Thankyou kindly El Bob,
The "Professor" bit was an attempt at sarcasm on the part of the fellow members of "The Christian Endeavour." but backfired - to their annoyance.
In those days very few of us had "Further Education" with the school leaving age at fourteen. Your just had to leave.
Someone who attained the "Classics" stream in the local Academy were looked on with a kind of awe.
I was a fairly dumb laddie with a both a father and a sister who were on the way to brilliance. This caused quite a lot of friction.
Two separate Academy Rectors (School Masters) came to my mother and begged her not to allow my sister to leave as she was definitely going to be the next "DUX".
But she was taken from school and put to work first as a house-maid to two unmarried sister school teachers who treated her so badly that my aunt stormed across the street into the house and took her out.
Then, because we had family connections in the "Close Brethern" (I have heard them called the Exclusive Brethern), she got a job in a wool mill as a weaver.
The war broke out and she joined the Royal Navy who instantly saw her potential and she very quickly became Post Mistress of the Royal Navy Post Office in Scapa Flow, one of the largest naval bases in Britain and home of the North Atlantic Fleet.
I tell you this because it is often said that the Scots almost worship education but in the 1930's having another income come into the house was more important. However small it may be.
So I felt a close affinity to the poor and poverty stricken in the all the lands of South East Asia because my first ship took me first to Malaya, Singapore and then Tang Jong Priok in Java. Thereafter, we sailed slowly around all the islands.
We on the other hand have had to pay for every hour of our daughter's education, first in Hong Kong (Where education was NOT compulsory?) and then boarding school in Scotland which in turn put her to Napier's University in Edinburgh for an honours degree in business management which she attained First Class with honours.
I, remembering my sister's life - wasted - was determined that my daughter would be better prepared for the real world than my wife and I were.
I frequently said that the house would have to go before I interrupted her education.
I think I was right.
Nowadays I think that I would be classed as a slow developer because after passing my engineer's exams I felt as if I could go straight on into University but the system existing here at the time would not allow that.
"Mature Students" coming from the work place into University. They do now. It has all changed. Maggie Thatcher even stopped apprenticeships and now every government is trying to reintroduce them.
My daughter was the first person in our whole family history to go to university but her second cousin soon followed her.
Unfortunately, there is a cloud you may not know about, most Scots leaving home in those days before television dreaded the outside world. And almost all have a deep seated inferiority complex, prone to depression and despair. The highest suicide rate is in the Scottish Highlands and mainly among men between 18 and 25.
So, there are inumerable obstacles for a Scot to over come which are not seen by others. On top of that I am NOW told that my "Red Hair" probably caused me to fail in many interviews.
It is on record that they are "discriminated" against more than any other people of any colour in Britain.
And there are eight million of us - a sizable minority, larger than the population of Scotland.
Did you know that "Red Head's" feel pain more than any other people??
I didn't until last week when there was a large part of a T.V. programme devoted to the subject. Even the presenter said he would never have believed it except for all the evidence and records produced.
So, all in all I think that I did fairly well most of my life.
I do not think a government can introduce a "Welfare State" unless there is a strong surge in the population wanting one.
It is one of the main differences I find between citizens of the USA and us Europeans. We have such totally different aims in life for our countries.
Anyone is almost totally covered for health problems travelling all over the EEC.
It gives a great peace of mind to those who take many holidays but the British work the longest hours in a week of any country in the EEC and receive the least rewards.
I always tell young people who may be willing to listen. Civilization is only a veneer which can easily be cracked and torn apart and it would be very easy to slide blindly into a depression such as was in the 1930's.
I know this appears to digress from the main topic but the subjects are not far apart.
Once again our government is depending far too much on charities to take care of what they were elected by the people to do.
They told us that "never again" would there be a means test - it is back and I am fed up filling in forms.
A decent pension - which we have paid for already - would wipe it all out
It is reckoned that some eight million people will
NOT apply for what "is theirs" because they refuse to go through the means test. I assure you it is very demeaning. Year after year after year.
If you want to know the Far East that I first saw I would recommend reading Somerset Maughams collected short stories. He is wonderfully descriptive. Most of the stories are mainly true - he was banned from Hong Kong.
The Merchant Navy I knew ceased to exist with the introduction of containers which in their turn have put hundreeds of thousands of workers all over the world out of work.
Singapore has a container berth completely operated by computers - no human beings at all.????
In 1953 the harbour had their "Tally Clerk's Pipe Band."
"All is change sayeth the Prophet and behold all things are new."
My last few years were spent in ships carrying only one engineer - ME!
God Bless and Keep You All.
reekie