Memories Are Made Of...................

MEMORIES OF A BANK HOLIDAY

Docrafts 31 day blog prompt day 7

Now, where do I start with this one?    In Scotland, when I was growing up, we did NOT have Bank Holiday.  What we had was something called Local Holiday.  What happened was something like this:  If you lived in the Buckie area.........you had regular Buckie Holidays...........if you lived in Elgin you had regular Elgin Holidays...but they were never on the same Monday.  So all around Scotland there would be a Local Holiday in some area or another on most Spring - Summer Mondays.

The great thing about this was that trips and outings were booked to go to places that were not on holiday when you were.  It made a lot of sense.  Local churches and organisations would put on bus trips (remember I am 60 years old, so this was a long time ago!!) and families would choose which trip they wanted to go on, and it was a great time for friends and family to spend a day together.  

One memory I have of when I was about 9 or 10 was going on a bus trip to the West Coast of Scotland for the day.  We met outside the Methodist Church and all got on the bus, dressed up for the occasion in our best clothes, men wearing suits and the rest of us in 'Sunday Best'.  We set off at about 7.00 a.m. Please remember that I lived on the East coast right next to the sea, so  this was an adventure because we were going to go across the countryside..............a completely new experience.


Here is a photo of the type of bus we went out in:

I sat with my sister, and I was wearing a lovely floral dress with white ankle socks and brown sandals and had a white cardigan and a dusty pink coat that was lightweight and I think was called a 'duster coat' for some reason.


Here are photo's of the style of coat I am talking about:

Mine was like the orange one in the second picture.


My mum was wearing a dress similar to this one:

We drove through Inverness:

As the bus started to reach the countryside, I remember seeing cows, sheep and lots of fields and houses on their own, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.  The road was bendy and there were lots of trees too.  Our first stop was at a tearoom (I can't remember where it was) and i remember red and white gingham table clothes and we had scones, pancakes and tea/coffee.  When we were back on the bus the grown ups encouraged us young ones to sing choruses from Sunday School...........'Give me oil in my Lamp, keep it burning'  and 'rolling over, rolling over, my cup's full and running over' springs to mind.  We did have a great time.  

When we reached Loch Maree my sister was sick and we had to stop at a lay-by for the driver to clean up the mess  (yes, he did it!) 


Loch Maree:

When my sister recovered we carried on to Strathpeffer and had lunch at the big hotel there.  I don't remember much about that except I loved the grounds with all the flowers and shrubs, it was in a spectacular setting (and I think it probably is still there today!)


The hotel in Strathpeffer:

We carried on and ended up at Poolewe Gardens, which are on the West Coast where the Gulf Stream meets our cold seas, and the plant life is almost tropical because of that.  If you ever get a chance to go there, please do ...... there are some spectacular walks amongst them grounds and many exotic plants, including palm trees. 

Poolewe:

Unfortunately I don't have any of my own photographs, so I took all these images from google images....I hope they don't mind.


I really enjoyed that trip and arrived home exhausted but with some fantastic memories.  It seemed that we had traveled the whole earth in one day.


We have a beautiful country and it's always worth looking at what is around us to see the beauty of our land.


Love and hugs


Annie xxx