THE ITALIAN COMMUNITY IN CAMPBELTOWN: A MEMOIR
by
Dora Grumoli Kennedy
All of we children were educated in the Campbeltown Grammar School, a good school with discipline, where everyone behaved in class. If you didn’t behave, there was a leather strap waiting for you! We all had a happy childhood and I well remember the great family picnics we used to have whenever there was a shopkeepers’ holiday in spring, summer and autumn. My father would hire a small bus and the three families of Italians would all go together to Southend - it was great! That would be when I was about five and six years old.
I was just three years old when, in 1925, my father bought a house at Viareggio on the Tuscan coast in Italy, and took the whole family there for a two-year stay, leaving the Royal Cafe and house in Campbeltown in the capable hands of my cousin, Gioni (‘Johnny’) Moscardini and his wife Tecla from Prestwick. Johnny was already a grown man when he came to work in his father’s cafe in Prestwick. His son Tony was born in Campbeltown; he is now an architect. When Johnny left Italy he was quite famous as a footballer, being a member of Italy’s national team, so he created quite a sensation in Campbeltown with his football skills, playing with the Former Pupils team. The football stadium in his home town of Barga is called the Johnny Moscardini Stadium in his honour.
It must have been a great two
years for us all. In fact, my earliest memories are all of Italy. All my
brothers and sisters were sent to school in Italy, but I was too young. The
house we had was a large three-storey building with nine apartments and a garden
at the back. My grandmother Ermelinda came from Renaio to stay with us, and
various cousins came to have holidays with us.
After two years we returned to Scotland - all the way by train in those days -
and an Italian home help came to stay with us. She was Assunta Casci and she was
employed by my father to help look after the family.
She also helped out in the cafe. I started school when I was
five years old, speaking more Italian than English, but it all worked out okay.
To this day I am still good friends with some of the girls I went to school with
all those years ago, which I think is very nice.
The first in our family to get married was Alf. He married Morag Black, who was the 13th child of her family, born on the 13th June, 1913. All perfectly true! She proved to be a very good wife and mother, one of the best - we all loved Morag. She was a superb singer and in great demand to perform at concerts, which she did, and used to sing to packed houses in the Victoria Hall. She inherited her good voice from her father, James Black, who had a truly great bass voice, and the good voice has passed on to Morag’s nephew, Jim Black, who has a great baritone voice. Alf and Morag had only one child, Maria Agnes, called after her two grandmothers, and she too has inherited a superb singing voice. She is also tall and attractive and full of fun - a great favourite wherever she goes.
Next to marry was Emma, who met Jack Togneri from Bridge of Allan when she was bridesmaid at our cousin Joe Moscardini’s wedding in Falkirk. Jack was Joe’s best man and he and Emma hit it off to the extent that in 1938 they were married in Campbeltown and then settled in Bridge of Allan, where Jack’s father had an excellent cafe business. They later came from Bridge of Allan to take over the Locarno Cafe. They had two children - Veronica, the handloom weaver, and Ronald, who became an art teacher and went on to become head of the Art Department in Campbeltown Grammar School. In the late 1970s, Ronald was approached by the Council to re-paint the Cave Painting on Davaar Island, which he did very professionally.
During the 1930s, my father
and his brother Bertie took up shooting and they spent many happy days over Ben
Gullion, always bringing home pheasant, grouse, woodcock and rabbits. My mother
used to make delicious casseroles of game birds and lovely rabbit pies. My
father became very friendly with several gamekeepers. I remember in particular
Mr McAllister and Mr Muir, and our local priest, Father James Webb, also had a
passion for grouse-shooting. They all used to go out together and were also
invited to take part in culling the wild goats on Davaar Island. They also used
to take part in clay pigeon shooting competitions and often came home with
prizes. Mr McAllister’s daughter Mary [Mrs Archie Menzies] only last summer was
reminiscing with me about how my father used to go with his pockets filled with
large bars of chocolate to hand out to all the men. He always did that.
The most momentous happening of pre-war for me was the day
electricity came to our house - I think it was 1934 - an exciting time for the
town, as up until then we had only one gas mantle above the fireplace in each
room, and I well remember us all gathered in the kitchen waiting and gasping
with surprise when the lights were switched on for the first time. It was so
dazzlingly bright; no more dark shadows in the corners of the room. Also, when
the hot water system was installed, and what a difference that made. Although we
had a bathroom upstairs, we had no hot water, so bathtime for eleven people was
quite something. The water was heated in a huge container on the coal-fired
kitchen range, then carried upstairs in buckets.
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No 48 Autumn 2000