Liz Buchanan with Rabbits (and Fred)

Taken around 1939, my mother displays a brace of rabbits which dad had just brought in. In a few minutes she'll have them skinned, cut up and put into a large soup pot with a variety of vegetables – carrots, turnip, celery, parsley and tatties.

My mother was a very hard worker and could set a table fit for a king. Her brother John registered her for school and made her one year older than she really was. That was so she would be able to get home and start work instead of attending school. She was a housekeeper as well as a personal maid. She served in a home in Saltcoats when she was a teen.

Frederick Buchanan, Hunter

This is 32 year old Frederick Buchanan – hunter par excellence – standing by Stevenston Burn on Stinston Mair (Stevenston Moor) in the fall of 1929. His game bag was an important source of protein for his growing family during the “Great Depression.” He bagged 13 ducks on the day before I was born. Note the shine on his boots. He loved to take the missionaries hunting. Elder William Tolman took this picture. Fred’s game included hares, rabbits, curlews, lapwings, snipe, golden plovers and one “Royal” swan – which he bagged for the Stevenston Socialist Party's Christmas dinner – around 1930. Shsh – it was technically a crime, but so was the “Great Depression.” Dad was out of work for 8 years!