Marieke & Jon December 2019:

We arrived in Glasgow the day prior to the start of Martha and Gavin’s wedding festivities. Our hostel was coincidentally in the same area of the city where my parents lived in the early 1970s. They had given me the address of their old flat where they had gotten engaged. The proposal was rather unplanned. my dad unexpectedly said to my mom, if Robbie Burns day falls on a Saturday this year let’s get married. To this day my dad stands by his claim he never checked the calendar prior to that moment. He had had a drink or two before making the proposal so my mother claims her answer was not “yes” but instead, “can you put that in writing?” The engagement was short and they eloped a few weeks later in Glasgow on Robbie Burns Day January 25th, 1975.

When we found the apartment on Sydenham Rd. We couldn’t go into the building but managed a picture outside. After finding the apartment we continued on to Dumbarton Rd. It was fun imagining my parents younger than us going about their lives in this area of town. 

My father hoped we could find the chicken shop on Dumbarton Rd. he had frequented back in the day. When my father first moved to Scotland he went to a particular chicken shop and pointed out the chicken he wanted. It turned out, that was not how things were done in Scotland and it was up to the woman behind the counter to pick out the chicken she would sell. Dad was relieved to realize over his stay that they had a habit of picking some of the best chickens to sell first. 

When my mother arrived in Glasgow to live with my dad, one of the first introductions he wanted to make was between my mother and the chicken lady with fiery red hair. When he introduced the two women the chicken lady told mom “Aye your laddy certainly knows had to pick his chickens”. Without an exact address, we are not sure if we actually found it or not, but did find a butcher shop along the road which was symbolic enough for us.

We returned to the hostel and the guy at reception told us another guest attending the wedding that weekend had just checked in. It was Martha’s friend Vanessa.  We had never met before, but the three of us became fast friends that night. We found a good pub and shared plates of haggis, meat pie and fish and chips. 

The next morning Vanessa and I headed to Martha’s Hen Do and Jon poked around the Waterfront Museum while he waited for Gavin’s Stag Do to start with Ax Throwing at 4pm.  There were about 20 of us at the Hen Do that started with tea at the Pig and Butterfly followed by a visit to the Christmas market for some rum spiked mulled wine. 

I managed to break away from the group for a few minutes to find 9 Exchange Place where my great great grandfather James Gow started to work in 1845 when he entered the firm of Peter Burn and Co., Auctioneers and Valuators. James worked there until 1851 and immigrated to Canada shortly afterward. Today, it is a Starbuck.

We had a little break in the Hen Do to go back to our hostel to change for evening cocktails. Vanessa and I got completely lost coming out of the hostel and could not find the underground. We ended up walking halfway there in the pouring rain before we finally managed to wave down a black cab. We showed up a tad on the late and soggy side, but the ladies had saved us a glass of bubbly. The evening portion of the Hen Do had us all making cocktails with our personally assigned bartender Ramsey who gracefully put up with all of us!

Pulling ourselves out of bed the next morning in time for check-out was not very fun for myself or Jon.  After sobering up over breakfast we headed for the train station to go to Loch Lomond where the wedding was taking place the following day.

A special thank you to my dad who provided me with some of the background info for this blog!