Thanks to Ali Jardine’s good idea of producing a map, we’ve finally managed to work out how to display the mementoes which people brought to the Rubydo. The numbers on the map (left) show the location of the items in the list. Below, you can see who brought what and what we think it means . Please let us know if you would like to add anything. Other people generously gave us presents which we couldn’t include in this display. Thanks to all.The Rubber Duck
Frank Bradley, along with Neil Hounam and us, was part of the original Barony Street Quartet – a flat sharing combo from our university days. He was Best Man at our wedding and the Team GB Duck is quite in character with what you might have expected Frank to bring.”It was waterproof,” he explained. It could just as easily have been an ornately framed mirror that he carried around for no obvious reason in 1st year! Frank also gave us one of our favourite wedding presents – a beautiful pottery lamp stand.
The Kayaker
Pam Caley joined us for beginner’s kayaking in Tarbert Harbour 2 years ago and we have made a few trips together. A new Aquatic Centre, located within the recently restored Larick wastelands has been built for both Rubber Duck and The Kayaker. This Centre, formed entirely from a recycled plastic drum is visible from the dining room table so we expect to see them both bobbing away happily along with any other playmates that may be added to the collection. (The crocodile will be housed in another enclosure.)
The Beaver Tile
Isla and especially Rob Reid have a lot to answer for! It’s hard for a mature male to set foot in Tarbert for any appreciable time before he is propositioned by Rob. No not in that way, Rob is the Senior Recruiting Officer for the Fynesiders Barbershop Chorus whose singing at the Rubydo was much appreciated. Isla tried her best to introduce us to Scottish Country Dancing but we had to let her down when we realised that it was Ceilidh Dancing that we were really interested in. There are beavers on the loose at Loch Coille-Bharr in Knapdale and we hope that in the years to come they will visit their cousin who has his own totem pole to gnaw here in Kintyre.
The Polka Dot
Nephew Paul and his wife Isobel are from the other Southend so we keep sending them post cards from the real one. Paul saw Wiggo’s true moment of glory on the Champs this summer and he knew that I have been glued to the tv watching the Tour for the last several summers contemplating when I might wangle a visit to the Col du Tourmale. Again, the tile sits beautifully in relation to the dining room table so that it will gently nag me into organising that trip.
The Haggis Hunter
This is another rather random article, from Mary and John Adams. Mary was at school with Suse, that’s Primary and Secondary School. They lost touch for many years after a toddler (can’t recall which one!) tore the first page out of Suse’s address book. Stranded on Arran 2 years ago, while John, Emily and Richard were MM training on Goatfell, Suse put her investigative journalist’s skills into action and the old friends were reunited. In one of those Kintyre coincidences, we later discovered that Mary and John’s son is at college with our neighbours’ son in South Shields. You couldn’t make it up.
The Horseshoe
Martin and Margaret Hyman have figured prominently in the story of the Coon Family’s sporting activities., Martin’s insistence that things are done properly and that everybody should be given an opportunity to demonstrate their worth are guidelines which we’ve embraced. It may have taken a while for Martin to appreciate John’s place in the overall scheme of things but once he’d introduced him to the great outdoors, he was able to relax and watch us develop. Margaret meantime keeps a modicum of calm when Martin rails against the “system” We’ve put their horseshoe beside the principal entrance into the house so that everybody visiting us can put something of themselves into this age old symbol of good fortune and also be influenced by the values of its donors.
The “O” Kite
Robin and Sheila couldn’t really have given us anything else. Mr & Mrs Orienteering go back to our early days in the sport and John has fond memories of comparing Casio watch split times with Robin and Mike Foreman and of orienteering at the “ragged edge” of things; always striving to do better but always capable of making that huge mistake – especially if they met each other in the forest. We’ve put The Kite at the entrance to the plot so that it will act as a sort of Start and Finish and so that we’ll definitely know when we’ve got back home.
