June Ahern's Blog - Posts Tagged "immigrants"

Having had lived in San Francisco since 1956 I find it a fascinating city for it's picturesque hills and valleys, and waterways and therefore set my story about a Scottish immigrant family in the city.

Growing up in San Francisco some of my most enjoyable memories were trips downtown to shop at Woolworth’s Department Store. The building was on Market Street and wrapped around and up Powell Street. Woolworth was such a San Francisco experience that I just had to include it my book, The Skye in June. See an excerpt below.

The store was filled with just about everything you'd ever want to find; clothing, beauty products, sewing goods,inexpensive jewelry, so much stuff!

Perfect for Christmas shopping where my money would be spent carefully. I’d jump on the number 8 Castro bus at 19th and Castro with usually a sister or two and head downtown for fun. My wallet would be filled with money saved from babysitting. The first floor was tight to walk with aisles or counters and in the basement was Budgies, Canaries and gold fish –– gifts I bought at one time or another for family. It took hours to shop. At the end of the shopping I’d go upstairs to the lunch counter –– always busy –– for a Patti-melt and milkshake or a burger and coke. Afterward, if there was time, we would take a cable car ride (no lines back then - just hop on.)

From "The Skye in June"
The grinding noise of the cable car’s brakes as it slowed to their stop was ear piercing. June stood and took hold of the metal pole. She swayed outward as she readied herself to jump from the platform when they reached the intersection of Powell at Market Streets. The thrill of hanging out of the cable car and the feel of the brisk wind against her face had charged her energy. She felt a sense of freedom. As they lurched to a stop, she hopped off and hollered to her mother, “Did you get a transfer?”Cathy nodded a “yes,” and gingerly stretched out a foot to get down from the cable car. June took hold of her hand to help her mother. Arm in arm, they walked over to the Woolworth’s department store on Market Street to look at the items for sale in the window.

Please read more chapter excerpts www.juneahern.com

The Skye in June

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EBOOK!THE SKYE IN JUNE until May 5, '16@ Amazon 
A tale about the MacDonald family.  Starts in Glasgow, Scotland and travels to San Francisco during the mid 1950's. The four kids come of age during the beginning of the social and political upheavels of the 1960's.


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For my other books please see at june ahern dot com.


The Skye in June

THE SKYE IN JUNE -An Immigrant Story


"The Skye in June" is different than any book I have read before, which is such a plus in this day of cookie cutter market paperbacks. - Jessica, Goodreads Review


Free eBOOK UNTIL 12/31/16
KINDLE. AMAZON


Overwhelmingly good reviews from the 500 on Amazon, U.S.; U.K., France, Japan, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, june ahern dot com, and more book reading sites. 

The book has sold every month since released 4/08!



Set in Glasgow, Scotland, and San Francisco during the mid-fifties to early days of the 1960's.


"The Skye in June" - Not since author Amy Tan's early writings has a woman's voice so strongly resonated from one of San Francisco's most famous neighborhoods. Ahern's powerful coming of age tale is a must read for anyone interested in the drama and complexities of what it might be like growing up psychic. - Jim Toland, Author of "Fire and Fog"

The MacDonald's emigrate to San Francisco after a family tragedy. They arrive in one of San Francisco's best known neighborhoods known now to many as "The Castro. The girls come of age during the early days of the colorful circa 1960's. This story reaches over three generations of the family and the challenges they encounter as immigrants in San Francisco and their bond and how it changes over the years. It is a story of acceptance and reconciliation, and the world of mysticism.  A book for the young and older reader this story is a slightly veiled autobiography written in a fictional framework.

June MacDonald, the red-hired youngest child of the Scottish family, has a uniqueness that attracts unusual people. Jimmy, the father, is overbearing, and often cruel to his wife and children. Cathy, the mother, is lost in her unhappiness and memories of a past sins she cannot reconcile. June along with her three sisters are lively, funny, and rebellious as they find ways to deter their father's control over them. The family implodes when June is drawn into the world of mysticism. Each girl struggles to rise above Jimmy's abusiveness, while Cathy wavers at protecting her children or staying under Jimmy's thumb.  Ultimately it is June and Cathy who must resolve the sins of the past and move forward for the family to heal.


READ AND PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW ON YOUR FAVORITE BOOK SELLING WEBSITE.Thank you, The Author.

