Christmas and New Year at Saxa were normally memorable occasions. Most of the main functions tended to be held fairly early on as many servicemen, especially single people, wanted to go on leave. With Christmas being more celebrated amongst the English it became something of a tradition that, where possible, they would go on leave before Christmas - returning after Boxing Day to allow a number of Scots to get away for Hogmanay. Unfortunately this arrangement didn’t always work when bad weather prevented travel between the holidays. Even with people on leave, significant numbers of servicemen had to remain on Unst to keep the Unit operating. Events continued to be held for those that remained and many RAF personnel had their first real experience of Hogmanay celebrations amongst the local Unst Folk.
The sequence of photos which follow feature a Dance in the NAAFI which took place in the 1967/8 festive season, but the exact date isn’t known. I’m grateful to Andy Anderson for letting me use 8 of the 9 photos attached. If anyone can help identify more of the “Flower People” in the pictures I would be pleased to hear from them. I would also be happy if anyone could provide any other photos or anecdotes regarding other events on the Unit -
gordon.carle@gmail.com
(Left click on pictures to enlarge).
The last 2 photos are of the band for the evening.
CONTENTS LIST
