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Storytelling as a Family Activity

Storytelling as a Family Activity

Stanley Robertson

interviewed by Barbara McDermitt

and Virginia Blankenhorn in 1979

With thanks to Tocher,

the School of Scottish Studies Archives,

University of Edinburgh

STANLEY ROBERTSON

When we were children…When I was a child we lived in very poor circumstances. We didn’t have no wireless. There was no television in that days. We sometimes got to the pictures if we wis lucky. But normally what would happen is ma mither – ma father wis usually drunk, but where he wisnae drunk he would aye come an tell ye stories – but ma mither used to sit an tell us stories every night. An ma granda bade wi us and he wis an old, old man, an he sut an told us stories aa the time, ye ken? We aa used to sit an jist tell each ither stories ‘at we knew an heard an kent. An it wis jist a case whar yir repertoire built up aa the time – same as ma wee bairns can sit an tell ye hundreds of stories, oot o the blue, ye ken, an it used to be fun.

But the best stories wis when you were in the country: ye were maybe bidin in an aald road, like the Waa Steedins or the Aald Road o Lumphanan, where aa the traivellers used to sit in a circle -they wis jist like Indians. And the bairns jist sut very quietly, and ye listened, every word -ye jist sort o luxuriated in every word, ye ken, at wis said. An ye got some super stories.

I remember once a man telt – there wis one man, really funny – an this is a very – jist a smatterin o a story – and he startit tellin this story, he says he wis waalkin along this road. Dirty, dirty, caald night. But the moon wis high, but it wis caal an sharp wi frost. An he waalked along this lonely road. An he sort o paused. An – “Ah”, we’d say, “but – but fit happened?” He says,”Oh naething happened – jist it wis aafy dark an caald!” (Laughter) … An even the wee smatterin o a story – can ye remember them?! An they used tae - They didnae only tell creepy stories, though ye likit them the best, but they used to tell ye their adventures an queer happenins – an things that happened… aa this stuff…

BARBARA MCDERMITT (?)

Well, um, this was when you were camping out? Did you do most of your camping out in summertime?

STANLEY

Aye, it wis mostly – fae spring up till aboot autumn.

VIRGINIA BLANKENHORN (?)

You’d be sittin around a fire or something tellin the stories, would that be it?

STANLEY

Aye … we’d aye a huge fire wi maybe a pot o soup on it an at. It used to be good, it wis … really a good way o life, it’s a shame that, ye know it…

BARBARA (?)

I was wondering if you could remember how old you were when you first started to tell stories. Did you start when you were young?

STANLEY

Fan I first ? It’s so long ago I can’t remember. It always hes. It has always been. Because I remember once when I wis a wee laddie an I wisna at school, we wis aa campit oot at the Waa Steedins in Dess, an they were haein a sort of a ceilidh thing an ma Auntie Jeannie says to me – I wis jist gaan to school – an she says to me “Go on, sing one o yir wee songies, laddie, sing a wee nursery rhyme song.”

An she thought I wis gaan tae sing “Baa baa black sheep” or “Humpty-Dumpty”, and I started tae sing her “Bheir mi ho robhan o”. And she says, “My goodness,” she says, “how did a bairn ken a song like that?” So we wis accustomed to hearin aal-fashioned things when we wis – ye ken, we never… we never went through the wee baa baa stage, we aye seemed to be the grown-up stage, ye ken, as children.

But my sister Charlotte, she telt us a story which she composed: it was cried – I couldnae tell ye because it would take – she would’ve won – ye ken the Arabian Nights when Scheherazade telt the story an it lasted for ever an ever an ever? Ma sister Charlotte would’ve won it. She started tellin us a story, an it was on the go all my – since ever I could remember. It was cried The Kelly Dog. It wis aa this story aboot a dog lookin for a bone, a sugary bone. An it used to include aa this different adventures, but she used to mak it up every night in her bed. It lasted for fourteen years, that I ken o! An it wis a bonny story, it wis like a continuin story: every night this story went on! She used to sing songs, went through the actions, and she never – ye ken, she made it up, but it was spontaneous, an it never stopped … It was tremendous. ‘Ken, television killed that art. But in that days, because ye were so engrossed with each ither, whit they had – an we used to read – Same when we wrote poetry, ye ken. Aa my brithers an sisters could aa write poetry, though we jist used to write on bits o wallpaper an that. But we all hed ‘is creative spark within us, an every one o them could dae it.

VIRGINIA (?)

And you’d tell stories to one another, the other brothers and sisters in the family?

STANLEY

Oh aye – aye!

VIRGINIA (?)

What about the grown-ups? Would you tell stories to your own parents or other grown-up people as well?

STANLEY

Oh aye, aabody dis it, everybody took a turn in tellin. I mean to say, if my bairn’s tellin me a story, I’ll jist sit an listen, same wey as my parents would’ve listened to me if I was tellin a story. Or sometimes my father… if he wisnae drunk, he would come hame an he’d maybe start tellin us some o his stories – he had some good stories. Ma father’s tradition is so different from ma mither’s, and Burn Bonnet’s Maggie’s again is so different. A haenae even touched her material yit… Her material’s very old – cos that wis Aald Bill stories. And I have got aboot twinty tapes o Maggie in there… an A’m the only body who can decipher fit she says, cos she speaks in aald Romany style, ye ken. Lots o times A’ll tell stories an A’ll jist speak a loot o – a good lot o it in Romany, A’m speakin… tae youse A’ll jist speak in my sort o Doric tongue. If A’m tellin the bairns, A tell them it in cant! (Laughs) So – they’re good…

But it is an old tradition, an I have preserved it. It’s aye been wi us, an same it’ll be wi ma family. I could take ony o my family wi’in an they would tell ye a story, ye ken, fae the aaldest tae the youngest. An eh… Of course the Church encourages this. The Church encourages ony kind o family thing tae carry on – ken, tae carry on family traditions an aa that, because ye should preserve cultures.

To listen to the audio go to: http://www.tobarandualchais.co.uk/fullrecord/65165/1