Was misty and rainy all day in the Rhineland

Have you ever thought, “There must be a reason for it!” when no reason seems to exist? It’s called Apophenia, coined by the German neurologist Klaus Conrad. While I had made plans to visit Belgium and Greece before I left for Germany, the idea of visiting Scotland was last minute. The first thing we did when Shey and John picked me up from the hotel on Wednesday morning was to take Shey’s computer to a computer repairman. Shey explained the problem to the repairman, but the fact that her computer was ancient, around the same age as Dundee in cyber years, the only response the repairman had was that she needed to buy a new computer.

The problem sounded more like an issue with the monitor than the computer. After we got back home, we checked out the computer, did some troubleshooting, and the issue was indeed the monitor. Shey and I got the problem solved. Voilà! No need for Shey to buy a new computer. In an apopheniatic moment, I told Shey I guessed the reason I came to Dundee was to help her figure out her computer problem. Call it guiding spirits, divine intervention, or simply coincidental, helping Shey solve her computer problem was well worth the effort of going to Dundee.

I noticed a dollhouse on the floor in Shey’s cool attic studio, and asked her about it. She opened up the dollhouse and explained that her father made it for her when she was a child. Her father was a very good craftsman, and left her a precious gift and lovely memories from her childhood.

I asked Shey if she wanted to write about her father for this post. It turnes out here father, who she always thought of as simply her father, was a very special man in the lives of many people as Shey explains below:

“It was just wonderful having you visit Timothy. And I was actually really touched by your interest in my dad’s handiwork. Of course when I was wee I never thought Dad was anything other than just my dad, the guy who could fix anything, for anyone . A molder to trade, he had such nimble fingers, I’d actually bring him all the broken toys from the kids round about and ask if he’d mend them. And he did. It was why when I was eight and he offered to make me a dolls house for my birthday –well I had to pick the most complicated plans in the model making shop, a Tudor mansion because of course he could make and mend anything. I didn’t know about his very difficult upbringing, his mother dying when he was four, that his father was the family black sheep of a reasonably well to do family, that Dad left his reserved trade occupation, in order to serve his country in three conflicts in bomb disposal, thought nothing of nearly giving his life to save a North Korean peasant family while fighting for the UN against the North because retreating Northern troops had mined their paddy field–their only source of food, in addition to trying and failing to save the life of a young man whose leg had been blown off in that same conflict. I just knew he was my Dad who could fix anything. And in my mind, he’s still that to me. In a world that wasn’t always kind to him , he was unfailing kind to all of those about him. Thank you Timothy for giving me the chance to talk about him.”

John wrote a play called ‘From Jute to Joysticks’ that includes a song about Shey’s dad disposing of the grenades in the Korean families’ field. Their play was also performed at the Verdant Works. Shey sent me a clipping from an article about the play titled, “Nostalgic play documents the city’s shift from ‘Jute to Joysticks’”:

“As Quinn describes, ‘From Jute to Joysticks’ “is a play about the re-invention of Dundee with its proud history of innovation. To put it another way you might say, ‘Hats aff tae the past. Jaikets aff tae the future!’.”

Songs written for the play include a piece harking back to memories of The Lone Ranger’s visit to Green’s Playhouse in the Nethergate, with another acting as a tribute to Dundee-man John Scofield; the father of Shehanne Moore, the play’s director. The remarkable story of Scofield’s bravery as a bomb disposal expert in the Korean War – winning a medal for risking his life by entering a bomb littered paddy field along with his Australian comrade, to save a North Korean farmer and his family – is documented and celebrated through music in ‘From Jute to Joysticks’.”

A page out of the program for “From Jute to Joysticks”

Atlas: “That is such a touching story, Paparazzo! High paws to Shey and John for sharing the history of Dundee through theater and music, and giving us a glimpse into the life of John Scofield.”