The Miniature Whisky Bottle with GPS Co-ordinates
Quite a slippery little offering here from Ali, Dave, Josh and Aiden which has left us scratching our heads. A&D are “new” friends from Kintyre who have got to know us quite well having introduced us to sea kayaking and having been out with us in all sorts of conditions. The co-ordinates seem to be for an outing that took place from Southend which got off to a bad start when Suse and I mistook the start, left our lunch at home and then proceeded to amuse A&D with our antics thereafter. The whisky miniature seems to be a nod in the direction of my new found interest in malt whiskies especially those from the local Springbank distillery in Campbeltown. Feedback please!
The GBBB Plate.
Ian McIntyre was a founder member of the Green Bogie BIng Bashers which I suppose could have been called the Livingston hill running arm of the Livi Running Club. Now this gets quite involved because the running club had two definite membership groups reflecting Martin Hyman’s presence at The Meadows Intervals Sessions in Edinburgh on Tuesdays nights and the normal club night at Craigswood in Livingston the following night. Ian, Shug Ilgunas, Ian Campbell and I decided that the Edinburgh elite needed some competition so we set up a hill running league that allowed persistance to overcome talent. We travelled all over Scotland that year gaining sneaky points in far flung races only to to be beaten by an even more persistant runner from the Hunter’s Bog Trotters! The Green Bogie reference reflected the vertical stripe down the Livi vest and we were Bing Bashers because we had to run up and down West Lothian’s shale bings in the absence of proper hills. Ian and Jane’s plate has all the right ingredients even down to the red foreground which represents the red running shorts which completed the Livi club kit. It’s a masterpiece of memento making and has been allocated a special place beside the utility room door where we’ll see it every day and smile at the memories it provokes.
SAFC Badge
I think this memento was given to us by Dave Smith who was the superb barman at the “Do”, but there was a similar badge which I’ve said came from my sister Jennifer. If I’ve mixed them up, apologies. I used to be a season ticket holder at the old Roker Park and remember the “good old days” when Nicky Sharkey would go nap at one end whilst Charlie Hurley stood unpassable at the other. I pop down to the Stadium of Light now and then but it just isn’t the same. Still, I suspect that the badge will be retrieved from its jam jar on special occasions and worn with pride, especially if the lads have been winning.
A Pair of Soup Spoons
Well where do you start? Dick and Jane Wall accompanied John on a World Mountain Running Trophy trip to Austria along with about 50 other Brits including the McIntyres and Ian Campbell. Needless to say, the trip involved refreshments of the alcholic kind being taken in the local hotel, where Helga the Bavarian Barmaid took exception to John’s use of the Dining Room cutlery to play a rousing version of “Cushie Butterfield”! There’s talk of Dick and John coming out of their self imposed, hill running exclusion zones and entering one last, long race before they become more decrepit. We’ll see!
A Wooden Star
This cheery offering from Tim and Helen comes all the way from Carradale which is even more off the beaten track than Whitehouse. Tim is a Fynesider tenor, one of only two currently in existence, but he really would prefer to be a rock star 🙂 Hey, you never know, he’s just up the road from Paul McCartney’s old place.
A Coaster
Another planning student, Nigel Hackett was the photographer at our wedding and we hadn’t seen him for years. He took a bit of finding as he has moved on from town planning to landscape architecture; but we’re glad to see that he is still taking photographs and this coaster demonstrates that he hasn’t lost his touch.
A Red Heart
When we got this from our daughter Jo and husband to be John in Melbourne, we thought long and hard before deciding to display it outside. It’s so gorgeously smooth, crying out to be handled so we’ve decided to leave it loose on one of the stone benches near the house so that we can pick it up and play with it and think about our visits to Melbourne to see Jo, John and their son Jock. (Well John actually, but it’s getting so confusing, I’m starting a campaign of one for a patronym.)
