School Mornings

Photo courtesy Ben McKeown

I was the last Kilchoan pupil to go to Lochaber High School in Fort William. Before Kilchoan pupils went to Lochaber, they boarded for half a term at a time in Oban, so I considered myself lucky that I was a weekly boarder, only away from early Monday morning until late Friday afternoon.

Winter Mondays were often difficult when I was a resident of Camaghael Hostel. I had to wake up at 5.45am in order to start my two and a half hour school run, by car to Salen then service bus to Lochaber High School. Waking up during the summer wasn’t so difficult as the sun rose early, but the grumps my parents had to endure when I was roused on a pitch black, rainy and windy winter’s morning with a full day’s school ahead must have made a dismal start to their week.

Yet these mornings were a love-hate relationship. Sue Cameron, who had been driving the school run to Salen for years, was always good company, and there were many exciting wildlife sightings over the years: roe deer, foxes, sea eagles, wild cats and pine martens to name some of the best.

To this day when I have to get up before sunrise, I still get the groggy feeling I remember so well from those Monday mornings. However, it was always nice when Sue and I drove out through the village as Christmas approached, with cheerful lights of various colours blinking outside peoples’ houses. That never failed to lift me from my Monday morning blues.

RLH