The Kintyre Community Forum

My thanks to my brother, Malcolm, for directing me to the Kintyre Community Forum, where many wonderful things can be found. I have immediately stolen the undernoted photograph which had been posted by 'thep' - it is captioned as being 'Mr Shields boats at Dalintober 1958'. I was delighted to see this photo because I can remember these boats - I think they were still a feature at Dalintober until about the mid-sixties. All of the boats were linked together mechanically, and once children were seated in them, the engine was started up and the boats moved around in a circle, giving the kids the impression of sailing aboard ocean liners. Wonderful. 'Mr Shields' was 'Jock' Shields who had an aladdin's cave of a shop in Longrow. He did all sorts of things - nominally it was a bike shop and he sold and fixed bicycles, but he would also fix radios and TVs, and would turn his hand to any other electrical equipment. He was best known to boys for the tremendous slings (catapults) which he could fashion out of a bicycle spoke and some strong elastic. I suppose that nowadays he would be jailed for doing that, but in a more innocent time Jock Shields was a much-loved character. Much more can be discovered about him and his boats by clicking on the above link to take you to the forum