Christie Boy
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Sutherland to Canada
Murdo's "wanderlust" had not disappeared with his school books, and he was one of several local boys tempted to consider a new life in Canada, after attending film shows at Lairg Village Hall aimed at recruiting emigrants. When a decision was required, he signed on, and joined a train for Glasgow to embark for his New Life in Canada. On arrival there, he was one of those selected to help farmers with their harvests. He was very happy there in the early years, and while things went well he regularly sent small gifts back to Mam. Before too long Murdo fell in with a farmer's daughter, and, on their wedding, the family combined resources and sent a small gift along with our good wishes.
There was simply no question of any of us being able to afford the trip across the Atlantic. Having begun by working for his keep, Murdo was to go on to become a farmer in his own right, renting a relatively small farm in the beginning. Life in the New World (Alberta) was not without set backs, though. One day, while working on new fencing some distance away over the flat prairie, he suddenly saw that his remote farmhouse, with only his wife and small child at home, was on fire. He just about died in his rush to cover the distance to the house - when he got there he found mother and child out in the open, having only just survived the fire. When the news filtered back to us, in a letter from Murdo, Mam got us to pool together what we could, and an all too small contribution to the rebuilding of the Canadian home was dispatched...
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