[BITList] Moi Derriere

[HUGH MCINTYRE]

Fred,

What an exciting life you lead - arguing with French farmers about hay, chopping up wood - nothing here quite matches that, but we do get excited sometimes.  I spent the afternoon transcribing gravestones in Port Glasgow cemetery, usually a tranquil procedure enlivened only by the odd foray into jaggy bushes in search of hidden stones. Today I was my usual 30 minutes late, but for once I was there first, so I did a tour of our family graves, those belonging to branches that lived here, and were rich enough to afford stones - the McIntyres have none.  I came across a stone that took me back a good many years.

The first job I ever had was as a gateboy in a shipyard, one of two - I was junior till the senior left after 6 months, when I became senior for 6 months, and so the system worked.  One of our many tasks was to hand out numbered  brass discs (we called them checks) to the platers, burners, welders, caulkers, riggers, etc, when they came in, and retrieve them when they left. I recall one plater vividly - he was always immaculately dressed, rimless glasses with gold frame, put half a crown in the Fair Box, when others put two bob. Some years later I heard he had been knocked down by a bus and killed.  His was the stone I came across - Andrew McWhinnie, accidentally killed 17th February 1956, aged 48.  A few weeks ago I noted one for James Disher, the head foreman plater, always wore a bowler hat. It's all that remains of an industry, names on gravestones, while city dickheads get rich selling moonbeams and bring the economy to its knees.

Hugh.



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