THE ROD continued from pg 39
flying doctor earned his jet wings, flying the Lockheed M-33 trainer (the Canadair Silver Star), and the Canadair CT-114 Tutor (made famous by the “Snowbirds”.) Ultimately he would fly the McDonnell Voodoo, in its time one of the most formidable fighter jets in the world. After infant Ron arrived in the early ‘70s, he was
posted to Baden-Baden, Germany. The “Tayside” traveled with them, but remained bagged
in its tube. It would not be opened until 1977, when its owner retired from the RCAF, and went back to Scotland. He had returned to medicine, as the Chief of Occupational Health at an Inverness hospital. And so began a delightful phase in the life of the “Tayside”, where father and son shared beautiful days on waters around
Inverness, with magnificent brown trout yielding to supple cane. Alas, such precious times in our lives are never long enough. Ron’s father died in 1992, in the prime of life. When Ron moved back to
Canada, his father’s rod was with him, stowed away but not quite secure. When he finally reopened the tube, he stood in shock at what emerged. Fortunately, the “Tayside” was well built, and its bones had not suffered. For me, it was pure pleasure to see it regain some semblance of its former self. Ron has since made a handsome case in which the rod is fittingly displayed. There is a sad postscript to
46 BOUNDER MAGAZINE
this tale. In 1989, the manager of John Gow Ltd. was murdered on the premises in Dundee, a robbery that went wrong. This terrible event augured the end for the grand old company, and in 1994, its doors closed forever on 154 years of rod and gun craftsmanship. All that remain are a few fine rods and guns in caring hands. The “Tayside” is among them.
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