Skye Stories , livre ebook

Libri Publishing Ltd - Raymond Moore

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162 pages

English

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Five years for an adult, passes in five minutes. Five years for a kid is a lifetime. An attempted bike stealing incident in Glasgow when Raymond Moore was 13 led to him living in Linicro on the Isle of Skye with his Great Granny and Great Aunt. His family stayed in the city whilst his life changed on the island. Skye Stories tells the adventures he had growing up: the girls he fancied, the sheep he worried and the music he loved. Although the book is about Skye and his love for the island, the account of his experiences and emotions will strike a chord with people who have never been near there. Skye changed the author's life forever and for the better. You could say the Isle of Skye saved his life. This book, Volume 1, tells the story of the first two years on Skye - the Linicro years.

Sujets

Personal Memoirs

Biography

Autobiography

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Publié par	Libri Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	29 janvier 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781912969197
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0600€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Skye Stories
Volume 1 the Linicro Years
By Raymond Moore

Imprint
First published in 2021 by Redshank Books
Redshank Books is an imprint of Libri Publishing.
Copyright © Libri Publishing.
The right of Raymond Moore to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
ISBN 978-1-912969-19-7
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder for which application should be addressed in the first instance to the publishers. No liability shall be attached to the author, the copyright holder or the publishers for loss or damage of any nature suffered as a result of reliance on the reproduction of any of the contents of this publication or any errors or omissions in its contents.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library
Cover and book design by Carnegie Publishing
Libri Publishing Brunel House Volunteer Way Faringdon Oxfordshire SN7 7YR
Tel: +44 (0)845 873 3837
www.libripublishing.co.uk

Dedication
For My Dad, Big Gerry. Love ya Big Man.

Big Gerry

céud míle fáilte
(‘a hundred thousand welcomes’)
Five years for an adult passes in about five minutes, it seems. Five years for me, a Glasgow child passed a whole lot slower. Each year really was a year, not these ephemeral things we have today. My mother’s mother, my Granny Cuisack was from the Misty Isle, so the hills and heather were not strangers to me. From perambulating baby to a young teenager Skye was the destination for many holidays.
I arrived on the Isle of Skye for what would be my school summer holiday of 1977 that I would spend with my Great Granny and My Great Auntie Margaret.
This holiday was not a problem, it was a joyful escape. My problem would be when I returned to school in Glasgow.
Prior to this school vacation, a bike stealing attempt in Springburn Park had left me exposed to the possibility of going into second year at All Saints and being bullied by one of the bike thieves and his big brother. I needed a plan. I didn’t have a plan.
What if I asked my Aunt Margaret if I could stay in Linicro and go to school in Portree? No chance! She would never go for it. Or would she? It took me around a month to build up the courage to ask her, which I eventually blurted out red faced and sweaty. She calmly said ok. Wow!
Over the next five years, my life would be altered in ways that still influence me today. Skye changed my life forever and by that, I mean changed my life in a positive sense. What follows is, to the best of my memory, what happened to me in the first of those five years. Told as wee stories or as I like to call them ‘memory moments’ and also in poetry; some rhyme – some don’t.

Foreword
The Isle of Skye is justly famed for its timeless seascapes, mountains, and moorland, but the real character of a place is determined by its people. Skye homes are centres of legendary Highland hospitality, where visitors are welcome, but family are taken to the bosom.
Skye natives, meeting for the first time in the diaspora, will have two questions for each other in the ancient language; ‘Cò as a tha thu?’ (‘Where do you come from?’ meaning, which part of Skye) ‘Agus cò leis thu?’ (‘And to whom do you belong?’ meaning, which is your family). This phenomenon is called ‘clannishness’ and is a last remnant of the Clan (family) system which once dominated the Scottish Highlands and Islands. It promotes a warm feeling of belonging, a love of place and people. This, in our island, has led to a strong sense of community and neighbourliness.
The 1970s was a transition period for rural Skye. The post-war decades had seen continued population decline due to absence of work and housing for local families. The traditional industries of crofting and fishing were no longer yielding a living wage. Migration to the towns and cities, or even abroad, had been the options for lots of young people. The island’s long association with Inverness-shire County Council was being called into question. We were no longer happy to be ignored, on the edge of an east-coast-centred local authority.
Reform of local government in 1974 (sadly short-lived), whereby the Skye and Lochalsh District Council now had responsibility for local affairs, produced a much-needed boost for the island. To take charge of one’s own important matters instils vibrancy in a community.
Portree High School was also ‘on the up’. James Rodger, a former professional footballer, was now at the helm and a progression of young teachers was recruited, several of them former pupils, keen to allow their own children to grow up in a safe and stable environment.
There was the tentative beginning of revival of the Gaelic language and its associated musical culture. Truly comprehensive education was brought in and all Skye teenagers attended the same secondary school, thus abolishing the perceived inferiority felt between country and town. Among the older generation however, there was fear at the encroachment of rampant materialism and dilution of traditional values.
It was onto this stage, and this changing scene in 1977 that another young teenager was to join the rural inhabitants of the island.
How would he be perceived and how would he view his new domain?
I. G. Macdonald.
Former Deputy Headmaster,
Portree High School.

