LL-L "Encounters" 2003.11.08 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 08.NOV.2003 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Holidays"

> From: Luc Hellinckx <luc.hellinckx at pandora.be>
> Subject: Holidays
>
>
> Sandy,
>
> I really liked your report...You're inspiring *s*...ancestors being like
> virtual memory + anti-virus. I like the idea, but what I'm truly wondering
> about is where "consciousness" gets in...I have this feeling that
> there must
> be some relation between the emphasis that is put on "guilt" and
> "consciousness" in a society on the one hand and "biological" diversity in
> that same society on the other hand...but in afterlife...*s*

Note that it wasn't my ancestors with the virtual memory &c, but the
landlady's husband and his ancestors.

However, during this conversation with the landlady, in response to her
"spiritual" stories about her husband's family, I spoke about one of my own
ancestors - my great great great grandmother Flora Shaw, who was from the
tiny village of Colbost on the Isle of Skye: really just a smattering of
cottages among the "knowes".

Flora spoke and wrote Gaelic but her English and Scots were poor. However,
she came down to the Lowlands to marry my great great great grandfather and
two of her sons went to work in Australia. One day her daughter came home to
find her grieving. She said she had seen two blackbirds and that it meant
that her son Johnny was dead. She mourned with his photograph turned to the
wall for months, and when the mails arrived from Australia, the news was
that Johnny had been killed working on the railroad.

A few years ago my father very much wanted to see Colbost, so I decided to
drive him up to Skye to see the place. This is a six hour drive and when we
reached the Highlands we saw how lonely a place the northernwestern part of
our country still was (I hadn't been to the Highlands since I was a child).
Suddenly there was a terrible noise from under the car - so loud even I
could hear it! A section in the middle of the exhaust had broken off
altogether. It was the wilds of the Highlands, and a Sunday too, but we
decided to keep driving to see if we could find a garage. After many very
loud miles with no towns or villages in sight, we came across a garage -
closed. We realised that most places, even if we could find any, would be
closed on a Sunday in the remote Highlands, and started talking about
turning back. However, we did eventually come to a small town and the first
thing we saw was a sign saying, "Garage: Fuel, Repairs, Welding. OPEN
SUNDAYS."!

We went for lunch and the man in the garage, who was from Glasgow, welded a
new section back onto the exhaust and had the car  ready by the time we got
back. We drove on with an eerie feeling that someone or something was
looking after us. After staying overnight in Portree we pressed on to
Colbost, and when we came over the hill and first caught site of the
village, it was sitting below a huge, bright rainbow! Ridiculous!

Anyway, I told the landlady about Flora Shaw, but without mentioning when
she was from. The landlady said they'd only just started the business but
she already had one Scottish couple staying. When she showed me the entry in
the visitors book, the address was "Colbost, Isle of Skye"!

What does it all mean? No idea! Just one of those strange travellers' tales,
I suppose!

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

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