Stewart Ennis and I spent the day in Govan making interviews for the Facebook site. We began with an interview with Thomas McMahon, Secretary of the Govan Youth Information Project. Thomas's interview will be on Facebook soon,where he gives a short, perfectly formed history of Govan from pre-Vikings to present day.
Then we went to talk with Jimmy Stringfellow and his son at the show-peoples' place near the Pearce Institute. It was a great pleasure to talk with Jimmy.He told us about Colin MacLeod coming to visit them over twenty (?) years ago, dread-locked and bearded - and how they gave him a place to carve wood in the corner of the yard. A little while later Colin mentioned that some more material would be coming...a lorry arrived with an enormous tree trunk. Somehow they found space, and the tree trunk eventually became a totem pole with the sign of two fishes and two boats at the top. Then another lorry arrived with huge chunks of granite. 'I'm carving granite now,' said Colin. Macleod's carving and genius said Jimmy attracted followers. They made a long house from wood. They built boats. Galgael formed.
Around five hundred red indians came to visit the totem that Colin MacLeod made, cramming into the ground around it. Jimmy said it was an event to remember always. He said some of them were wearing feathers, the whole gear. He persuaded the minister at the church at the time to let the indians come to - worship, to pray, to dance. He said their feathers would commune with the feathers in the church, the angels' feathers. I had a picture of feathers falling through the air from the roof and the rafters of the church.
Then there was the story of the sharks. Two sharks were brought over and had to be kept in a tank in the show-ground. They had to lift the sharks from one tank to another. The first shark was docile and Jimmy and the 'shark doctor' (sorry, forgotten his name, but Jimmy said he was an amazing and knowledgeable man) lifted it easily enough into the tank. Shark number two - the alpha shark as they now discovered - woke up and started to thrash about. Jimmy hugged it to him as this shark starts snapping and snarling and Jimmy's thinking Oh My God. Eventually Jimmy throws a blanket over the shark so it gets a little disorientated and Jimmy and Shark Doctor manhandle the beast towards the tank. But then the shark must have smelled the water and Jimmy said it cantilevered itself up on its tail (strong as an elephant's trunk)and shot straight into the tank. Cleverer and older than us, said Jimmy.
The leaping horses are famous. They are the beasts on the carousels. As we left, Jimmy gave me a little horse that was made to commemorate the First Govan Easter Carnival in 1991. The Carnival took place for three years. I think it was free. I've taken a photograph of the little horse that jimmy gave me and will put it on the blog....there'll be more about the show people later.
Stewart and I made lots more interviews in the shopping centre and these are on the Facebook site. All of them are interesting portraits. One lady came back with a little cup to show us. Her husband had left her the cup before he died. He left it with two poppies inside it. It's a little tiny coffee cup with the emblem of the Govan Weavers on it and the seal of a mermaid on the bottom. A man called John MacLean showed us an old and battered Govan penny. Minted in 1902. We've got a photograph of that on facebook too. A very full day, lots of stories and pictures.
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