After battling as a baby with Hirschsprung's (HD) it teaches you not to give in, so here I am again.
Greenlaw is a village in the Scottish Borders in the county of Berwickshire, for those of you who don't know where it is. It is a odd county, as you would expect the county town to be Berwick but that is in another country, England. It was in Berwickshire but some hooligans crossed the border, killed everyone in the town and said this town is now English and no one was alive to argue.
My new life in a new country had a strange start, I was sent almost immediately back to England, Gosforth to stay with my Aunts. I have a stammer and I was being sent on a 2 week course learn a new technique to get over it. What with the upheaval of moving, living away from home and the strain of having to learn this new technique, things went wrong and I became constipated. Now for someone with HD, this can be serious. At that time I took laxatives every night as standard. As it went on for a few days it got serious and so the district nurse was called in to give me enemas. This did not work and I went home badly constipated and the course was a failure. This situation did not rectify itself until after Christmas when I had to go into hospital to be cleaned out under aesthetic.
That was not too big a deal as such but it meant I had missed the best part of a term. Berwickshire was were the education authority did its best to scupper my education. In England they changed from primary to secondary/grammar school a year earlier than in Scotland. Therefore to go into my age group, I should of gone back to primary. Nope, I had passed my 11 plus and had started Grammar school and I must be bright, I was to go to secondary school. I had also missed a term and 2 weeks due to illness. When I went back to school I was missing 1 year and 1 term of education, they also put me into the top stream. Wow, that is how to really screw someone's education up. I think it was the second year I ended up in the bottom stream, by then the damage was done. I was not interested in school and they were not interested in me.
My parents were leasing a small country hotel, from the brewery. Sounds very posh but it was a pub with a couple of rooms. We had the local postman as a permanent boarder. That meant early morning and late nights. They had one afternoon a week off, when they went in Edinburgh. A local boy got friendly with Duncan & I, he was about 3 or 4 years older than me. I am not sure how it started but I was sexually very naive, I was 12 and had not reached full puberty. He asked me if I wanted to know about sex. Not knowing too much about it and not wanting to show how innocent I was, I agreed. We ended up in bed and this went on for months. He told me not to tell anyone as they would be angry, also he would stop seeing me. He was my only 'friend' and so I did not want be rejected, the feeling that someone liked me was quite a pull. He eventually tired of it and stopped coming.
To say my school day at that school were happy is an understatement. I was a weedy, sick, mummy's boy, with a stammer. I felt isolated at school because I was 'thick'. I did not do sports because of my hirschsprung's. I was catholic so did not go to assembly or RE but went to the church to be taught by the priest. Also as Catholics my parents would not allow any of us to be in involved in the local Church of Scotland events. My sister was not even allowed to be a bridesmaid at the local church. Later on when I was a scout, I could not go on church parade with them.
Not a great time. We had a big stables in the back and I went to the upstairs where there were roof beams, taking a rope with me. Thank goodness I was not tall enough or strong enough to throw the rope around the beams. I had not intended to come back down.
It was not all unhappy times there. Shelagh got married to a local bloke, Alex's. Alex's was a brickie but advanced to Director Scotland. A nice bloke but died a number of years later of stomach cancer. He was not that old though.
Duncan advanced his music career and formed a band, The Blackadders, after a local river. His talents were coming though even at that age. I remember a professional band came to play in Greenlaw and afterwards the manager was in our kitchen. He was amazed at Duncan's playing and his ability at all aspects of the guitar. He was also one of the few people to who are left handed but plays the guitar not stung left-handed but as normal, like a certain Paul McCartney. He bemoaned that fact that Duncan could do things that his band members could not.
Thankfully we only stayed in Greenlaw, less than 3 years. The hours, the lease terms and the access to alcohol proved too much for my parents and they give up the pub. Where to go though.
My parents saw a advert for a church house in a place called Chapeltown, Braes of Glenlivet. While living in Sunderland we had a holiday near there, Kingcraig, the Cairngorms. Mum & Dad liked it and so we moved there but 1 less in our family, Shelagh. She may of moved out after marrying but she was only just down the street.
The Braes was a much happier place but still people thought they could take advantage of me, even there.
