THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT
Coll in the summer is full of visitors, friends and relatives all escaping on holiday from the routine of home and work.
All holidays have their particular memories. The Greaves seemed to have spent an awful lot of time chasing after Grannie's run-away dog in Brechin and John Allan MacRae didn't seem to mind going to the dentist in between visiting the Museum and 'Garry the Butcher' who 'acts like a clown' in Edinburgh. The Bells travelled the long way to Dorset, the Englishs even further to a Farmhouse Gite in France. The Kennedys went to neighbouring Iona which must have taken nearly as long as the journey to Dorset.
Often Collachs take their holidays in the winter - there is no TIME in the summer. The Sturgeons managed to take in four European capitals - London, Paris, Geneva, Rome - over the Xmas and New Year period. Whilst in Switzerland, Robert Senior had the strange experience of seeing in a Lausanne gift shop a painting for sale of Oban Bay with MV Caledonia moored at the pier. What with that and 'playing bridge every night with our friends' it must almost have seemed like home from home
Glasgow has long been a favourite watering place as many relatives bide there but especially so last year as it was the Glasgow Garden Festival. Mrs Oliphant, Headteacher, Arinagour Primary School took the children to the Festival as part of the School's Glasgow Trip. Here is her report and some of the children's impressions of life away from Coll.
ARINAGOUR SCHOOL TRIP MAY 1988
Last year's great adventure took us to Glasgow, mainly to see the Garden Festival. We crammed a lot into four days, a full day at the Garden Festival, waiting to get in at 10.00am and getting thrown out at 8.00pm. Other visits included The Tenement House, Pollok House, The Transport Museum and Scotland Street School, Museum of Education.
Angus Kennedy arranged a special treat - seeing part of an episode of "Taggart" being filmed. He also took us to Strathclyde Police H.Q. at Pitt Street for lunch and a look around there.
Our trip could not have been such a success without the help of the Coll Association, the Women's Guild and the Argyll and Bute Educational Trust. I am also very grateful to the parents who helped to raise the rest of the money and to the people who supported our fund-raising activities on Coll.
I would like to say a special 'thank you' to Angus Kennedy for the super day he arranged for us, to my mother and father, Adam and Myra Collier who were brave enough to come with us, and to my sister and brother-in-law Heather and Jim Sinclair who gave up time to be with us.
Louise Oliphant
SCOTLAND STREET SCHOOL
Philippa Greaves
We went in the Victorian School in Glasgow and I was feeling frightened. The lady who was teaching was called Miss Fraser but we had to call her Ma'am. We went to a place were you changed into different clothes then we put our hair in a pony tail because Miss Fraser didn't like hair down.
The big moment had arrived. We went in and Miss Fraser told us where to sit and she said there are some slates down the side of the desk. We did some mental arithmetic. I got I out of 10. That wasn't very good. Then we did some victorian writing like this a b c d. Last of all we were told to hold our breath for the count of 3 until she had finished speaking. Then it was over and we were out in the fresh air. I didn't like the teacher very much.
STRATHCLYDE POLICE HEADQUARTERS
Kenneth Maclntyre
When I saw Strathclyde Police Headquarters I was surprised because it was bigger than I thought. It was very neat and tidy. There were stairs leading up and down. We went with
Angus Kennedy to his office. His office was medium-sized with ladies outside. One would be his secretary and the others would have been typists. He took our coats and took us upstairs to have our lunch.
I had pie, chips and beans and after that I had ice-cream. Once we had our lunch we had to go to a special room with a special door. Angus pressed the button. If I had done it it wouldn't have worked because it has a special code.
When the door opened we went up to the control room where they picked up all the 999 calls and the other calls. It is all done by computers. We got our photos taken for the Oban Times. We were shown how everything worked. Then we were taken downstairs to where you get finger prints taken. We were given magnifying glasses and real finger prints from real crimes. We were asked if we wanted our finger prints taken and we said yes. I was first. After all of our finger prints were taken we went back to Angus' office. Angus gave us some things and we all said thank-you.
TRANSPORT MUSEUM
Ian Anderson
I thought the Transport Museum was great. There was a car from Ardrishaig. My granny and grandad stay there. There was a bubble car. It looked funny. I would like a car like that.
There were Trams and lots of old fashioned bikes and motorbikes, they were really nice. I liked the model boats best, there were all different kinds of boats.
There were supersonic jets and lots of things. There was a souvenir shop. I bought a car for Paul, sweets for Susan, keyrings for mum and dad and bought myself a car. I also bought stickers for the cars at home. I wish I had a model boat. There was a nice one but it was too expensive. I saw a big car but I didn't like it. Dad might have liked it.
THE ROLLER COASTER
Claire Stove
At first, I was excited about going on the Roller-coaster but when Jessica and I paid to go on, we changed our minds. We went up and got our ticket ripped, then we couldn't turn back, so we went on.
It was frightening going forwards but backwards wasn't so bad because we couldn't see what we did going backwards. When we started going up to go backwards, 1 asked Jess if she was all right and I got a groan out of her, so I took it as a maybe. I'm glad I went on it now because I can go on another one some day.
THE GLASGOW GARDEN FESTIVAL
Honey Smalley
The Tropicarium was good fun. Heather held a stick insect while getting her photo taken, with the rest of us at the side. There were lots of other insects like Tarantulas, butterflies which were very pretty. There were also some rare insects like giant pond snails, millipedes, scorpians and many more.
We went up the Clydesdale Bank Tower after we had our tea. When it was going up it felt horrible it felt as if it was falling.
It gave you a good view. When we were at the top of the tower Ian noticed some flower beds in shapes of dolphins. We could see a boat taking people around the bay.
