OUR "AULD AVIEMORE" by Evelyn McNicol

I have three children born 1959, 1962 and 1964. My husband and I started them
skiing in 1966 and at first took them abroad and then to Glencoe — which was
nearer to Glasgow — but access to the ski lifts being across a boggy hillside we
soon changed to the Cairngorms.  Not only was it easier to get the children up the
hill because of the already growing lift system there was so much to do around
Aviemore when the weather was so severe that ‘The Hill’ was closed — which was
quite often. We soon got into a pattern of booking dinner, bed and breakfast with
a Mrs. Grant in Kingussie (for £5 ) which gave us dinner on Saturday night and a
large room with two double beds and a single bed which suited our family very well
as we have two girls and a boy.

There was so much we could do if skiing was not possible.  This meant that by
Saturday lunchtime, while waiting for my husband to come home from work there
were at least twenty five pairs of shoes/boots waiting in the hall.  We needed
ski-boots, walking boots, wellington boots, skating boots and slippers for all five of us!
 
Many days we skated at the open air ice rink at Coylumbridge as well as at the
ice rink in the Aviemore Centre. We also went most Sunday afternoons after
skiing to swim in the well appointed pool in the Centre.
We didn’t use the hotels but appreciated the availability of them for people who
didn’t know a "Mrs. Grant".

The shops in the Centre were attractive — there were book shops and clothes
shops which were well stocked and there were suitable restaurants to have a
meal or a snack before setting off home.

All this could be done between 6.30 pm on Saturday and 6.30 pm on Sunday and
we did this most weekends from January till at least Easter when there was
plenty of snow and plenty of other facilities in OLD AVIEMORE.

Evelyn McNicol
Glasgow