SCOTS Project - www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk Document : 1494 Title : Miss Sixty Author(s): Sheila Templeton Copyright holder(s): Sheila Templeton Text The morning I turned sixty, I stood in my kitchen thinking about soup. Lentil, cullen skink, split pea cock a leekie, vichysoisse, broth, even gazpacho which gave me a headache, so I took to the beach, all blowing and striding and sea washed sky. And ran as hard as I could, holding my arms out. Pinned myself to the wind and flew, hanging from my shoulders like a dress from a coathanger, looking down at council workmen, busy with solemn spades and wheelbarrows shovelling up heaps of sand from the prom, tipping it back on to the beach, where it lives, but each winter, sneaks over, trying to take over the town, creeping in, like the sixty years of my life, sidling up on me, piling up the decades. I have not reached the stage of trying to shovel any years back, by tummy tucks, face lifts or even just lying in my teeth. But one thing I do know. Soup doesn't have to be complicated. In my kitchen, from today onwards, I will make either Orangey-Red Soup. Or Green Soup. Leaving plenty of time for flying. This work is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. The SCOTS Project and the University of Glasgow do not necessarily endorse, support or recommend the views expressed in this document. Information about document and author: Text Text audience General public: Audience size: 1000+ Text details Method of composition: Wordprocessed Year of composition: 2006 Word count: 189 Text medium Book: Newspaper: Periodical/journal: Radio: Text publication details Published: Part of larger text: Contained in: Slow Road Home (Sheila Templeton) / Running Threads (Jim Hughes, Rowena M Love, Michael Malone, Sheila Templeton) Text setting Leisure/entertainment: Private/personal: Text type Poem/song/ballad: Author Author details Author id: 1075 Forenames: Sheila Surname: Templeton Gender: Female Decade of birth: 1940 Educational attainment: University Age left school: 18 Upbringing/religious beliefs: upbringing Protestantism, now Eastern Yoga meditation practice Occupation: Retired Teacher Place of birth: Aberdeen Region of birth: Aberdeen Birthplace CSD dialect area: Abd Country of birth: Scotland Place of residence: Troon Region of residence: S Ayr Residence CSD dialect area: Ayr Country of residence: Scotland Father's occupation: Railway Engineer / originally farm worker Father's place of birth: Stoneywood Father's region of birth: Aberdeen Father's birthplace CSD dialect area: Abd Father's country of birth: Scotland Mother's occupation: Doctors' Receptionist Mother's place of birth: Dyce Mother's region of birth: Aberdeen Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area: Abd Mother's country of birth: Scotland Languages: Language: English Speak: Yes Read: Yes Write: Yes Understand: Yes Circumstances: At work, at home, writing Language: Scots Speak: Yes Read: Yes Write: Yes Understand: Yes Circumstances: At home, writing work mainly poetry