Re Dochgarroch

A Memory of Dochgarroch.

It is said that we all have a Guardian Angel, myself and my good friend Jimmy Fraser certainly had one 58 years ago. At a Hallowe'en party in the Dochgarroch hall in 1954 (I was 7 years old), it got a bit stuffy so I went outside for a breath of fresh air. It was a beautiful moonlit night and I strolled slowly over to the lock gates. As I put my foot out to stand on the last flagstone beside the water I heard a voice shout 'ANDY', I turned around but saw no-one. When I turned again to the canal, what I thought was a flagstone was in fact a reflection in the moonlit water, I would have fallen into the canal between the lock gates and wouldn't have stood a chance. Had that voice not shouted, I wouldn't be here today. 55 years later I was told by my lifelong friend, Jimmy, (he was 10 years old at the time) who lived on the top of Blackfold Hill, that he had set off for home in the pitch dark after the party. At only 10 years of age he was pretty nervous, wending his way home in the dark, and was delighted to see a light. Thinking one of the family had come to meet him he headed towards the welcoming light, but as he got closer, the light disappeared. Jimmy made his way home and the next time he descended the hill in daylight he saw that the path he was on that night in the dark was taking him ever nearer to a sheer drop onto rocks. Had that light not have shone, Jimmy, like myself would not have been here today. Someone was certainly looking after us on that moonlit night all those years ago.

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