The Chesterfield Spoon
Another Dave Smith offering, well he is from Chesterfield. It looks like we will be starting a spoon collection mounted on the fence and gates at the side of the house. My father, Joe, had a standing joke that the Coon Family was a bunch of “stirrers” and was duly presented with a very large wooden spoon one Christmas. It is now in Melbourne. Maybe Dave thinks I should take on this mantle?
A Bottle of Worcestershire Sauce (Full)
When Emily married Richard last year there were three additions to “Family Coon”. Although living in Worcester, (hence the saucy present), we see Richard’s parents, Steve and Sharon quite often. We get on really well and we are both so pleased that this is the case. Steve and John will be spending time together soon supporting Richard in his Lejog bike ride, so it will be interesting to see if this entry has to be edited. 🙂
Slate Heart 1
No this isn’t Kintyre’s homage to Mel Gibson but Kathleen and Nicholas’s perfectly selected weather resistant memento which, if we had stuck to the original plan of doing a mosaic, would have provided the basis for a lovely motif. However, human nature intervened in the form of things like Frank’s Team GB Rubber Duck, so this lovely, heart-shaped piece of slate is now applied to our new white wall, facing its sister memento (literally).
Slate Heart 2 – The Panto’s Revenge
This goes back a long way, probably to the late 1970’s or early 80’s. Suse and I were in Morecambe one Christmas visiting my folks.We ended up at a local pantomime with my eldest sister Hilda and possibly other people too. As I recall, we entered into the spirit of the occasion, to Hilda’s great embarrassment – she knew all of the audience and most of the cast! Anyway, it’s nice to have her sitting out across from Sister No. 2 and just along from Sister No. 3.
The Morecambe Garage Stone
Completing the triumvirate we have an enigmatic offering from said Sister No. 3, Jennifer who kindly left a “Flat stone from Mum and Dad’s garage”. Fine, but this stone looks like it has been sliced in a laboratory as part of some important paeleological investigation and for all I know, I may now be on the British Museum’s Most Wanted List! To make matters worse, it’s covered in scratches – somebody seems to have been using it to sharpen things. This would make sense if my Dad used it as a whet stone for his butchering knives, but how do I explain this vandalism to the paeleopolice? Still, it’s out there keeping the others company and it’s reassuring to know that they are there.
Helenium “Ruby Tuesday”
This is a bit of a mystery. Pam can you shed any light on this?
Pottery Shard
Another intriguing contribution from Emma and Jamie. This piece of pottery is awfully like some of the Roman pottery we saw in Cyprus last Spring and given E & J’s globe trotting propensities you have to wonder. Alternatively, they could have picked it up on Ayr beach. Either way, another perfect contribution to the sitting wall.
Varnished Stone 1
Do you believe in coincidences? This first stone is from Anne and David Deans from down the lane in Whitehouse, who helped out with our electrics after Gordon (see next entry) became ill.
Varnished Stone 2
This second stone is from Gordon Cameron who along with his wife Jenny (now sadly deceased) helped out with our electrics. Kintyre exudes serendipitous occurences. It’s just that kind of place. When you speak to a complete stranger in the Deli you are actually disappointed when you don’t find a point of connection. It does happen but not very often.It makes going to the big cities quite disconcerting because you see a lot of people that you don’t know and that seems strange now.
Ryhope Beach Stone
Another reminder of childhood and growing up in the North East of England. I was pleased that Jennifer gave us this rather unglamourous lump as it provoked a conversation about something that had been bothering me for quite some time. When I was a lad, walking along the collapsing boulder clay cliffs above Ryhope beach, it would never have occurred to me that at some point in the very near future, somebody would invent a word to describe a person born and bred in Sunderland. Apparently, and having no recollection of the word being used in this way, I became a Mackem sometime after I left Sunderland in the late 1960’s. I have a sneaking suspicion that the whole thing was manufactured by the fans of the rival football team on the next river up. The most confusing aspect for me, though, is that if Mackem is a term of abuse used by people from Newcastle about people from Sunderland, why do Wearsiders use it to describe themselves?
