Hello everyone

My name is Ian Sampson, age 77. I lived in Thurso as a young boy from 1945 to 1949. My greatest hobby was fly fishing on Thurso river, always accompanied by my faithful fox terrier. I also learned to play tennis (the first time that youngsters were introduced to the game in the town?).

I was given the book Over the Ord (by Herbert Sinclair) by the two ladies who ran the newspaper shop (the Mss. Swanson, perhaps?) when I left the town. To my great surprise I appear (arms akimbo) in a photo in the book on page 100, with my fox terrier. It was a wedding at which the bridegroom dispensed handfuls of half-crowns from the wedding car. I scrambled, successfully, for a few.

Saturday afternoon pictures were followed by treks (usually a game of cowboys and Indians) in the quarry, along with most of the boys who lived in Barrack Street.

The poem Div Ye Min' appears in the book. For many years I had this poem off by heart. In my first year of school in Harrogate I was something of a curiosity and referred to as - the boy from Thurso. At least it put the north of Scotland on the map for some of my new school friends.

PS Where are you Rocky Munro?