As a teenager living in South Africa’s Orange Free State in the mid-seventies – the Orange description, coined in honour of the Dutch King William of Orange, was dropped following the fall of the apartheid regime in 1994 – Vivianne Young was loving life and had no notion of returning to Scotland.
Almost half a century later that same girl, now Vivianne Brown, is still loving loving life – in the Solway climes of sunny Palnackie.
Technically, Vivianne is supposed to be retired from teaching but still gets called upon from time to time to lend her expertise in the classroom.
And looking back, she admits that as a headstrong 16-year-old enjoying weekly braais (South African barbecues) at her home in Welkum, the Free State’s second largest city, returning to her windswept homeland was the last thing on her mind.
Born in Glasgow in 1961, her first eight years, Vivianne tells me, were spent in East Kilbride before the family moved into the leafy suburbs of Newton Mearns.
Mum Myra was a medical secretary while dad Tom, a skilled draughtsman to trade, worked at the National Engineering Laboratory in East Kilbride, his skills soon to be in demand in South Africa.
“In 1975 we properly emigrated and sold up everything – furniture, the lot,” Vivianne recalls.
“We moved out to Welkum which was a very Afrikaaner area and my dad coached a state rugby team out there.
“He had been coach at West of Scotland and was pals with Sandy Carmichael and Gordon Brown who would come to the house on a Saturday night.
“My dad worked for the Anglo American gold mining company and was teaching the South Africans how to use computer systems he created to put dynamite in the right place for blasting.
“When we went out they did not have TV at the time.”
Unaware or uncaring of apartheid laws, the Youngs weren’t long in falling foul of the authorities.
“Every Saturday afternoon there would be a big braai at our place and the guys would bring a bottle,” Vivianne explains.
“My dad got hauled in on Monday morning and his boss said ‘What do you think you’re doing? You can’t invite black people to your house!’
“My dad was horrified – you probably could not print his reply.
“You would walk past a bank there and there was a white entrance and a non-white entrance and shops where only black people were allowed into.
“My dad – Big Tom they called him – had a pal who coached the Real Hearts, which was a township football team.
“He would get told off for shaking hands with the footballers, just because they were black.
“He was a big supporter of the team – but he did have to get smuggled into the stadium in a pick-up truck under a blanket.
“One day my mum asked him the score.
“‘Two dead, three injured’ he said.
“The supporters could be really violent – a guy used to walk round the pitch with a big sjambok (a heavy leather whip used by the South African police for riot control).
“I had no idea that’s what it was like.
“But that was my dad – just another adventure.”
Scots are renowned for being able to put down roots anywhere – but is it not often the case, I ask Vivianne, that the further the distance from home the stronger the sense of identity?
“Well, my mum was a good singer and my dad played guitar,” she smiles.
“There was a Scots Society in Welkum and she would sing songs like Ae Fond Kiss at socials – there was a big ex-pat community there.
“We had friends who had a bar in their house decked out in tartan.”
Vivianne still remembers how upset she was when her parents broke the news that the family was returning to Scotland.
“I loved South Africa,” she says.
“But my mum was homesick and her mother was not keeping well.
“I was gutted – I was going on 17 and just wanted to save up and go back.
“I had boyfriends with cars and swimming pools in the garden.
“My brother was different – he’s a super passionate Scot and
when he got off the plane he
kissed the tarmac!
“I’ve gone back there with my husband Colin and seen the difference – South Africa has changed so much.
“It has swung right round now.
“If you want to employ a white person there has to be a special reason why that job can’t go to a black person.
“But it’s wonderful to see couples round a table, black and white, eating together. black and white kids walking to school together at the same school.
“But there are big problems over there, unfortunately.”
The Youngs, Vivianne tells me, came to Galloway in 1978 when her parents took over Southcliffe Guest House in Portpatrick.
She stayed for a short while with her grannie in Glasgow and attended Bellahouston Academy, which presented a few language difficulties.
“I had this clipped accent and I told this boy we had a house in Portpatrick.
“‘Is it a boa’ hoose?’ he asked.
“Well, it’s not a boat house but it is quite near the sea,” I replied.
“Naw – ah mean is it a BOAT hoose or a cooncil hoose? he asked. I was a bit of a snob when I came back.
“After Bellahouston I attended Stranraer Academy for a year and I actually did enjoy it.
“My dad coached Wigtownshire Rugby Club – and there were plenty of rugby playing boys!”
Vivianne’s set of Highers took her to the Scottish College of Textiles in Galashiels to do textile design – but that venture soon unravelled before the chance came to pursue her true vocation.
“I absolutely hated it and spent a miserable time there,” she recalls.
“My folks would not let me get out until I had done a full year.
“Then I applied to Craigie College in Ayr and graduated with a Diploma in Education in 1983.
“Our class of 1980 is having a reunion in Moffat in November.
“I loved teacher training – they were some of the best years of
my life.
“My dream job had been to be a presenter on Play School or Blue Peter.
“You have to be a bit of an actress and put on a show engaging with primary school children, particularly the younger ones.
“There were no jobs at all in teaching then – only two in our entire year got a teaching post.
