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We
were delighted when Julia Macdonald agreed to write this week’s blog post for
us. Julia attended one of the early
Study training sessions and went on to make a fieldwork recording with her dad,
David Brown. More recently, as a friend
of both Donnie Nelson and the Stranraer and District Local History Trust, Julia
came to our assistance when we were looking for additional photographic images
for the forthcoming Study Flashback, Stranraer
and District Lives: Voices in Trust, and particularly the book cover.
RE-CONNECTING WITH THE PAST THROUGH STORIES
AND PHOTOGRAPHS
"I grew up listening to stories
from my parents of what life was like when they were young. My mum told
me that during WW2, when she was a young girl, she would stand outside the
family cottage and wave to the pilots as they took off from West Freugh. On one occasion, an enthusiastic pilot flew
by even lower than usual, clipping the chimney pot on the farmhouse roof as he
passed. She also remembered the sadness
of seeing an Italian POW crying as he watched her playing with her friend. The reason for his distress being that they
reminded him of his own daughter at home in Italy. My dad's stories were about
the pride he felt for his engine driver father, and about his experiences as a
telegram boy, his time on National Service, how he coped when he broke both his
legs, and his life as a racing cyclist. These stories were often filled with
humour, and other times also tinged with sadness, and in my mind I was able to
build a picture of what life must have been like when they were my parents were
young.
I'll listen to anyone telling a
story. I think social history, and the
way we lived in earlier times, can so easily be forgotten. I became
involved with the Study when I went along to a training session which covered
the purpose of the Study and gave advice on interview techniques and how to use
the recording machine. Gathering oral
history interviews provides an ideal opportunity to listen to, and then
preserve, the Wigtownshire - Galloway Irish accent and stories for future
generations.
Recently I was asked to help
Donnie chose additional images, from the thousands in his collection, for the
first Study Flashback, Stranraer and
District Lives: Voices in Trust.
My first concern was to ensure that any selected images weren't so old
that they were beyond the memory of those whose stories were being told in the
book. I also wanted to make sure that any images we selected reflected
themes contained in the book, and could be recognised as local. I found
the whole process of finding the images Donnie suggested brought a smile to my
face. People and places long since forgotten were brought back to life, and I
was readily distracted by finding out the stories behind some of the photos – although
this was not at all related to the task in hand! I also went through
family photo albums and it was there I came across a series of photos of
Telegram boys posing at the bottom of the East Pier as they waited on the mail
boat, or train. By this time, the
Telegram boys had progressed from push bikes to bikes with motors. In
some photographs, the lads balance precariously in pyramids - standing on the
seats of the bikes and on the shoulders of each other. These were tiny,
and mostly slightly blurred, so I knew they wouldn’t be suitable for the
Flashback. The photograph we chose in the end was one taken by my dad -
and the only one he wasn't in!
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Other photos of interest showed
Stranraer shops (although not any of those featured in the Flashback), rural
life, fishing and farming and a fair few of the ferries. For me, the most
interesting photographs are of people rather than just buildings or
objects. As an amateur photographer
myself I have learned now to turn the camera on the audience, or on people,
rather than the event, as I appreciate that in years to come that is what
people will be interested in seeing.
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I’ve been really pleased to be
part of the Study in Dumfries and Galloway and plan to continue to add more
material to this valuable resource in the future."
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The
image of the boys on the motorbikes is so fitting for our Flashback. Although the interviewees whose recollections
are presented within the book were certainly quite a good age when the
interviews took place, they were young lads and girls during the period of time
which provides the framework for most of the interview material in Stranraer and District Lives: Voices in
Trust. The youthful faces which beam
out at you from this image remind us of that, and of the resilience of the
people who lived during those times when war and death were sadly part of everyday
experience.
The
other images included in this blog post are from Julia’s family collection: 1.
Port Rodie and East Pier, 2. Telegram boys, East Pier, 3. David Brown, 1936 at
Topsee Black Stables, 4. Telegram boy riding up Old Port Road, 5. David Brown
The
recording Julia made with her dad, in July 2012, has been added to the Study archive.
Follow the link below to listen to an
extract from that interview and to learn more about David’s time as a Telegram
boy:
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