The story of the start of my life in the Highlands is now complete http://gerrymcgregor.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-story-part-6-new-life-in-highlands.html
Greenlaw is a village in the Scottish Borders in the county of Berwickshire, for those of you who don't know where it is. It is a odd county, as you would expect the county town to be Berwick but that is in another country, England. It was in Berwickshire but some hooligans crossed the border, killed everyone in the town and said this town is now English and no one was alive to argue.
My new life in a new country had a strange start, I was sent almost immediately back to England, Gosforth to stay with my Aunts. I have a stammer and I was being sent on a 2 week course learn a new technique to get over it. What with the upheaval of moving, living away from home and the strain of having to learn this new technique, things went wrong and I became constipated. Now for someone with HD, this can be serious. At that time I took laxatives every night as standard. As it went on for a few days it got serious and so the district nurse was called in to give me enemas. This did not work and I went home badly constipated and the course was a failure. This situation did not rectify itself until after Christmas when I had to go into hospital to be cleaned out under aesthetic.
That was not too big a deal as such but it meant I had missed the best part of a term. Berwickshire was were the education authority did its best to scupper my education. In England they changed from primary to secondary/grammar school a year earlier than in Scotland. Therefore to go into my age group, I should of gone back to primary. Nope, I had passed my 11 plus and had started Grammar school and I must be bright, I was to go to secondary school. I had also missed a term and 2 weeks due to illness. When I went back to school I was missing 1 year and 1 term of education, they also put me into the top stream. Wow, that is how to really screw someone's education up. I think it was the second year I ended up in the bottom stream, by then the damage was done. I was not interested in school and they were not interested in me.
My parents were leasing a small country hotel, from the brewery. Sounds very posh but it was a pub with a couple of rooms. We had the local postman as a permanent boarder. That meant early morning and late nights. They had one afternoon a week off, when they went in Edinburgh. A local boy got friendly with Duncan & I, he was about 3 or 4 years older than me. I am not sure how it started but I was sexually very naive, I was 12 and had not reached full puberty. He asked me if I wanted to know about sex. Not knowing too much about it and not wanting to show how innocent I was, I agreed. We ended up in bed and this went on for months. He told me not to tell anyone as they would be angry, also he would stop seeing me. He was my only 'friend' and so I did not want be rejected, the feeling that someone liked me was quite a pull. He eventually tired of it and stopped coming.
To say my school day at that school were happy is an understatement. I was a weedy, sick, mummy's boy, with a stammer. I felt isolated at school because I was 'thick'. I did not do sports because of my hirschsprung's. I was catholic so did not go to assembly or RE but went to the church to be taught by the priest. Also as Catholics my parents would not allow any of us to be in involved in the local Church of Scotland events. My sister was not even allowed to be a bridesmaid at the local church. Later on when I was a scout, I could not go on church parade with them.
Not a great time. We had a big stables in the back and I went to the upstairs where there were roof beams, taking a rope with me. Thank goodness I was not tall enough or strong enough to throw the rope around the beams. I had not intended to come back down.
It was not all unhappy times there. Shelagh got married to a local bloke, Alex's. Alex's was a brickie but advanced to Director Scotland. A nice bloke but died a number of years later of stomach cancer. He was not that old though.
Duncan advanced his music career and formed a band, The Blackadders, after a local river. His talents were coming though even at that age. I remember a professional band came to play in Greenlaw and afterwards the manager was in our kitchen. He was amazed at Duncan's playing and his ability at all aspects of the guitar. He was also one of the few people to who are left handed but plays the guitar not stung left-handed but as normal, like a certain Paul McCartney. He bemoaned that fact that Duncan could do things that his band members could not.
Thankfully we only stayed in Greenlaw, less than 3 years. The hours, the lease terms and the access to alcohol proved too much for my parents and they give up the pub. Where to go though.
My parents saw a advert for a church house in a place called Chapeltown, Braes of Glenlivet. While living in Sunderland we had a holiday near there, Kingcraig, the Cairngorms. Mum & Dad liked it and so we moved there but 1 less in our family, Shelagh. She may of moved out after marrying but she was only just down the street.
The Braes was a much happier place but still people thought they could take advantage of me, even there.
The story of the start of my life in the Highlands is now complete http://gerrymcgregor.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-story-part-6-new-life-in-highlands.html
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