.
was only 2 years old but we almost gave it away in order to get rid of itquickly.
At this time in 1960 emigration was quick. We applied in the October of 59 - had our medical in Glasgow in the November and were on our merry way in April 1960. Young and daft and didn't think things through thoroughly as we would do when we got older.
Well - I couldn't say this was the happiest time in my life. For one thing moving from a city the size of Edinburgh to a wee village on the Kootenay Lake with 45 inhabitants, it was traumatic to say the least! Added to this, the fact that it was the hottest summer on record and I had just become pregnant - Wow!
No friends or relatives to commiserate with! The whole way of life was certainly very different. There were no shops where we lived and in Nelson (which was 20 miles from us) there were shops but nothing like what we had known back home. I learned to bake my own bread (and everything else too) and learned how to can all our own fruits and vegetables. Talk about feeling like one of the original
'pioneers'!!
Welcome to town
To go back to when we left home.
We sailed on the "Empress of Britain"
leaving from Weymss Bay. This was to Downtown Revelstoke The Mountains
be a "Second Honeymoon" for us - Ha!
From the minute we left "the tail of the Bank (Greenock) that ship somersaulted (almost) its way across the whole of the Atlantic. Never have experienced anything like it! Good job we had a good babe as soon as he was fed and changed off he went to sleep again!! Malcolm never lifted his head off the pillow in his bunk from the time we entered the Irish Sea till we were going up the St. Lawrence river. What should have been 5 days took us 7 days to cross. The first night at sea 10 ft.of the 1st class rail was washed away! The Steward came in to our cabin the morning we were going up the St. Lawrence and said to him "Sir are you going to get up or do you want us to put this ship on wheels"!!The C.P.R. must have made a lot of money off the passengers on that trip as nobody ate a thing till we landed in Montreal.
That was where we went through Customs (and what a nightmare that was - with a young baby needing fed) and in a great big massive draughty shed. Eventually we made it through (we had brought a lot of our possessions with us)so all the paper work with that needed to be gone through. Oh well! After another 4 days and 3 nights, we came across Canada by train. It was wonderful just to have our feet on dry land again.
Malcolm got work right away when we got to Procter on the Kootenay Lake on the Ferries and after 4 years he was transferred up here (Revelstoke) to the Dept.of Highways office in our lovely old Courthouse building. He retired from there as Finacial Officer in 1987.
John asks if the emigrants ever had regrets. Yes, we have had. Mainly missing "my ain folk" because I honestly don't think there is another race in the world like the Scots. I miss the Scottish sense of humour and can never see anything funny in the Canadian, American or even the Australian sense of humour. Canada has been good to us - but then money isn't everything. However my main reason for emigrating was to benefit our family and there is no doubt they would never have had what they have now had we stayed in Scotland. We have been home several times over the years - but have never come back here (after being away for 6 weeks or so) without not having had time to do half the things I have wanted to do. The last time we were home was in '99 and we always said we'd have one more
trip but guess it just wasn't meant to be. Our health prevents us from travelling anywhere now - far less home to Scotland!
The Monashee Range The Selkirk Range The Columbia River
When we moved to Revelstoke in '64 there were no houses to buy - or even rent - so with what money we still had (we always made sure we had our return fares in the bank in case we ever wanted to go back home again) we got a builder to frame this house (which we are still in), putting in the windows and doors and roof etc. and we took over from there. We moved in before winter so our first job was getting our water pipes and Telephone and T.V. lines all well buried underground and all well covered up before winter set in. Now we'd just get a piece of equipment in to do this job but Malcolm did it all by hand. Just made it in the nick of time before the snow flew! We also got it all insulated - that was a laugh in itself. At that time the insulation came in massive rolls (of thick Fibreglass) and here's Malcolm up the ladder and me underneath with a sweeping brush holding up the fibreglass batting and moving along as he stapled it on.
That first winter we lived in the house exactly the way it was - no doors on any of the rooms etc. Fun when we had visitors - friends that we had made while living in Procter these 4years!). We hung curtains up instead. Don't tell me we didn't "rough it" - however we survived! I guess some of you may think this was a 'step backwards' in our lives. Not really. At least we never had a mortgage. Not like the young folk today who want (and get) it all with bank loans before they move in. They miss the wonderful feeling of accomplishment at every step we took. As we had a few dollars it went in to a few ceilings going up or walls going up (or doors on the rooms!) - eventually we made it! I didn't believe in Mums going out to work. Had I done so, I suppose we could have made the a lot quicker progress as far as finishing the house was concerned. But I stayed home and when the children were older (by this time we had had our daughter Jane in
'61 the year after we emigrated while living on the Kootenay Lake) and so went to work in one of the schools. It was the school both children attended so I had the best of both worlds - being there to make sure our children were O.K. and working too.