“I was living in Ayr at the time and we all got taken on by Keep Scotland Tidy as environmental education officers which was basically going around schools telling kids not to drop their litter.
“The job was okay and paid £58.80 a week but you’re thinking I came out of college with all these dreams and aspirations.
“It was dispiriting but from there I happened to be talking to a friend of my dad’s who had a department in Telford College in Edinburgh.
“I got a job as a lecturer there teaching modules to YTS groups for their City and Guilds course.”
Vivianne moved back to Galloway in 1985 and played a
lead role in setting up the Job Training Scheme at Lincluden School in Dumfries.
“The JTS was for people aged over 24 and our regional office training unit had offices there,” she recalls.
“The job involved going out asking companies if they would take on a trainee and part of that worker’s wages would be paid for a year.
“I only did it for two years then left to have my son Andrew.
“I had never been a class teacher and in 1989 I felt it was time to focus on my teaching career.
“So I went on supply and went round a few schools with my CV and said I’m available.
“I managed to pick up work very quickly at various schools in the region including Colvend and St Peter’s Primary in Dalbeattie and Dalbeattie Primary School.
“Then I got a permanent job at Laurieknowe Primary in Dumfries and taught P7 for three years then went down to infants and taught P1 and P2 for 14 years.”
It’s clear Vivianne takes great joy in early years teaching, not least performing in front of a young and credulous audience.
“I preferred the infants, definitely,” she smiles.
“They believe everything you say and you can put on your show for them, whereas P7s are a bit more street wise.
“Quite a few pupils I taught
went on to become teachers themselves.
“I loved being there – we saw our way through lots of head teachers and were a good strong team.”
Vivianne, husband Colin and the family had been living in Palnackie for around ten years when, in 2010, the opportunity came to teach local children.
“Every day I would walk past Palnackie Primary and think I would love to get a chance to teach at that school,” she smiles.
“But I had to wait until Moira Bowie retired.
“Laurieknowe then was losing a class so it was perfect timing.
“I taught P1 to P3 to start with and there were around the mid-twenties in the class.
“My big thing is outdoor learning and when it became popular Palnackie Primary School was at the forefront.
“Out in the woods we made dens, lit campfires – anything you could do outside, we did.
“Friday afternoon was outdoor learning day and the kids came to school in their play clothes.
“We did maths, art and reading outside among the trees.
“Then we got money from the community council for a purpose-built outdoor classroom as well.”
Allowing children the opportunity to learn in their natural environment is an enriching experience, Vivianne believes.
“It’s massively important – so many kids don’t get to play outside.
“It’s all about discovering things like if you run through a bunch of nettles you are going to get stung and if you fall off a tree you are going to get hurt.
“A lot of kids have lost that but the Palnackie kids know about nature and plants.
“Getting them outside, listening to the buzzards crying, is so much better for their physical and mental health than sitting in front of a screen. Recently I was at an educational conference on play and people of all ages were there.
“The speaker got everybody to stand up said ‘think about your own childhood, when you were eight.
“‘Sit down if you played where your parents couldn’t see you.’
“Only one girl was left standing in a room of 200 people.
“Then he got us to stand up again and asked and people to sit down if our own children sometimes played where we could not see them.
“And I was the only person in that room who sat down.
“That blew me away – there’s no more bad people now than there was back then.
“I’m hoping that my grandchildren will always be able to play outside in the village – my son and daughter-in-law live next door to us in Palnackie.”
One of Vivianne’s proudest achievements, she tells me, was helping Palnackie become a partner school to Ayucha Primary near Kisumu in Kenya.
The link-up, supported by Dumfries and Galloway Council and the British Council, made possible an international exchange with the African country.
“The Kenyan teachers came out to Palnackie and we would go out to the school in Kenya to teach,” Vivianne explains.
“We formed a real partnership.
“That was the highlight of my teaching career.
“Before one trip the Palnackie kids were going to Queen of the South and one of the girls found a £20 note on the minibus floor.
“She said she considered not telling anybody and buying sweeties but I was going out to Kenya and she thought maybe it would be better spent out there.
“The £20 bought a sheep, the sheep had lambs and now there’s a new flock.
“The sheep are called Sasha’s flock, after the girl.
“When I retired in 2020 my friends were making fun of me because I was doing things like putting my spice rack in alphabetical order.
“‘You need to get yourself a job,’ they said, and sent me a link, and that’s when I started managing the food bank in Castle Douglas, working for Castle Douglas Development Forum.
“Then literally the same day my contract with the food bank ended a job came up on Facebook for development officer at Palnackie Village Shop to get the cafe up and running.
“The day my contract ended I got a phone call from Colvend Primary School asking if I fancied doing some supply teaching in the three-school partnership.
“That’s what I’m doing just now – although I’m technically retired.”
Vivianne added: “I have a new grandson now who hopefully is going to take up a bit of my time.
“When we came to Palnackie 28 years ago my husband and I said this is our five-year plan.
“But now I can’t see myself living anywhere else.
“That’s the story of my life – things just seem to fall into place.”
