Chiffer Update

On my way from the store, yesterday evening, I stopped at Chiffer’s pharmacy.

He wasn’t there, which was a shame because I really wanted to include him.

I talked with the lady pharmacist and tried to describe my complaint about Chiffer.

It wasn’t straightforward, because I had no intentions of demonstrating his chiff and mere words don’t do justice to the act.  She had not witnessed this herself. The pharmacy windows are covered with posters.

So, I now believe that she thinks that he just clears his throat and chiffs, but that would be a clocher and no a chiff.

She said she would ‘have a word.’

I’ll keep a lookout to see if it solves the problem, but I’ll also keep my distance in case it doesn’t!

My First Home

The local doctor had arranged my adoption.  There was nothing so formal as a home study and no money changed hands.

It was decided I needed a home that was not to with my own flesh and blood and so arrangements were made.

When I was about six days old, I was taken from Cuparstone Nursing Home, Aberdeen to the Seatown in Buckie, to live with my adoptive parents, Alex and Peggy Cowie.

They made me so welcome!

Below is the first photo taken of me, with Mam, in my new home.  A wee suppie hair and nae teeth.  The double chin is evident even then.

The house was a traditional fisherman’s ‘but and ben.’  Dad’s parents lived in one end and we were in the other.

Behind Mam is the double bed that was in the living room.

At the time, the upstairs was an open space, where the nets were mended and stored. Great Uncle Jock was a sail maker and he also had space there for his sewing machine and materials. Later, the space was converted into bedrooms.

But this is where I lived for the first eight years of my life.

The Beginning of My 60 Years (3)

When I was growing up in Buckie, there was only one thing that associated me with Cuparstone Nursing Home. That was a book given to my adoptive Mother, by the Matron, Mary Stewart.

It was a ‘Baby book.’ It was quite academic and might have been a textbook for nursing school.

Miss Stewart had marked chapters that would have been helpful to a new Mother. She had also signed the copy.

When Dad died and I went to Buckie to prepare the house for sale, I planned to take the book back to California with me. It was part of my heritage.

But, by the time I got there, the book had been tossed out by the people who wanted to make my task easier.

It was so deeply personal to me that I could never have explained my loss to them.

The Beginning of My 60 Years (2)

I was born on December 27 1949 in Cuparstone Nursing Home, 34 Great Western Road, Aberdeen. It had been previously known as Cuparstone House. I was the last baby to be born there.

Cuparstone Nursing Home was founded in 1934, It was owned and run by Miss Mary Stewart. It closed in 1951. Here’s a link from the Scottish Archive Network.

The property had originally been owned by Archibald’s, a furniture company. So, was I born in a furniture shop window?

On my last visit to Scotland, in 2002, we went to Aberdeen and photographed it.