Otis McNab Newspaper

Otis McNab was born in 1308 in the Strathnaver region of the Highlands of Scotland. At the age of 6 he fought at the Battle of Bannockburn where he saved Robert the Bruce’s spider from the hands of the English. Otis was on holiday at John O’ Groats in 1513 so he missed being killed at the battle of Flodden. He was back by 1745 in time to take part in the Jacobite Rebellion but as he was 437 years old at the time he wasn’t much help. His son (also Otis) emigrated to America to escape the clan fighting but found himself fighting the English again during the American Revolution. Otis befriended the Swamp Fox who was dating Mary See’s great grandmother.

Otis shared his recipe with her for butter scotch kisses. She loved the recipe and eventually handed it down to little Mary who, once grown up, decided to open a candy shoppe. After a few years Otis jr. returned to Scotland only to find that his family had been kicked out of their croft to make way for Cheviot sheep. He found his family at Melness on the Kyle of Tongue where there wasn’t much of a living to be made apart from fishing which made him seasick so Otis went south to Edinburgh where he made shoes for the gentry of the New Town. Later his son (Otis 3rd) helped to discover penicillin when he took off the lids of some old Petri dishes Alexander Fleming had forgotten about.

Otis the highlander who is now 698 years old lives in a retirement flat at John O’ Groats House where he exercises on a trampoline every morning before breakfast when all his great ideas are born. His latest gem was: “Lang may yer lum reek.” that has become a New Year greeting throughout the Commonwealth of Nations.