Frederick and Alan Buchanan

Frederick and Alan Buchanan

Interview transcript

New York, New York City, NYC, New Yorkers, Northeasterners, Scotland, England, Scottish, fathers, sons, mothers, Scottish, Scots, engagement, marry, marriage, married, proposed, immigrants, immigration, kilts, love, heritage, misunderstanding, misunderstood, language, accent, dialect, brogue, emigrating, emigration, tradition, challenges

transcript: Frederick Stewart Buchanan by Alan Buchanan 6/6/04

Frederick Stewart Buchanan tells his son Alan about two of the most important events in his life.

FRED: It just so happens Alan that 55 years ago next month I arrived here in New York on a Scotch Whiskey ship. Well the first challenge I faced is that people couldn’t understand me. I spoke perfectly plain English, but they couldn’t understand me especially when Rs got in.

And I was speaking to some woman on the train and she said, What kind of vegetables to you have in Scotland?

I said, We have carrots.

She said, What?

Carrots.

And she said, I’ve never heard of those.

ALAN: Tell me about meeting mom, and

FRED: I was playing my bagpipes with the Salt Lake Scots. And your mother was in the audience. That was the first time she saw me. My mother-in-law says that she saw my legs and fell for them. I had my kilt on [laughs].

I got engaged the following August. As we stood on the banks, I asked her if she’d marry me. I held up my hand and I said, Look at those diamonds up in the sky the stars were just like diamonds and when her hand was up there, I slipped the ring on her finger.