A selection of tributes by
SR contributors
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Alan Fisher
Climate change hypocrisy
Without honour
A neglected Scottish champion
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Barbara Millar
The sham of Lammas Fair
Working lives
Last in the series
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Remembering Bessie
A Scottish artist rediscovered
interviews a hospital laundry worker, Pat McAnearney, about his first day at work
My first job was in a jute mill. I just went in and asked: ‘Are you needing anybody?’. I used to take the mail round because at that time you were only 15 when you started working so I was too young to be a weaver.
I was very nervous on the first day. Will people be nice to you? Will people speak to you? Are you going to be able to do the job? What’s going to happen at dinner-time – will somebody ask you to sit with them? Wee things like that worry you till you get settled in. And later on, when any new person comes to your work, you make sure that person has got somebody to sit with. You try to make people feel welcome because you remember the fear you had when you started.
I went to another mill and became a weaver. The work was heavy but I enjoyed the people. There was a good sense of community. Everybody helped one another in the mills. At first I was emptying spools. You had 40 spools and there was a wee woman – she’s about 80 now and a very good friend of mine yet – and she would do my work. I would get about 10 done and she would just do the rest. This thin wee cratur…
People couldn’t do enough for you.
Amusements and diversions
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‘Two Sisters’ by Bessie MacNicol
Hazel Buchan Cameron
Hazel Buchan Cameron
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