157. A Wee Bit of Scotland
Today I twittered that I pruned my Jasmine arch a “wee bit” using the Scottish idiomatic form for “little”- bringing back memories of my teaching days in Renfrewshire, Linwood’s Saint Andrew’s school, the vicarage in paisley where I lived, the loch I gazed upon each morning trying hard to fathom a monster through the mist, and the endless walks on the wild braes.
Photos below are of the annual visit of the Scottish delegation from Earlston in Scotland to their Twin Village of Cappella Maggiore in Italy
It was the summer of 1973 and I was in the middle of graduation exams with a bunch of other teachers-to-be at Manchester’s University Victoria School of Education when a delegation from Scotland Catholic Schools descended upon us looking for teachers. The U.S.A Chrysler car factory had just opened its doors at Linwood in Renfrewshire and there was a shortage of everything, including Catholic teachers, to fill the sudden overspill of population in that area. There must have been well over half a dozen members of the delegation but I only had dealings with the chairman, the parish priest of Paisley. He asked me one question alone, would I like to teach in Scotland? I gave him one of my biggest smiles as I said yes, and that did it- I was hired.
I realize jobs don’t come that easy nowadays but I’m glad that Parish Priest hired me without much fuss and let out one of the cottages to myself and another teacher in his vicarage in Paisley. The area was wondrous, rugged hills, wild cats, affable people, folk dancing in the parish hall- there was even a lake in the distance that I could look at from my window full of mist just as one imagines lochs would be in Scotland.
For being such a minute country, Scotland has a powerful resonance embedded in tradition, folklore and all strange and mystifying wonders contained in centuries gone but leaving traces of their existence in the atmosphere. The ruggedness, strength and pride of the people which is equally reflected in their land, to my mind, mirrored much the areas of my origins, in particular the hills of Montaner. Scotland also has in common with Montaner its pride in being unique- ask a villager of Montaner about Sicily and they will say to you with that look of non-commitment, “Sicily? Is that in Italy” A Scot will also look at you as if you were transparent if you ask them about England. “England?” they’ll say, “Never heard of it!” Perhaps for these parallel qualities, a twinning between my neighbouring village Cappella Maggiore and that of Earlston in Scotland came about.
Hence Scotland, much like Italy are not places that have build up barriers and barricaded themselves inside- both countries are renowned throughout the world. I’ll wager anyone to tell me they have never heard of the bag-pipes and kilts of Scotland. There are firms, products, publishers, one of which is our fellow twitter Thomas Nelson, the largest Christian publisher in the USA, who have their origins in Scotland.
Getting them to pose for the traditional group photo was quite an enterprise
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