Monkey Puzzle with Laminated Card
The message on the card is, “To two very special neighbours, John and Suse. Much Love. The Evamys”. When we uprooted ourselves from the Bathgate Hills one of the things we both agreed on was that we didn’t want to be too isolated. Stuck up in a forest at the end of a single track road is a phrase that springs to mind. However, not having been used to neighbours, we weren’t sure how things would work out for us at Glenreasdale. We needn’t have worried. I’m not sure if they knew of my fondness of Araucaria araucana but fingers crossed that it likes it here and that it will fertilise or be fertilised by the ones in the river valley.
Laminated Photo in Pottery Frame
This shows Emily and Richard in their finest Icelandic knitwear and has been mounted on the oak bench which they and Jo and John bought as a Ruby Wedding present. We thought that the bench and the willow arch looked great in the photographs of the Rubydo and we hadn’t realised that we now have somewhere to catch the last of the evening sun. Perfect! We can’t wait to see the succession of family photographs which we hope will get taken around the bench in the years to come. A proper family heirloom.
A Pair of Blue Wellingtons
We have a little blue corner on the edge of the decking (i.e. some blue plant pots and balls) and once these wellies from Oz have been filled with mortar to stop them blowing away, they will be out there. We see “Jock” about once or maybe twice a week on Skype and we are grateful to Jo and John for making time in their busy schedules so that we can do this. We’ve also displayed some of “Jock’s” original artwork and we have another post card thing going with him. Can’t believe that we’ll be seeing him for real next week. I wonder if we should save the wellies in case the weather doesn’t improve?
SAFC Lapel Badge
When I was a kid collecting football cards, this would have been a “swopper”. It’s cellophane wrapped so I’m tempted to put it with my other collector’s items so that future generations can pay for their educations on the proceeds of sales of Beano and Dandy commemorative issues and unopened SAFC calendars and the like. Somehow I don’t think so.
Crooked Spire Lapel Badge
When I said to Dave Smith that I’d always found the spire of the Church of St Mary and All Saints, Chesterfield, interesting, I didn’t think that he would go to town (literally) and empty the local souvenir shop! I know that the spire is both leaning and twisted and I suspect that this must have some effect on the locals. By the way, is there a name for people from Chesterfield?
Painted Stone (Triangular)
We are now getting to the final Fynesider contributions which co-incidentally all comprise stones of some description. George Burns (yes he does one liners too) has gone for a neat triangular piece of sandstone with a fetching coating of Dulux mid-stone.
Decorated Stone (Round)
Derek Meredith, however, chose what can only have been an old knife sharpening wheel, but nicely decorated with “Good Luck”. We loved Derek’s handmade thankyou card which was “created especially by Derek’s Delightful Designs, a subsidiary of Meredith International Publishing of Ardrishaig” How good is that?
Carved Boulder
Whereas, Arthur and Morag Duff went for a no holds barred, full size, hand carved, Dun Skeig boulder which will hold up our driveway very nicely and no doubt outlast us all by several millennia.
Red Heart Lapel Badge
Elizabeth and John passed this on to Suse at the hall. We think she was supposed to wear it but then what do you do with it afterwards? Of course. You incorporate it into the mementoes.
Lanterne Rouge
In pro-cycling, so I’m told, the last placed competitor is known as the lanterne rouge. Apparently, it’s a much sought after honour in the big races such as Le Tour. I didn’t know that Neil and Dorothy were aware of my natural talent to underachieve in most of my athletic endeavours but now it seems it’s official. We’ve decided to give the lantern just a little bit of extra protection from the weather and it has been allowed space in Suse’s Holy of Holies- the greenhouse, where, as the nights draw in, it may even be put to its intended use.
Well that’s all folks. Please let us know if you’d like to add anything. Thanks once again.
John & Suse