Happy Hogmanay All!

Some rituals:

The first-foot to cross your threshold in at midnight as you walk into the New Year is to be a tall, dark haired man to herald in good luck for the rest of the year. Beware of a red-headed person crossing the threshold first - threatens the year will have bad luck.

Gifts to Bring a Scot on New Year: A Coin, Shortbread, Black Bun, Salt, Coal, and Whisky,
which represent financial prosperity, food, flavour, warmth, and good cheer respectively

The Chapter from my book, The Skye in June, below will give some other rituals the Scots do at the end and beginning of the New Year. In it you will learn how the MacDonalds continue their special rituals and celebrations in their new countries.

Read more about the story at june ahern dot com. Available in eBook and paperback. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, order from your favorite bookstore.

Chapter 15
HOGMANAY IN SAN FRANCISCO

THE MACDONALDS PLANNED to host their first party in America on New Year’s Eve, 1955. The family worked together to spruce up their flat in the weeks before the gathering.

Cathy busily washed the bay windows with June at her side, trying to be helpful. The soapy water dripped down the girl’s arms and into her rolled-up sleeves.

“We have to make the house nice and clean for all the people coming. Is that right, Mommy?” June asked.

“That’s right, my wee clootie dumpling,” Cathy said. She watched June’s determined face as she carefully scrubbed at the glass. Her mind drifted back to when the idea of having a party on Hogmanay first arose.

****
When it came to June, she prayed Granda and Granny B would visit for Christmas. Her wish brought up a conversation during dinner about past holidays in Scotland. Jimmy said how much fun the Scottish New Year was. Annie, who was old enough to remember, reminded her father that in Scotland, the New Year celebration was called Hogmanay.

“What a holiday it is! We have special things––traditions, like paying off debts before the first of January,” Sandy told the children in seriousness.

“We won’t have to worry about that tradition, eh, Jimmy?” Cathy said. Her husband didn’t believe in accumulating debts and lived frugally, day-by-day. He prided himself in being able to send weekly payments to Granda B for the money he had loaned them to make their move to America possible.

“Mommy, what were the parties like at Hogmanay?” June said, crucifying the name the Scots called New Year’s Eve and the days following. It sounded like she said, “Hug many.”

The adults laughed so cheerfully that she joined in, thinking how happy everyone was with her question.
They began to reminisce about Hogmanay. The descriptions of the holiday spilled out across the dining table as Jimmy, Sandy and Cathy related their stories about Scotland’s most popular holiday, which was celebrated as though it were a religious event.

When Jimmy said the streets of Glasgow were busy with people going from house to house starting on New Year’s Eve, visiting and bringing gifts, June gathered that Hogmanay was like Halloween night.

“What kind of gifts?” she asked.

Annie piped in, “Granny always baked special things like holiday oat cakes and black buns.”

“Whiskey cake and her famous shortbread. Oh yum!” Cathy jumped in, winking at her daughters as she licked her lips and made a wide circle on her belly.

“Good whiskey,” Jimmy added.

Sandy told a story about the time they went bathing in the Clyde River, just to see who could endure the cold water the longest. “It was so bloody frigid. If it hadn’t been for the whiskey keeping my blood moving and Cathy’s brother, Peter, jumping in to pull me out…”

Nancy interrupted the story with a sharp, “Sandy! That’s not a good example for the children.”

“Right dear. We were silly boys then. It’s a very dangerous thing to do,” he said seriously.

Cathy covered her smiling lips with a napkin and made big eyes at her daughters.

“Tell us more, Mommy,” June said, enjoying the cheery conversation.

Her mother clasped her hands and placed them on the table in front of her, her blue eyes glittering in the candlelight. Everyone sat still and listened as Cathy’s soft Scottish voice told the story.

“There’s a very special ritual on Hogmanay that begins at midnight on New Year’s Eve, acted out in the homes across Scotland. It’s customary that the first guest, called the first foot, enters a home shortly after midnight. It’s tradition that the first foot is a dark haired man who comes bearing gifts. It’s usually a lump of coal to keep the host’s home warm through the long cold winter and a bottle of Scotch to warm their souls.”

Jimmy interrupted, “Ye hope it’s a dark haired man who enters first, because then you’d have good luck throughout the upcoming year.”

