If only……………

 

 

I’ve kept a detailed diary for over fifty years, in an attempt to preserve a record in the life of an ‘ordinary person’. It has proved invaluable in settling many arguments about where or when an event occurred in our lives, often giving us a surprise as memory detail fades with time.

Unfortunately, I know of no such diaries kept by my grandparents, on either side. This leaves me with an amazing lack of information about my forebears. I had obviously many, many chances to ask questions, but never did. Such questions would not have been about great philosophical ideas or earth-shattering revelations, simple day-to-day enquiries about their life.

• Their parents were farmers, and lived in the country, so how did they get to school?
• What games did they play?
• What toys did they have?
• What was their favourite food?
• What did they do for holidays?
• Did they have to wear hand-me-downs?
• How well did they do at school?
• How did they meet their eventual spouse?
• What was their wedding like?
• How could they afford the relatively-large families?
• Did they read a lot?
• How did they get to a doctor…and how could they afford it?
• How did they keep warm without central heating and double glazing?

………….Just a few of the questions which shall be forever un-answered. None is of great importance, but put together and with a bit of imagination we might be able to piece together ‘a day in the life of’ for people just over 100 years ago.

Are there any questions you wish you had asked your parents or grandparents…but never did?

And do your children ask you questions about your youth?

Singing in Argyll….NOW WITH PHOTO

 On Sunday our Choir ‘Angelus Singers’  went to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ballachulish, at Argyll near famous Glencoe, for the service of Sung Evensong. You can’t miss the Church, in its glorious setting halfway between Glencoe and the Ballachulish Bridge. It has an ancient history with the graveyard of especial historical interest, and they have the Communion Cup and Plate reputedly used by the Jacobites just before Culloden. The building is in some need of restoration, but the beauty is still evident. 

The fact that we were asked made us feel very proud, as the area of course is full of musical choirs, who participate in the Mod Festival, and Gaelic is still extensively spoken.We were supplemented by some local choir members, and a total of  18 singers filled the choir stalls. This allowed us to have a rousing service of well-known hymns, traditional sung responses, collects, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, and Psalm 119 (only a small part!). In addition we had an Introit and Anthem. The performance of the latter, ‘I saw a new heaven’…. was a first performance. Words of the Revelation of St John were the inspiration of this piece, and it is dedicated to the present congregation, and those who have gone before.

The weather was foul, during the two hour  journey both ways, but we all arrived safely. We couldn’t  process from the ‘old church’ (really an old storehouse), to the ‘new church’  (1830’s)  because of the rain and snow.  The  organ then threw a tantrum by ‘ciphering’, when certain stops and notes got stuck and kept on playing! The organist kept her cool and and played well under the circumstances!

An excellent congregation had braved the weather, many from a long distance, and obviously enjoyed the old well-kent words, spoken and sung.
So it was a great event, and shows that many people working together, despite the many problems can produce something bigger than any of us.

How fortunate can anyone get to be in the midst of some of the most wonderful countryside in the world, and sing our hearts out!

 

Snap!

When we were at Aberfoyle on Sunday, a few of us took some photos of St Mary’s church and, of course, the assembled choir, for use in the local Church Newsletter. This will be retained in the archives, and, probably, occasionally looked-at over the coming years.

We all try to preserve a written or photographic record of outstanding events in our lives, and rightly so, but what about the not-so-important ones? I have been keeping a daily diary since 1958, and have been slowly reducing it to an autobiography. Not from some narcissistic wish to remember my life, but to record something for the children and future historians.

What I found interesting was the number of bits of information I had kept, like my wages, the price of petrol, what we paid for our first house, what we ate for breakfast nearly 50 years ago, bus timetables, when we stopped getting milk in bottles, the video out-takes from weddings…… All were not tremendously exciting at the time in the writing, in fact mundane. But from a historical point of view, someone will find them interesting.

So can I appeal to you to record not only the things which are important to you, but also those which might turn out to be important to your children, and your children’s children.

My parents and most of my uncles and aunts are dead, and there are now many questions I wish I had asked them, but didn’t. So ask that question now, and take your camera everywhere   ……..Because you rarely get a second chance!