Chapter 11 Then I stayed in Glasgow with Aunt Isabella (widow of Mother�s eldest brother,James). Before I arrived, her sons Boyd (then aged about 47), Douglas and Fergus wondered what on earth they would do with this flapper cousin who�d invited herself to stay - but they later told me that they had found me very easy to get on with, and not at all alarming! While I was there I cut out some warm blue material on Aunt Isabella�s drawing room floor, and made up the dress on her machine. Her daughter Isabel and husband Jimmy Craig took me on one of the beautiful drives I was treated to in the magnificent countryside round Glasgow, and I met their 10 year old Anne and younger John. In Edinburgh I got to know Cousin Katie and was introduced to much Simpson background.
From Glasgow I sailed across to Belfast and trained to Dublin to stay with Aunt Mary (Mother�s sister) and Uncle Denham, who was Presbyterian Minister in Dublin. After a weekend with them and their deaf and dumb daughter Jean, I crossed again to Glasgow and the spent a few days on my way back to London with Mr and Mrs Cooper and Margaret in Blundelisands near Liverpool. In December I came to the end of my time at St James�, and was delighted to pass all subjects very well and to get a shield for outstanding work. Shorthand 120 w.p.m. 98%, typing 47 w.p.m. 91%, bookkeeping 98%. See my report. This was, of course, during the world depression in the early 1930s, but St James� guaranteed to find jobs for all its successful students. I didn�t want a job immediately, as I planned to go to Germany in January, but I was interested to learn that the ambition of many of the girls was to get a job as a doctor�s receptionist, and I thought �how odd�, and considered the elderly lame ducks whom my father employed in that capacity. Shena came over for a short while, and one thing we went to together was Bertram Mills� Circus. Aunt Emily gave us the tickets for this, and neither of us was enthusiastic about her choice of entertainment, but both actually thoroughly enjoyed the whole programme. I spent Christmas and New Year with Uncle Duff and Aunt Elizabeth, and Jean took me to Piccadilly Circus on New Year�s Eve, with hundreds of people milling around greeting the New Year at midnight, with at least one man high up on the statue of Eros. ~~***~~ |