Cathy kept talking, “Girls, your Granda B was a most welcomed guest as the first foot because he was tall and had black hair.” She was looking dreamily into the candle flame. “Until his hair turned white, that is.” Although she said it lightly, June sensed sadness in her mother’s voice.

“Aye, he was always the life of the party, getting everybody to sing and the ladies up for a dance. It’s his favorite holiday,” Jimmy said nostalgically.

The room quieted as the storytellers became lost in their own memories. June didn’t want the enchanting Hogmanay tales to end and she asked, “Can we have a party?”

Her sisters cheered the idea loudly.

Jimmy and Cathy looked at each other across the table. She hesitated, fearful of letting down the girls if she took a spell of depression.

“No a bad idea,” he said enthusiastically.

Looking at the girls’ excited faces staring at her, it was hard not to give in to them. Cathy decided that celebrating Hogmanay in America would start a family tradition in their new country.

* * *
more about the party with the other Scottish immigrants continues in the book.

What are your traditions on New Year's Eve and day?

Interview: https://mercedesfoxbooks.com/meet-aut...

Read more about June Ahern and her books at www.juneahern.com
The Skye in June
City of Redemption
How to Talk With Spirits
The Timeless Counselor

Home baked scones are an important part of the Scottish New Year as is whiskey and coal brought in by the first-footer.

Hogmanay (pronounced hugmene) is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year's Eve and Day in the Scottish manner. It is, however, normally only the start of a celebration which lasts through the night until the morning of New Year's Eve and Day.

The ritual of linking arms at New Year's parties at my parent's were both celebrating the new year while saying good-bye to the old one and those who weren't going another year with us. The Hogmanay custom of singing "Auld Lang Syne" has become common in many countries. "Auld Lang Syne" is a traditional poem reinterpreted by Robert Burns , which was later set to music. It is now common for this to be sung in a circle of linked arms that are crossed over one another as the clock strikes midnight for New Year's Day. Typically it is only in Scotland this practice is carried out correctly.

People travel to Scotland from all over the world to participate in the country's special holiday.

As a Scottish immigrant living in San Francisco my family celebrated Hogmanay – Scottish New Year with many rituals and special foods. I had to include it in my book, ‘THE SKYE IN JUNE” and here is an excerpt of that chapter: (not present cover of book, but original photo idea. Photo by Jerry Briesach)




Hogmanay in San Francisco

Cathy dunked her cloth into the bucket and stopped washing the bay windows as she meditated over the soapy bubbles and remembered past New Year’s Eves in Scotland. The days before the event were always very busy with giving the house a thorough cleaning, as was the tradition. It was thought that starting the New Year with a tidy and neat house would bring good luck. Besides hauling the carpets downstairs to the backyard for a hard beating to clean them, all bedding and curtains were taken to the steamie, as Laundromats are called in Scotland. On the family’s last Hogmanay in Glasgow, it was decided that Annie was old enough to help out while Granny B watched the young bairns. Cathy and Annie pushed the baby pram[1] crammed full of curtains and linens along the streets, meeting other mothers and daughters on the same journey.

After waiting in line in the December chill they bought a ticket to enter the huge steamy room, smelling of wet clothes and soap. The steamie was full of women and girls, laughing and gossiping as they scrubbed their laundry on the washing board. Piece by piece they scrubbed up and down in big sinks filled with hot water, and then wrung it all out by hand. They hung the laundry on wall racks for drying, and placed larger items in big, hot cupboards that were pulled out of the wall. The gossiping and joking never stopped. The work was hard, but the excitement of the upcoming holiday created a festive atmosphere.

In reflection, Cathy realized how much she missed those times, especially the companionship of her mother and sisters-in-law at the holidays. Still, she as was excited as the girls were about the party. With every wipe of the window, she assured herself that her family would be blessed anew.

Jimmy and Cathy painted the living room and hallway a fresh coat of white paint with deep green on the wainscot and molding.

As the day grew closer to Hogmanay, Cathy along with her friends, Mrs. G and Mrs. G's daughter, Tesia shopped up and down Castro Street for the essential ingredients for the special Hogmanay foods that they would make.

Laughter and gossip erupted anytime the kitchen door opened as the women prepared the feast. When Cathy related funny tales of the steamie, the other women laughed heartily. The girls listened with merry curiosity as the adults reminisced about “home,” each telling her own story about life in Poland or Scotland.

