I remember it as if it was yesterday but in fact it was 1958 and I had just turned eighteen. I had been sent up to the Scottish highlands, by my parents, to stay with my aunt Annie and her identical twin daughters Megan and Morag. My cousins, who were also eighteen, met me from the train at Glen Gussie station. As the steam cleared from the platform I made out two shapes approaching. Both wore identical duffel coats over knee-length tartan skirts and black stockings.
My first impression was that they seemed so tall and slim compared with me. I had always been quite short and skinny for my age and had hardly grown since I last saw them last about five years earlier. I think it must have been something in the Scottish water which produced such gorgeous looking curvaceous girls. " Hello, you must be Davy," said the less outward-going, Megan. She appeared to be six inches taller than me, with dark brown hair, and twice as broad across her bottom. Morag was slightly shorter at five foot ten inches. I was bundled onto a taxi and taken to the remote village called Craigcarron.
My aunt Annie, was the Craigcarron postmistress and lived in a very small cottage beside the post office. She was taller than me too and had a very ample bust. When I arrived she said to me " Davy you must be starving after your long journey, we'll get some potatoes, neeps and lamb stew ready and you can tell us all about London."
After about an hour or two of chatting and reminiscing over our meal I was taken to my room which was hardly bigger than an alcove on the landing. My cousins had the largest bedroom and slept together in a big double bed. My aunt had the smaller bedroom which was adjacent to the bathroom. The rest of the cottage consisted of a very small living room, kitchen and a 'drying room' where the laundry was done.
The living room contained a small 'inglenook fireplace' under low dark beams, a vintage radio from the 1940s and a small two-seater sofa, for the girls, and a high-backed armchair for my aunt. Everything was very cramped but cosy. My first evening with them was spent listening to the radio ( television was not available in those days). I sat on the sofa with Morag on my left and Megan on my right. I felt very constricted, because their bottoms were so wide, and eventually decided to sit on the rug and lean back against the sofa between the two girls.
The next few days followed a similar pattern. I'd go out walking during the day with Megan and Morag and visit the lochs and castle ruins, climb up the rocky crags and plant stones on the cairns. Morag would show me where the grouse were reared and Megan led me through the pine forests and heather moorlands. Life seemed very slow and relaxed although the weather was often cool, wet and windy.
In the evenings, after our meal, we'd discuss 'life and it's meanings' and talk about the village and it's inhabitants. There were, apparently, very few young people close by and my cousins said they knew no boys of their age as they had all left the village for the city. It turned out that neither had ever had a boyfriend or had even been kissed despite being both unbelievably attractive and gorgeous.
