Retirement
David took early retirement from the railway in 1970 when he was 63 and when sister Kitty died in 1974, he began the life of self sufficiency which was to sustain him throughout the rest of his life.
One night in 1980, David was wakened by a loud rumbling noise and found that half of the west gable of the cottage had collapsed. The owner of the house was not prepared to have the damage repaired so in effect David was homeless and his first thought was to ask his friend, farmer John Reid, if he had a ‘cotter hoose’ available. As luck would have it, a cottage on Usan Road was indeed due to become vacant very soon, so David`s bacon was saved.
Just a day or two before he was due to move into his new address, he chanced to meet Jean and Jack Gilanders who owned a single end in River Street, so with a last minute apology to John Reid, David moved into No.2 River Street, very close indeed to Victoria Square where he was born.
Jean and Jack made a few simple improvements to the house and made the place comfortable and cosy for David. He sold the family barometer and 8-day clock to Taylors` of Montrose and with the few sticks of furniture he had retained, David was happy there for the next 20 odd years. He could after all see the river and it was handy for his walks doon the braes. It was ‘weel kent calfing grund’, and had the bonus of being ‘doon ablow Alf Forge’, a near contemporary and friend. Alf and David were regular Christmas guests in our home. (see page 20)
Alf would fall asleep and David would sing all the verses of Amazing Grace with gusto. David`s favourite party piece was to fold a linen napkin in the form of a Madonna type bra and for an encore could change it into the shape of a gutted chicken!
David was extremely thrifty. He refused to burn two bars of his fire if an extra ‘slippie’ would do the job. His needs were simple and throughout his life never lost the pleasure he took from tatties boiled ‘wi a drappy gravy sa`t’ and eaten off the lid of the pot.
