Illuminations of yesteryear
30 September
Born just before the outbreak of WW2 there were, due to the blackout restrictions, no Millport Illuminations in my younger days but I do recall how magical it all seemed in the years following the war.
Millport had no mains electricity until 1948, if my memory serves me correctly, so it was a huge job to set up and light thousands upon thousands of padella lights (candles) all along the sea wall , the gardens opposite our shop and house, The Garrison wall and right round past Crosshouse into Kames Bay. Not to mention those set up on the Eilans.
For a youngster, who had only known pitch dark nights, it was truly a marvelous sight and even in those days boatloads of Illumination visitors came to see the spectacle.
My mother who came to the island in 1928 to work in Dr Paul's Sanatarium eventually married my father, one of the local bakery owners and she recalled the following which took place throughout the 1930s; "Some of the nurses went around with a group of local lads and I was welcomed into this group. We had some marvellously happy times when we went for long walks or sailing in Donny MacLauchlan's motorboat. Donny was on one of the local fishermen and his wife Isabel ran the local fish shop.
In Donny's motorboat we frequently anchored just offshore and sang to our hearts content. As all the six boys were members of the Millport town choir it was really an excellent evening's entertainment both for us and people who were gathered on the shore. The choir entered many competitions and often won prizes.
I have vivid memories of tremendously happy evenings singing offshore with the harvest moon shining on the water and the peaceful scene of the little fishing boats swinging to and fro at anchor in the bay. Each September we also went to Dunoon and Rothesay for their illuminations and entertained the travellers on the boat journey with our singing."
Life was indeed very different then.
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