Introduction
Don’t they say that everyone has at least one book in them to write? I guess I believe that to be true. For the longest time I wanted to document the experience I had of moving from Glasgow to Linicro on the Isle of Skye in the summer of 1977. I thought, written the right way, at the very least it would bring a wee smile to the most jaded of hearts. There was only one problem. That problem was my incredible laziness. I have suffered this affliction for most of my adult life and have spent many man hours on perfecting the art of lazy. I can give you an example of how lazy I can be, when I lived and worked in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi. One of my close friends Vince lived up the stairs from me and both our apartments had brand spanking new microwave ovens delivered. Mine lay on my kitchen floor boxed and I would hop on the elevator up to Vince’s flat to heat something up in his microwave! I was too lazy to lift mine out of the box and set it up!
Luckily, a few years ago I joined a Facebook group called ‘Skye and Lochalsh Memories’. This group was set up so that people from far and wide who had a connection to the Isle of Skye could share photos and memories. Thankfully, they accepted me as a member. As I live in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I have no access to my Skye photos, most of which live in a biscuit tin and several albums in my mother’s living room closet. Wanting to contribute something to the group, I began writing about my time in Linicro, Uig and Portree. These wee stories seemed to go down quite well, and I was encouraged to keep on writing. Later I joined ‘Something Skye’ Facebook group and continued to write and submit stories and poems.
Many members of both groups suggested I collect all my stories and poems and put them in a book. They promised they would love to buy it! I live and work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a Nurse Manager. My family had left me on March 2020 to spend their annual three months in our house in Thailand (my wife is Thai). A week later everything shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It soon became obvious to me that they would not be able to return and that Thailand was far safer than coming back to the Kingdom. This meant that I would now have a lot of time on my regularly washed hands. Now there was no excuse. I got down and got writing ... not one book, but two!
The books deal with my years on Skye. Both are loosely chronological and although I might have used a wee bit of poetic licence (here and there), everything I have written is pretty much true and how I remember it. I’m no J. D. Salinger or Harper Lee, I’m just an RN in the desert hoping to entertain people.
My love affair with the Isle of Skye started as a baby in a pram in 1965 and although I have not set foot on my cherished island since 1997, my love affair is endless. The years between 1977 and 1982 changed the trajectory of my life. Skye made me the person I am today and whatever I do, wherever I go, and wherever I live, a piece of Skye is always with me.
I named these books ‘Skye Stories’ and I realise now that all my stories, even the ones after 1982 when I left the island are and continue to be Skye Stories because without Skye I would not be who I am and where I am today. If I can bring a smile to one reader’s face, then my job is done.

Glossary
I was advised that it would be a good idea to include an explanation of some of the words that your eyes will feast on as you make your way through my book. Having spent 12 years in Glasgow, 5 years on Skye, 14 years in Edinburgh and over 20 years in the Middle East my accent and dialect are a wee bit mixed up (to say the very least). In my hopeful attempt at being funny and entertaining I use Gaelic, Glaswegian and Scottish words to describe my Highland adventures. I also use, what Steve, my editor calls ‘Mooreisms’ or ‘made up words’ e.g. chesticles! Should any word confuse you please refer to this glossary for a relatively poor explanation of what it means. For aficionados of the beautiful Gaelic language accept my apology in advance of any spelling mistakes. Saudi Arabia is a veritable desert for finding a fluent Gaelic speaker! Sometimes words that I thought were Gaelic are Arabic and vice vers