So spare me, a man who has travelled the world three times over all these ridiculous sentiments, get on with the humping, you will eventually come to a stage when you fill like reproducing (if you are able) and settling down perhaps with one woman, altho these days that seems a rarity amongst the younger set...
It is now a grey dull Christmas Eve day; the lights are showing on the cars so it will soon be dark. It's light enough for me to see the wee birds in the garden devouring bread. I've given the dogs, goats and hens their din-dins so they are all replete. Frances and I went X-mas shoppping in Kirkcaldy yesterday, not without its being fraught with danger and adrenalin inducing moments.
On the way there the car engine began making weird sounds as of tin cans rattling around under the bonnet and a very pungent odour assailed our nostrils. On arrival at our destination, ASDAS "shopping mall" as you so quaintly call them, I ups bonnet, the battery is exuding an acrid smoke which almost chokes me. Nothing to see though which could explain the rattling noise, so in we went to the "Shaaping maall" (American Idiom). Hustling around all the glitz and shit on sale to the idiots like us who come every year under the spell of the commercialism of it all. Bought a few things for the kids etc and made it back to the rust wreck in pissing rain. Fortunately it started, and we managed to get home leaving behind a trail of blue air and strewn swearwords lying on the wet road... April 19 1989
6 oclock Wed Dawning
Dr John
Thanks for the letter albeit short and full of moaning shit. My advice to you regarding college etc is this: 1. You might as well finish the "course" having come this far; you never can tell what the future holds and any degree you accrue there may come in useful in later life. 2. If it really is bugging you to the point of distraction, get the hell out and fuck the degree. Only you can decide; remember, as we used to say in the navy, there is no barbed wire round the place keeping you in (or is there)? The barbed wire of indecision? Mix in different company if present company is giving you the shits, but John lad, no environment is perfect... Oct 3 1988 [cont.]
...Well John the harvest is all in; the granary is knee deep in dust and chaff. Will have to something about that problem before we can house people up there. As you say John, there is plenty for folk to do here. We could almost be self-supporting with all the garden we have back and front. I would dearly love to see it happen and be able to hand it over to younger people, eventually, of like mind, who would keep the place operating. It will happen John, God Willing. Well, old son I'm going to make this short and sweet so I can get this off tomorrow. I'm going to have to get another machine as this bloody thing keeps leaping ahead and leaving great spaces. Anyway old son, all the best. Let's hear from you pretty soon. All the best from Pitkierie,
P.S. As you know John, the Granary Trust pamphlet was written as if the trust had been formalized already, to give us some idea of how to go about it.
The Granary Trust still faces financial difficulties, and is short on working volunteers. Les has a long history of providing shelter for the lost, and hopes to make Pitkierie a fully operating center for the jobless and homeless youth of Fife; he is able to offer free room in the bunk house in return for help with the project. For more information on the Trust, contact the photocopied address above, or call John Thompson at 493-2301.