I found this magnificent site while at work on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, just after the disasters in the USA. It brought back a lot of memories, and eased the pain of having lost several colleagues in the World Trade Center. I was very pleased to see a lot of familiar faces (Davie Kiltie, Andy Hill amongst others). If you want to see how time and the German food got to my figure there are some photos at my work in www.garban.de under Money Markets Team. You'll be surprised to see me called "Jimmy" Hempkin there, but that's the nickname I got while trading in London and its stuck since!!! Best Wishes to everyone I know and anyone who might remember me in Old Minniebole!
Regards Rab Hempkin (Another photo here)

I was rummaging through some old belongings the other day and found to my amazement a little story (below) about Maybole that I wrote when I was seventeen! Quite amusing to read of how I seemed to view my beloved hometown in those days! So thought I'd send you the wonderful youth time views, maybe you 'll enjoy it just a bit like I did!!

Maybole-?? The best town in the world ??

 As I walk across the cold and desolate park ,I look up -and suddenly, for the first time see, the place where I have lived for the past seventeen years. A glance to the north shows that the town has changed quite a bit in recent years,-barrack-like houses can be seen stretching towards the undulating hills which lie between the town and the sea. The buildings are palm-trees in a city centre. I look slightly south from these enigmas and can view the "stockbroker belt" which winds from the old gallows to almost the railway station. My heart is glad I don t belong there , my brain is sorry !!

I leave the dusty path at the end of the park and enter my territory. Dirty, friendly, happy, poor, interesting, uninteresting - an area which is described perfectly by the appearance of the four maestros displaying their talents at the ever popular soccer. One goalpost is an over-spilling bucket, the other is a brand new Ford Capri. Two boys are clad in dirty worn jeans, one in a suave soccer strip and one in hand-down trousers, which trail over his old sandshoes and trip him every time he attempts to shoot. Within a few minutes he rolls the trousers to his knees and proceeds to to put on a show of sheer ability unprecedented in the hustle-bustle of full-time, first-class Hicks Avenue soccer !!

I leave the maestros to their fantasies and veer back out of the concrete mini-jungle, down the litter-covered steps to the valley and out onto the famous brae which leads to stardom-and the High Street. I notice the partly demolished slums at the foot of this famous hill and an old decrepit man standing , resting , seemingly partly demolished with the slums. He lives on - do the slums ?? I make my way along the old main road into the predominantly gossip-making land in the town south-east, an area I dislike so I hurry along into the next slumland .Around me once-proud buildings stand ready to fall at the stroke of a demolishers mallet.

 I find myself suddenly on the main road to the county town and change direction into the entertainment and shopping centre of our burgh . I see one cafe and not much else. Only the dignified library and old castle remind me that this town was once worthy. A few shops and pubs make up the remainder of the High Street and hallowed Whitehall. I turn right and see two of the most interesting buildings in my journey through life so far , the police station and the youth centre , wonder why they re next to each other ??

I veer back onto the High Street to inspect the town hall and the clocktower , they receive the approval of my hard-to-please eye and I turn to walk up to the town green where some unfortunate youths are cavorting around with nothing better to do , depressed by the thought of meeting these types and faced with the fact that I was heading for the "Stockbroker belt", I decided to about-turn and go home thinking how much I love, hate this dump, heaven of a place !!

Jimmy (Rab) Hempkin 1972

Trip down memory (or lovers ?) lane - by Rab Hempkin at Carrick Academy Reunion

I came into town from Rabbie's birthplace along the more romantic and old -fashioned high road, passing ´´lovers lane´´, where I'd in my youth spent the occasional hour or so. Above the railway line there seem to be a few factories ´´at work´´ and the houses along towards the station still have delightful front gardens , accurate and correct, like their owners I suppose. Reaching the high street through the town green, (which looks very tidy!) I stroll down past the town hall library and old castle which still have that defiant look about them, although a small part of the castle seems to have lost the battle against the years. I'm sure it'll be repaired soon! I then veered down past the Glebe park which looked in better condition than when I played on it ! and saw that the old villa still has ´´Carrick Colts´´ on it, a memorial in my eyes to Tom Corbett, ( the founder of the club ) Do they still play actively ? I then reach my destination, the graveyard where I spend over an hour discovering that many old friends are not more with us. I visit the grave of my parents, and find that more or less the whole of the shore boys that I used to know, have got together again , instead of at the old hut at the shore where they used to play cards I m sure they re playing ´´up there ´´ and still laughing as much as they did in those far gone days. I of course then visited Hicks Avenue , not much change there , too many cars now for a good game of football to be played there I'm afraid , and went down the Cairders burn , which at least looks exactly as it did when we used to dam it and pretend we were Olympic swimmers many moons ago. Next stop was ´´high living ´´ which used to be not my favourite area, but I was amazed to see what a magnificent view of the Galloway hills the place offers.

What an amazing feeling ,on the Saturday, lots of questioning faces , wondering who could that be? I certainly enjoyed putting stories behind those faces in my mind and had great fun chatting with several long lost but never forgotten friends, isn't it amazing how the ladies all look top fit and get us men back into training as soon as one gets back home (wonder how long it'll last this time hahah ) Great to see you all best wishes from sunny!! Germany , Rab Hempkin