THE ROAMER column was the highlight of a Thursday for many Lochaber readers, and so this week he returns with a timely look back at the events and people that made it into his columns in the mid 1980s …
ߦ ‘I wouldn’t tie him there,’ advised the Corpach shopkeeper when the visitor from the Lowlands looped the lead of his large Alsatian around a metal Lyons Maid advertising board on the pavement. ‘Oh, he’ll be alright,’ replied the owner, as he carried on into the shop. Suddenly the Alsatian – and advert – took off like something from Cape Canaveral, and pounded and clattered along the A830. Embarrassed dog owner went off in hot pursuit, and Alsatian – and advert, which, by now looked like ‘Lyons Unmade’ – were saved and salvaged just along from the hotel. ‘You were right,’ confessed the embarrassed dog owner’ as, this time, he took his dog into the shop.
A Doberman went one better outside William Low’s. One minute it was hitched to a stray trolley outside the supermarket – the next both were off along the High Street, the combination resembling a ‘dog and cart’. Then the trolley careered off the pavement and landed on the bonnet of a car parked alongside the Lych Gate. Doberman was taken into custody by its master. Peace was restored, but it could have been a more serious incident.