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Family history; Janet Higgins' creative writing based on her...

Date 18 November 1981
Track ID 49826
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1981.85

Original Tape ID

SA1981.085

Summary

Creative writing based on her father's experiences in the First World War.

The contributor's father's father was a soldier in India and South Africa and was away for thirteen years. His wife, Maria, was left a widow, and on the day that Jeannie [Robertson] was born, there was no food in the house. Her older sons went out after school and got food for the rest of the children by busking.

The contributor reads from a piece of creative writing, entitled 'It's been a Lang Day, Laddie' (that is, a long day until Resurrection morning), based on her father's experience of the horrors of war. His best friend fell asleep on duty and was shot for it. She talks about how her father eventually recovered from the effect this had on him. She summarises her fictionalised account, in which the dead comrade appears in a vision and her father opens a Bible at the words, "When I was a child, I thought as a child," and regains his sense of identity. Her father was about eighteen when he married and her mother was seventeen. During his military service, he was buried alive for two days [tape ends abruptly].

Item Notes

The quotation is from 1 Corinthians 13:11.

Recording Location

County - Kincardineshire

Parish - Fetteresso

Village/Place - Stonehaven

Language

English

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good