With the cooking underway, Mrs. G and Tesia agreed with Cathy when she said it was good that the girls would learn the proper preparation of the Scottish foods.

“We must not forget our customs,” Mrs. G said adamantly. The other women nodded their heads affirmatively at her wisdom.

When it was time to bake the sweets June helped Annie roll out the dough for the cookies with a large rolling pin that Granny B had gifted Annie, before leaving Scotland.

The girls happily tested the freshly baked buttery shortbread, sugar cookies and the Dundee cake—a Hogmanay special. Mrs. G showed them how to decorate the cookies with sugar frosting by dipping a butter knife into hot water and carefully running it over the top of the frosting to give it a shinny glaze.

The women sipped glasses of sherry that would later be used for making the trifle pudding, which was a favorite holiday dessert made with cake, peaches soaked in wine and boiled custard poured all over it.

The baked goods were stored away and attention was turned to the main courses. Stewed meat with thick brown gravy was placed into deep pans. Annie used Granny B’s rolling pin to make a thin crust for the top of the pans. She then brushed a raw egg across the top so it would bake to a perfect golden brown, just the way Granny would have wanted it.

By the day of the party, steak pies, a large ham, the delicate trifle pudding and other delicious holiday foods lined the shelves in the Frigidaire, ready to be heated up when needed.

With the kitchen work finished, the girls hung colorful streamers throughout the flat, and dangled fun paper party hats from them. Jimmy held Maggie up to hang a piece of mistletoe at the front door. This custom was not for kissing, like at Christmas, but to prevent illness in the household.

It was a fun time in the MacDonald house. Since many of the guests also had young children, the party would start in the early afternoon of New Year’s Day. The girls were so excited they stayed up until midnight, giggling and talking before falling asleep. The next morning they hurried home from the special New Year’s Day Mass to change into their party clothes, readying themselves for the guests arriving at noon.

With the chime of the doorbell, everyone ran off to greet the first guest. They hurried into position, eager to view the first footer waiting downstairs at the door to the building. They were ready for a dark-haired man to walk through the door, signaling good luck in the New Year. What they saw was Sandy’s thinning blonde hair as he stepped over the threshold and into the lobby of the building.

“Sandy! For God’s sake, get out, man!” Jimmy yelled down to him.

The mistake was Mark’s fault.

It had been pre-arranged by Jimmy that the first foot would be Ian, a Scottish friend who was a tall man with black hair. But before Ian could step into the building, Mark had pushed ahead of him. As Sandy reached past Ian to pull his son back, he had stumbled through the door when it opened. As fate would have it, light haired, balding Sandy was the first person with a foot in the MacDonald’s building on Hogmanay.

The girls hung over the banister booing boisterously at Mark as his father backed out, dragging his son by the scruff of the neck. Ian bounded up the stairs. Hoping to smooth over the error, he adamantly protested that he did indeed have the first foot in the flat. He handed Jimmy the traditional Hogmanay gifts.

“Fattie brattie Marky,” said Maggie mockingly when Mark dashed by.

Huffing and puffing, Nancy arrived at the top of the landing and, in her loud American voice, scolded the Scots on how silly they were to be so superstitious.

A stout Scottish woman coming up behind her said, “Wheesht, silly woman.”

At first, guests were a bit sober from the unexpected event but it didn’t last for long. The adults soon had a few glasses of cheer and the party began.

More guests arrived, singing out the traditional Hogmanay greeting, “A good year to you!” They brought gifts of food and spirits—whiskey, malt beer and gin. As the day went on, the story about the blonde first foot made its rounds and the celebrators kidded about what kind of bad luck might befall the MacDonalds in the coming year.

The mood lightened and the singing of Scottish songs became the main activity. Each person had a turn to entertain by singing a favorite tune. Before the party ended, and in keeping with another Hogmanay tradition, the adults and children stood in a circle crisscrossing hands, right over left, and sang the famous Scottish song, “Auld Lang Syne.” June was bewildered as the adults’ laughing voices changed to sad tones. Some of the women cried openly as they sang together, “Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and the days of auld lang syne!”

•••••••

To learn about my books and me at www.juneahern.com
The Skye in June - City of Redemption, The Timeless Counselor, How to Talk With Spirits