Memories of 1947

In 1947 I was nine years old. My parents had been posted to Shetland where my late father was to be the Church of Scotland minister in what I believe was/is referred to as the Weisdale Kirk.

We had sailed from Leith to Aberdeen and then stopped briefly in Kirkwall in Orkney and on to Lerwick. In January 1947 there was a sudden snow fall that blocked all the roads going anyway into the rural communities of the island.

My parents didn’t really talk about being storm stayed. But we lived in a hotel in Lerwick until a large snow blower was brought from an airbase.

I can still remember seeing workers digging around the cross arms on the telephone poles – jackets off and working really hard to get the telephone lines to work.

I loved my Shetland experience with a boy from the Weisdale Post Office – I think his name was Jim Moncrieff. I broke my arm at Anderson’s farm when their youngest ran out in front of my bike and I was tossed over the handlebars.

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I remember my dad taking me to Lerwick to have a surgeon check the arm that my dad had set the night before. I had a great time in Weisdale.

I also remember going to Up Helly Aa and seeing the longboat being set on fire. Years later when my parents had emigrated to Canada and we lived in Newfoundland, I wrote about my experience at the Up Helly Aa festival.

Hope somebody can find some information for our stay in Shetland.
Thank you in advance. Cheers!!!

Stewart Paterson
Manitoba
erspater38@gmail.com