Chronicles Part VIII - 1986-87

From http://renshawschronicles.blogspot.com/

Once we had made the unfortunately essential redundancies at MacFisheries soon after the acquisition, it was important that we built up morale again amongst those who were staying on - about 350 or so. One social event I recall us attending was the traditional annual staff and partners dinner dance, which was held in the Alexandra Hotel.

It was a slightly surreal affair, starting as early as 6pm on a Saturday evening. I remember the hall lights were all on - it was so bright and there had been no attempt to dim them or create any kind of atmosphere for the occasion. It felt like we were attending school dinners again. After the meal, it was soon clear why there was such an early start - the evening was one long boozing session - at least for the men. Most of the women didn't drink - the area is well known for its Temperance Societies - even now. Here's an archive photo of the nearby St. Combs Flute Band:

The Temperance Society flute bands of North East Scotland still, to this day, hold their annual marches - usually at New Year - but they bear no relation to the marching flute bands of the West of Scotland and Northern Ireland, which are allied to the Orange Order and perceived as intimidatory and anti-Catholic in many quarters.

I still remember Jo's hairstyle in those days - it was dark then, of course, and one of my colleagues, Mike Low, referred to her as Pam Ewing - she of Dallas fame:

Jo - and her hair - looked nothing like this image of Pam Ewing, but it was a lovely compliment nonetheless - and she did look very nice!

Back home, the developers of Arbor Court had put a small area of grass on one half of the driveway and, as everybody cut across it when they were heading to the village, we put some stepping stones in to save the grass from some wear. It still looked a bit plain, however, and Jo came up with the idea of building a small rockery in a corner of it:

By this time our sky blue Sierra had transformed itself in to a dark blue one.

Kelly's First Communion also came along in this period:

I notice I'm wearing my Clipper tie in this photo, whilst Jo's in her blue period - even down to the stockings.

It was also round about this time that Deeside Indoor Sporting Club (D.I.S.C.) was built between our townhouses and the side lawn of the Tor-na-Coille Hotel. I played a bit of snooker there at the start, but, for some reason, never kept that going, despite the proximity and the fact that I enjoyed the game.

We decided to return to France on holiday in 1986 - the first time we'd made the long journey south from our northern outpost. We were going to drive again - but this time to a caravan, rather than a tent, and slightly further south than Brittany - to the Vendée to a town called Les Sables d'Olonne. With 6 of us in the car, we had to break the journey at regular intervals. We were fortunate enough to be able to use the Company's London flat, near Sloane Square, so that was our first port of call. This photo was taken just round the corner as I managed a quick pint with the boys:

We took the opportunity to make a quick visit back to Broxbourne and the New River:

It felt nice to go back there - both Gary and Kelly had been born in Hertfordshire and Lucy had made good friends there.

London to the Channel is a relatively short hop and we had decided to make the crossing even quicker. In those days there was no Channel Tunnel of course - it was a simple choice of conventional ferry, or, in this case, hovercraft for us. It was quite a novelty - quick, of course, but bumpy and noisy. Here we are about to board:

I can't recall whether we sailed to Boulogne or sailed back from there on the way home, but I remember us spending a bit of time walking round the port and we took this photo at one of the openings in the town wall:

Our next stop was Paris and we did the tourist thing at Versailles:

They look so cute and innocent - whatever happened?

Finally we got to the West Coast - the Vendée is regarded as mid-west France:

The exact location of the campsite was at Puits Rochais and here's some photos from that holiday:

This was much more like a proper family holiday than our brief period in Mallorca late in the previous year. Apart from the fact that camping/caravanning is much more affordable for a large, young family, it's also more suitable and France was a great place for us to go then - I have some fond memories of those times.

That following winter of 1986/87 was when I first started running. Marathon running had suddenly become popular in the mid-80's. I guess this started primarily with the London Marathon which began in 1981 and was soon so successful that it began to be televised and this, in turn, created a whole new level of demand from aspiring runners from all over the country.

John McWhinnie and I were now playing golf regularly at both Torphins (for competitions) and Banchory, but we were, I think, looking for something a bit more challenging and with me rapidly approaching 40, I guess it was probably my first mini mid-life crisis. John and I started training together - at first just at lunchtime, when we went to Seaforth (where I played squash) to change and shower and we tramped the roads from there. We soon realised that our optimum run, given the location and the restriction on time, was a 5 mile loop along the Beach Esplanade and up and back along King St. - or vice versa, depending on the ferocity and direction of the wind.

Neither of us having run before, our initial target was a fairly modest 10K - the Aberdeen Milk Run, which was scheduled for Spring/early Summer, 1987. We both got a great buzz from successfully completing this - John was always a bit quicker than me, but I made it OK:

This success led us to start thinking about bigger challenges, but we realised we had to step up our training regime if we wanted to do any more than the occasional 10K. We started training in the evenings as well around Banchory and soon developed a number of circular routes of differing lengths that we could do. The surrounding countryside was full of great little roads that got very little traffic - especially in those days when Banchory really was just a village.

We used Banchory Squash Club to change and shower in, so our usual starting point was to head west and then up Glassel Road, getting the uphill stretch out of the way first of all, which I felt always helped get your lungs working properly, making the rest of the run a bit easier after that. The short loop was a 6 mile one, past what was then the Institute of Terrestial Ecology ("ITE") and along towards Raemoir Road and back down along the High St. There was an additional loop round Brathens Farm that we could throw in which increased this run to 7.5 miles, but we eventually added in further loops on the east side of Raemoir Road towards Hirn that could increase this to 9 and 10 miles and beyond. I think eventually our longest training run was over 16 miles, but this was still some way ahead.

I was playing more regular squash at Banchory by now and soon I was appearing for our 3rd team, having been persuaded that my apparent modesty about my ability was misplaced and I was indeed good enough to represent the club in the Grampian Squash Leagues. I soon got to know nearly everyone at the club - and it's hard to imagine now, but we had over 200 members at one time - and before long, I was on the Committee.

Most of the squash players were turning their hand to golf as they got older and they had started what was to become a biannual trip to Boat of Garten, staying at the BP House at Nethybridge, courtesy of Bill Miller who was then BP's HR/Personnel Manager. I got invited and became a regular from 1987, I think.

Television was changing too with new satellite TV services supplementing, rather than competing with, the conventional terrestrial channels. Sky and BSB (British Satellite Broadcasting) were the two rival services and we plumped for the latter and soon had a "squarial" installed on the front of the house:

It was very popular in our house - particularly with Gary, who was heading towards teenager-dom. I do recall watching a very young Chris Evans presenting some kind of music show on Saturday mornings. He was at his frantic, manic worst in those days and his voice used to grate with me - still does a bit.

That summer of 1987 was to bring another major change at work. The business had grown and Clipper Seafoods and MacFisheries had been merged and were trading very profitably, and eventually they came to the attention of some of the major UK Food Processors who all seemed to be in acquisitive mode. There was much talk - some of it apparently encouraged by the major supermarket chains - of consolidation/rationalisation of the number of suppliers.

So it was that, on 5th July, 1987, Clipper and MacFisheries were acquired by Geest and this was to signal the next significant chapter in my working life - but more of that in the next episode.