Stairway to home

Stairway home large.

This is a simple pathway down a hillside, a couple of stiles, and at the bottom a rough hewn stone stairs. It leads from the village via a street called Rope Walk, guess what they made there. The walkway was used by miners moving up and down the coombe to work at the mine workings as well as the small railway terminus for ore trains. Imagine completing a hard day at the mine then being confronted by this as the final hurdle before reaching home.

Those who read my witterings will know I once lived next door to Talpa in Newburgh, 15 miles North of Aberdeen. One of my favorite friends was an elderly gentleman called Jimmy Simpson. A former gamekeeper, soldier and ultimately the village electrician, Jimmy was a source of humour, folklore and general knowledge, all gleaned from his extensive collection of National Geographical and Readers Digest. Whenever he left his house he carried a pair of binoculars, these had once belonged to a German gunnery observer. They were beauties, stamped with the German eagle and the lenses marked off in graticules for correction of fall of shot. That's the problem with fighting in a kilt, very few places to hide the spoils of war.

Mrs Booty and I were invited to the 50th wedding anniversary celebration of Mr & Mrs Simpson at "Briggies", or the Bridge Inn at the edge of the village. Peggy had worked as a Land Girl during WW2 while her betrothed was sent off to fight in his kilt and not much else. Their daughter Hazell was also at the top table, the girls flanked Jimmy who was having a grand time with about 80+ guests. The time came for speeches, he humbly thanked everybody for their friendship and with a rare amount of emotion in his voice spoke of Peggy, "The love of his life." He described how the first time he saw her he, "Lost his heart." Of course with his Doric that came out with even more emotion as "Ah last ma Hairt."

Jimmy told the story of how he was granted leave as the war reached it's conclusion. He had fought in Italy and then gone ashore on D-Day, now he was going home to get married. However life is never simple and the train was stopped by heavy snow at Montrose. Anticipating problems friends awaited him with a horse and cart, the long journey home was nearly over. The night before the wedding there was a Ceilidh, dancing and whisky being the order of the evening. Later Jimmy escorted his beloved to the farm where she was based. He then made Peggy go white with horror and his daughter red with embarrassment as he continued into intimate details of a long ago time.

Attempted furtive fumblings were made, but Peggy whispered, "Nae here, we'll upset the coos in the byre!" Further round the house he was deterred by a warning that, "We'll wake up the farmer and his wife," so they snuck around the rear of the building into a small porch. As Jimmy described it, "Things went well, just as they were getting interesting the farm cat jumped onto Peggy's shoulder and made her scream." Whereupon the furtive fumblings ceased.

At this point Jimmy solemnly laid a hand on his mortified daughter's shoulder, "If it was'nae for that bloody cat you'd be in your fifties!"

80 + people howled in laughter while Jimmy stood with tears of joy in his eyes. Peggy and Hazel forgave him, they always did.


More tales of Jimmy to come.