with Jessie MacLeod (widow of Roderick MacIver)<\/p>
We had two teachers \u2013 Mary Jane Smith from Holm and Maggie Mary MacLeod. The headmaster was from Uig, Mr MacLean. We had a teacher from Point too – she was married to Allan Cameron. They didn\u2019t speak Gaelic to us, and we had no English going to school. The teachers were very good, but the belt was there, even for small things, and you didn\u2019t tell when you got home. There were teachers from the township too, but they were teaching away.<\/p>
There were buses in the village \u2013 Forty had one and Logan and Angus William and Cromarty. It wasn\u2019t buses we lacked, but the money for going to Stornoway. There were two shops in New Street and a shop at the Post Office. We were well off for handiness. Today there is only the Post Office. Lipton and the Co-op started coming with vans. Angus William had one shop, and Forty and Logan others. There was a salting-house here, belong to Allan Cameron\u2019s grandfather \u2013 they called him Domhnall Ruairidh. It was he who had the shop and everything else in my grandmother\u2019s day<\/p>
We used to go to the peats with my mother to help her after school, and to cut grass for the cattle, though they would be bursting with it. There were sheilings between here and Muirneag, at Loch Iondagro, Loch Sgeireach and at Cnoc Shanndabhat. We used to go out there ourselves with the cattle. We were going out there with them and going to fetch them at night. We didn\u2019t stay out at the shielings in our day, but I remember them coming back with the crowdie and the cream. The butter was made at home. Everyone had sheep and cattle \u2013 most of those who had crofts. Some had horses. It is moor land that we have here, but there is good ground here too. Everyone had a share of the machair. I remember going down to the machair along with my mother, down where the graveyard is. <\/p>
We turned the croft with the spade, for potatoes and seed \u2013 barley and oats. I remember bringing in the oats when we were young \u2013 the awns used to get down the back of your neck and they were so prickly! There was a mill at Griais and we used to hear that my grandfather used to go to the mill. We used to hear from Donald\u2019s mother, Ciorstag Eoghainn \u2013 she and I were first cousins \u2013 telling about her grandmother\u2019s brother \u2013 he was at sea, and he had big bushy eyebrows \u2013 and he was rolling down the foot of his trouser-legs in case there was chaff in them. The miller\u2019s wife was teasing him \u201cDid you shake out your eyebrows?\u201d He said to her, \u201cIf you knew what it was to be hungry, you wouldn\u2019t let any be lost.\u201d He was on the sea for months at a time, I believe, often with little food.<\/p>
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
with Jessie MacLeod (widow of Roderick MacIver) Schooldays We had two teachers \u2013 Mary Jane Smith from Holm and Maggie Mary MacLeod. The headmaster was from Uig, Mr MacLean. We had a teacher from Point too – she was married to Allan Cameron. They didn\u2019t speak Gaelic to us, and we had no English going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51365,"featured_media":4894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[268],"class_list":["post-6303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-village-histories","tag-lewis"],"yoast_head":"\n