The Old Family
and how we got here
Alexander was never known by that name. Alec, Elick and Eck seem to have been used by various friends but he was simply Granda to me. He was one of the youngest of the family and followed his father down the mines although it was shale rather than coal he was mining. At the time of his marriage he was a drawer, which means that he had to fill the hutches or wagons with the rocks which the miner had hacked from the seam. Over time he became an actual miner and had to employ his own drawer(s). This site explains the system.
Outside the mine his interests were music and the church. He seemed to have a natural ability to learn any musical instrument and piano, organ, banjo, mouth organ, drums and even esoterics such as spoons, the saw or comb and tissue paper were fair game. He played organ in the church.
He was a religious man, like his father, and seemed to become even more so as he grew older, eventually becoming involved with the sombre Plymouth Brethren sect.
As a child I was always pleased to be taken to see his hens at the nearby allotment and pick up eggs for the table. He was always good with children, telling jokes, playing tunes, making smoke rings (very un-PC viewed from nowadays) and generally understanding what made the youngsters happy.
In his later days he retired from the mines and became the gardener at Stein's Brickworks in Whitecross, just to the west of Linlithgow, where he managed to find me a student summer job repairing pallets. When I'd repaired every pallet in the place I was moved to an inside job on the assembly lines. I hated the job due to the dust and noise pollution and utter boredom and it contrasted starkly with lunchtimes outside with him, but it taught me a valuable lesson in life and helped me focus on ensuring that I never had to endure that type of work ever again. He had also insisted that my father take up an apprenticeship rather than work down the mines so part of his legacy is that he helped both of us avoid hazardous working environments.