Alan Skeoch

Year: 2018

  • DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES

    WE did not belong to a fraternity at U. of T. but we went to this fondly remembered fraternity party one night.  Eric, Marjorie and I.  No pocket money for beer.  just enough for one cigar as you can  see.  Then we hit a bonanza in the dark.

    “A half bottle of red wine, here…”
    “Take a  swig.”
    “finish it off before the owner comes back”
    “What are these lumps?”
    “CIGARETTE BUTTS?  CIGAR BUTTS!!
    The bottle had been used as an ashtray.  We did  not notice until we got some distance down in the bottle.

  • OCT, 7, 1989…FREEDOM CAME AND NEAR DEATH: ANDREW IN SOUTH PACIFIC

    FREEDOM AND NEAR DEATH:  ANDREW IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC,
    BEGAN OCT. 7, 1989
    alan skeoch
    march  2018
    Parents have to let go at some point.  If they don’t want to let go then their kids will take off anyway.  That is our experience.
    About the time the Berlin Wall came down, both Andrew and  Kevin took off. Left the nest to explore the wider world.  I think it was October 7, 1989…the Berlin Wall  came down a  month later…both boys just took off in different directions.  We didn’t know why their rite of passage occurred on the same day but it did.

  • Lower Wooton Farm…Marjorie and Nancy plucking chickens

    LOWER WOOTON FARM, HEREFORDSHIRE, CIRCA 1965
    alan skeoch
    march 2018
    LOWER WOOTON FARM is  a designated  historic  property near Almely, Herefordshire, England.    When I first visited the farms back in 1960 the farm was just a name…no directions, no real  address.  But Grandma  and Granddad Freeman talked  about the place  regularly back in Canada and since I was
    working in Ireland the chance to find  Lower Wooden Farm presented  itself.  I was travelling blind. Flew to London when Irish job was over then took a train from London to Hereford and then stood on the platform, a confused and obviously lost 22 year old Canadian.

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  • LAST RITES FOR A GRAND MACHINE OF DAYS LONG GONE

    LAST RITES FOR A GRAND MACHINE OF DAYS LONG GONE
    ALAN Skeoch
    March  2018

    “Son, I can  no longer walk and can only get around on this god-damned SCOOTER but there were days not so long ago that…”

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  • Blacksmith shop at Balinafad: Rejuvenated

    REJUVENATED BLACKSMITH

    A few years  ago I took this picture at the back door of the Balinafad Blacksmith Shop which was no longer functioning as such.  Today,  I suppose this would be considered a  picture in bad taste.  To me it just said something about that blacksmith and men in general.