I
have just read the history with interest and a great deal of nostalgia.
My father Jimmy Kennedy was on the committee for many years and was
great friends with Jimmy Forsythe, Jimmy Tennant , Jimmy Craig and
Ian Cooper, Willie McLeary and Harry Miller were both on the committee
around that time. My father was a member until his death in 1983 and
my grandfather Alf Kennedy was a member until his death in 1962. I
was also on the committee for 2 years but pressure of exams forced
my resignation and after a move to England I also left the club.
It was my father who was responsible for the repairs to the boats
and organising the working parties, he was a coachbuilder at the railway
workshops in Glasgow and his skills were put to good use on the boats,
for his efforts he was paid an annual gratuity of £5 from the
club funds. The first new clinker boats were built by a joiner in
Thornhill.
The ceremony of the pies probably derives from the annual restocking
which was a highlight of the club year, Jimmy Eadie butchers at Townhead
used to supply the meat for scotch pies which were made by Paterson
bakers Cowgate especially for the ceremony. Drinks were supplied for
those who wanted them and tea and cakes for those who did not. What
no one knew was that the Burco boiler used to make several gallons
of tea was used by my mother all year for her washing, it obviously
did no harm.There was one memorable year when everyone was waiting
for the fish to arrive and to no avail the hatchery had got the dates
wrong and the restocking ceremony had to go ahead without the fish.
With regard to the hatchery I was involved in the building of the
trap at the mouth of the burn but have no recollection of the eggs
being taken to Woodburn we used to put them in egg boxes and place
these in runs in the burn.
The boating plan was indeed a marvel of logistic planning if I remember
correctly certain boats were much favoured by members number 4 being
the favourite as it was reputed to drift better than any of the others.
There was a bell in the tin boatshed which was used to summon your
boat if someone else had taken it out.
Do you remember when the roof of the big shed blew off in the big
storm in the late 60's I got home from work and was asked by my father
to go and check that everything was all right at the loch. I opened
the door of the shed and everything was perfect until I looked up
and saw nothing but stars the roof had been moved 400 yards in two
pieces without damaging anything else. A working party was organised
for the next weekend and the roof was put back on.
I remember the great fly only debates and the uproar when pensioners
were allowed to vote in them despite being allowed to fish with any
legal method. This was stopped after a couple of years of bait fishing
being banned and one could go out and see pensioner members who had
voted against bait happily sitting drowning a worm.
I must visit Antermony soon to see the changes, hope the foregoing
is of interest to you as I have many happy memories of my membership.
Was
your brother Frank Malcolm of Malcolm and Whyte if so I knew him Jimmy
Tennant was my boss at the then National Commercial Bank and on one
occasion he and Frank had arranged a boat on the Carron Dam, they
asked if I would boatman for them. After about an hour the weather
blew up into a howling gale but their answer to the elements was to
produce a second bottle of whisky and carry on fishing closest I have
ever come to a near death experience.
Regards
Jim Kennedy
