Geoff, my father came out to Victoria, B.C. from Glasgow in 1925 with the first Princess Marguerite, he worked on her when she was being built at John Brown's Shipyard, then joined the crew to bring her to Victoria. A lot of his friends came out at the same time. Dad met Mom and stayed in Victoria, but, they seemed to attract every new Scot that arrived in Victoria. Dad was the person they all waited for when New Year's came along. Dad was tall, dark and handsome and also had a very good personality, so, the First Footing was 'extended' a bit. Dad would always take a good bottle of Scotch with him, plus some of Mom's Christmas Cake... Because he obviously couldn't be at everyone's home at the stroke of midnight, they stretched it, no one was allowed into the house.....'before Billie' arrived. Needless to say, Dad took taxi's on New Year's Eve. I know this carried on into the 60's.. Sheila > > The man in question has to be tall, dark and handsome. Considering > that, after wishing everyone a Happy New Year, his next duty is always to kiss > all the ladies present, that is perhaps understandable! > > First-footing, on such a formal basis at least, seems to be dying out, > as are so many old customs in this increasingly rootless and commercialised > world, but it's not dead yet! However, I can only see a strong revival coming > if someone were to commercialise it - and then the government would think of > a way to tax it! it was strong when people lived in the sort of small > community where everyone knew everyone else, all were close to the bread-line and just having the one fling of the year at New Year, where everyone knew everyone else well enough to wander into their house just after midnight (would you let a stranger in at that time of nght, even if he was tall, dark and handsome - >especially when, as at New Year, he probably smelled strongly of drink? In an > old pit village there would have been no strangers. > > Best wishes, > > Geoff Nicholson >