10 July 1996 – From My Diary 1996

At the end of June, the Rector at Wallace High invited me to chair the Junior Awards Ceremony. It was packed out with parents. One of our local rugby players and a former pupil addressed  the students.  He had just returned from a tour of New Zealand with the Scottish International Squad.

Although they were defeated, ‘We gave it our best shot!’ he said. And that was the  point of  his address. In passing, he made reference to his height.   At 5’6”, some people didn’t believe he could ever play for Scotland. But, ‘I had a dream and I stuck with it!’ he concluded.

The following day, I had to say a prayer at the University of Stirling Graduation. The Albert Hall was out of commission because of the Cullen Enquiry into the massacre at Dunblane. Instead, we were in the Tennis Centre at the University. The students were neither hooded nor capped in this ceremony.

That night, we had a celebration of our own in the Kirk Hall. The Friends of Logie had an annual Awards Ceremony for students in the Primary School, the Secondary School and the University of Stirling. The former Principal, John Forty, one of our trustees, made the presentations. Hospitality and chat followed.

With Mary-Catherine working in Edinburgh and the children on holiday, I needed to accommodate them into my work. I had been asked to give a talk on the artist, Joseph Denovan Adam, to a bus load of tourists at the kirk. They were doing a tour of the artist’s nineteenth century  world. The children came too.

The following afternoon, I did a round of the Nursing Homes – Randolph Hill, Deanston, Forthbank, Menstrie House, Broomhall Castle, Orchard, Tullibody. Eleven people in all. The children sometimes met the people, sometimes played outside but at Menstrie, they got ice lollies and ate them on the grass!

I attended a licensing, a probationer’s right of passage in a former day.  Afterwards, the Presbytery Clerk told us that the Office was going to be closed for the holidays. One elder asked, ‘Are you taking God with you?’ To which the Clerk replied, ‘No, I’m taking my golf clubs!’