Blog: The power of storytelling
29th January – 5th February is National Storytelling Week, and it’s a particularly special one this year as 2022 has been named Scotland’s Year of Stories.
Stories bring us together and the simplest of activities can bring the best of experiences. That’s what Fort William Tuesday Social Club members found when they recently held a “Memories Afternoon”.
Instead of having a speaker, they asked members to bring along an object or a photo holding special memories for them, and to tell the story behind their memento.
Our Community Development Officer, Jo Cowan, attended to chronicle the event for the club and is pleased to share a few snippets from an afternoon that generated a range of emotions and lots of chat!
Marion’s photo of her cousin and herself dressed for a wedding with matching dresses and dolly bags brought with it a tale of town cousins visiting in the summer holidays.
This will resonate with many across rural areas. Two well-behaved, obedient young girls, living lives that were chalk and cheese, who only met up for a month out of every year. Cousin Dorothy visited Corrour from Glasgow during the Fair Fortnight and the two went wild, going out every day on the hills as their playground. Then Marion would get to go down to Shettleston for a busy fortnight of swimming baths, theatres, shops, buses and cinemas. Such precious memories.
When Betty moved to Fort William 55 years ago, her mum gave her this cheery clown bank so that she could save up to go back to Glasgow!
Margaret shared a lovely story of friendships forged with a group of Swedish tourists who came along to the country dance class in Fort William one night.
The bonds made on that occasion resulted in a band of the Scottish Country Dancers making a return visit to Sweden, staying in this old chalet near Stockholm owned by one of the Swedes.
They attended a Folk Festival there and were asked to sing a Scottish song. Plumping for “Loch Lomond”, they were surprised when 100 Swedes joined in in full voice. They learn it in school all across Sweden! The other welcome surprise was seeing Benny from Abba at the event.
Mary’s plate from the Steam Yacht Ocean Mist, which some of you may know as a fashionable restaurant ship in Leith, raised a wry smile from those “in the know”. Back in the day, young folk who had a pal on the vessel enjoyed many a party there “after the dance” having been rowed out bringing their “wee half bottles” or tins of beer.
Huge thanks to the group for allowing us to share their wonderful stories, and this simple yet effective idea for an activity that could work online as well as face-to-face!