The Newlands`abode with Jess`s beloved Japanese Maple tree
After they graduated they both went on to University (our son Callum took 7 years of Criminology) in Vancouver and Jane went on to college to take Nursing. This is when I went to work full time for B.C. Telephone Co. here as there are (or weren't at that time anyway) Grants or Loans for students. The Fees weren't too bad it was the cost of living out which just about did us in! The college Jane went to had no live in Campus so she had to get an apartment for those years and Callum's University was new then and they hadn't got the
residences built. By his 2nd year he felt he didn't want to stay on Campus anyway and much preferred his own place and being able to study. I think University life was one big party back then (maybe it still is). Well we didn't have the money for them to party their lives away - so it was either "study and get your degree" or come home. They studied!!
Revelstoke is a very "Extreme Sports" town. Winter our town is going "full tilt" what between "A.T. V-ing (all terrain vehicles) ski doos and lots of skiers (mostly Heli skiing nowadays which is terribly expensive.) But they sure help the local economy. We have many ski Lodges all up in the various mountains around us which they use helicopters to take the skiers back and forth to. I believe it costs many thousands a week. We get Royalty too come to visit these ski lodges (the King of Spain was one of them). They are in the process of building a 4 season resort here on Mt. Mackenzie - which is about a mile past our house here. Since this was announced in December the prices of homes here have quadrupled.! It is to be larger (bigger vertical drop) even than Aspen, Colorado (about 7,000 ft. of a drop). They are in the process of getting a Gondola installed and there are to be 120 runs (at present we have 20) and even some hotels and another golf course (the one we have here is a VERY beautiful golf course).
They are also building several hundred Condos and townhouses and shops etc. etc. so I would say in about 10 years Revelstoke will have become THE place in the world to ski. Our kids both learned to ski on that mountain. In fact our son taught skiing when he was still in High school.
Well I am going to finish this here and get it on its way to John before the same thing happens today as happened yesterday - flew off to the 'Great Beyond'! I will see if I can add some more pictures although I sent masses of them to John y'day telling him to choose whichever ones he wanted.
So that's my 'tale of emigration' and WHY we emigrated. However Scotland will ALWAYS be home to us no matter what.
Posted 24 June, 2007Graham Whyte now living in Harrogate, Yorkshire E-Mail: whyte.g@hotmail.com
My new home. I left the R.A.F in 1972, together with my girlfriend Christine. As she came from Harrogate, the two of us decided to relocate to her hometown. On the 1st July that year we tied the knot, moved into a flat, got going at making a go of it, had various jobs, including furniture moving. I have to admit that was maybe the best job i had ever done, going down to Monmouth twice a week, to move personnel for I.C.I. to Harrogate, mostly from Pontypool. Did 16 years with C E G B/ National Power, made redundant, took a very large pay-off, and paid off most of the mortgage we had on the house in the photo
We had 3 boys, Alan, Richard and Ian. Loaned Alan some money to do a course on a 360 excavator. Now he earns twice as much as me. Must have been a senior moment? Other two are their own one man bands, Richard doing tiling and Ian doing gardening. He even got himself on the telly with Dairmot Gavin when they were doing Harlow Car Gardens. That was because my wife Christine's uncle was on the programme, his name George Dunnington.
Had other various jobs, then 11 years ago started working for a Steel stockholders in Knaresborough, occasionally get up to Glenrothes, mostly the northern half of England. Chris and I have just celebrated our 35th anniversary so we are off for a break to Amsterdam.
Currently, my main hobbies are 6 grandchildren, all boys,d.i.y., and more recently buiding model houses as in the picture. Yes it is real built in real Yorkshire stoneon a real Yorkshire flag 3ftx2ft x 2inch thick. Weighs an absolute ton. Her who must be obeyed has her order in for a stable block. The stone is mostly cut. The old roof tile 2ftx16in x1in. is ready and waiting for an improvement in the weather. This year has got to be the wettest ever in my memory.(unless you know better). The locale is apparently the third best place in Britain to live. When I finally get chance to get some real photo's I will be able to show you all. I will add some extra's of the surrounding area so you can decide if Harrogate is worth a visit. Before this turns into a full blown autobiography I will stop
Posted 14 July, 2007
