Interview of Donald Mackay : Interview

1 December 2004 Donald MacDonald MacKay (Vancouver, September 6 1927). He is the second of two children. His sister, Hannah, who is five years older, was born in Carloway, Scotland, in a black-house. She could not speak English when she came out to Canada and only spoke broken English when she went to school. She was very much into the Gaelic societies in and around Vancouver and meeting other Scottish families, much more so than he was. He was brought up alongside other immigrant families in Canada – Chinese, Dutch, German. He was part of the “Gaelic Ghetto” situated around Commercial Street when he stayed at Williams and Woodland. He also remembers Hastings and Renfrew being another very Scottish area. There was also the “Lewis Ghetto”, which stretched from Broadway to Vennebals and then from Woodland to Templeton High school. Just before his 15th birthday, he decided not to go back to school. This was in 1942. So he applied to be an office-boy at Empire Shipping and got the job. He worked for this company his whole life, gaining steady promotion throughout the years. He retired in 1999. He is married to Sheila Dalziel Moore, who came from a family of three. Her mother was born in England, her father came from Ireland. They emigrated to Kamloops, BC, where the father opened a store before then working at the tourist bureaux. They met at an Inter-church Youth Rally when they were 19 and married when they were 22. They have three daughters: Judith, Grace, and Cheryl. They all have an interest in their Scottish heritage. Any feelings of Scottishness? He didn't have any real feelings at all until he went to Scotland in the 1980s, sparking reconnection with relatives on Lewis. He tells an interesting story of going to Lewis, sleeping at his aunt's place that was “very primitive” - lack of space, chamber pots, etc – and also about the salmon poaching, the landowners and the animosity that existed between them and the local population. What are attitudes like in Scotland about Canada? He says they like Canadians and he never sensed any ill-feelings towards America either. But it’s a different story towards the English! When you go back to Scotland, do you have sense of belonging? Yes; you meet relatives you didn't know you had. For example, he tells a story about going to the wedding of a cousin in Stornoway and somebody coming up to him and telling him that he had worked at the mines in Anyox and had boarded with his aunt, who kept a house for Scottish people in Grandview. These kind of things help to “build your relationship” with Scotland. His favourite place in Scotland is Dunkeld – he just loves that area, its countryside feeling and its being a short distance to Edinburgh. What about politics and religion? Religion was very important to his father, probably to the detriment to his relationship with his son and daughter, although he was a great father and kept a close family. Sports, for example, were seen as a frivolous waste of time. The family prayed every day, said grace before every dinner, and read the psalms. His father was a Liberal in Canada and organized the foreman's Union just after the war (1950). Did his family ever go on vacation? A lot of Scottish families owned cottages in Whiterock. They didn't have cabin, but would go out there from time to time. His father was called Murdo MacKay (Uig, Lewis, Scotland, October 25 1893). He had a brother and a sister. He Came to Vancouver with a group from Lewis around 1921/22. They worked in the mines at Anyox, British Columbia. He worked odd jobs and then became a garbage man in Vancouver. Worked for city for 40 years and became senior foreman. He was one of the original members and promoters of a Union for foremen in Vancouver. He was a gunner in the merchant ships during WWI. He was a Gaelic speaker; Donald’s mother, Catherine (Doune, Scotland, September 19 1894), was more comfortable with Gaelic than English. They came to Canada for a better life and more opportunities. They arrived in Vancouver to find work; those who found work stayed in Vancouver while those who didn't went elsewhere – Seattle, Portland, California, Los Angeles, etc. They were members of the Highland Free Presbyterian Church at 10th and Fraser – a breakaway church – where his father did some preaching, although he eventually left the Presbyterian church for unknown reasons (it might have been over the immersion/sprinkling debate during baptism). He never got mixed up in the Gaelic societies. Keywords: Scottish areas in Vancouver; Vancouver; religion; Gaelic; Unionism

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