Angus

This is a wee joke my seanair told me. He was Angus Bell - I’m named after him.

I’m now Seanair to my grandchildren.

My father was a Gaelic speaker from Eriskay, but I don’t speak Gaelic myself.

One of the most beautiful and moving things I’ve ever experienced, though, was attending a Gaelic funeral in South Uist, for the mother of a work colleague. Though I couldn’t understand the prayers or hymns it was a very moving experience.

Seanair & the Train [video transcript]

Saying about jokes, I remember him telling me a joke. He had made a big deal about telling me a joke, that when he went to Glasgow one time, him and my granny - can’t remember even what it was for. But it was a big deal - oh, they were in Glasgow, and all that.

And then they were heading for the train, and he thought: Oh, I could do with a book to read on my way back up on the train. Meg went a got in the train, and he went into Menzies. I don’t know if it was Menzies at the station, or beside the station - I think he could see the train. There must have been a Menzies in the station. And he picked this book, bought the book, and the woman at the counter said, “Will I put it in a bag for you?” He said, “No, no, it’s all right. I’m just going on the train and that anyway.”

So he said he was just almost out the door and a guy grabbed him: “You haven’t paid for that book.” He said, “I have so, I have so!” So he took him up the stairs to the manager’s office and said him down. “Right, you stole this book. We’ll have to get the police.” “No, I didn’t, I didn’t!” And all the time he’s looking at his watch, and he could see the train, and the train’s getting ready to go and everything. “Oh well, we’re phoning the police, you just sit there.” He got on the phone: “Now you wait there, we’re going down to get the policeman.”

And then he said: And then I was looking out the window and thought, Oh I could get out the window and get down here and get away on the train, he said. So he lifted the window up and stepped out over the window sill and that. And I was just getting my other leg over, he said, and the next thing a big hand started pulling my leg - just the way I’m pulling your leg the now!

[Film & edit by Rhona Dougall]