Diving into 1918…
*
Diving into 1918… *
A SECOND SOCIAL HISTORY BOOK
ABOUT AYR?
Was my publication OCULEUS: The Musings of a Liberal Victorian in Ayr
to be my only adventure with my great grandfather?
I’d like to think not!
Although I don’t have the luxury of a scrapbook this time, I have already been into Ayr’s Carnegie Library to obtained copies of my great grandfather’s columns from 1918.
I have begun researching them, to follow up on the same themes, to identify new ones, and to see how much the people of Ayr – and Oculeus – might have changed in the light of major global events, the end of the First World War, and the Spanish ‘flu.
Already I realise how much the general mood of the columns has altered in the light of four long years of conflict, but OCULEUS still has much of worth to say in his unique, witty way.
He pleads with councillors to dig up parts of municipal golf courses to create allotments to help feed starving people. He supports AYR ACADEMY’s Headmaster, in a case of what is regarded as unfair dismissal. And he reports how a family pet helps a wounded soldier communicate with his mother.
Every column reveals more fascinating glimpses of day to day life in a Scottish town, at a time of great historical interest.