Aald Daa
Aald Daa is the nom-de-plume of a Shetland author better known as Cavy Johnson, born on the 9th of May 1941 at Sandgarth, Delting, who collaborates with his younger sister Beth Gerrard, born Elizabeth Jane Johnson on the 24th of September 1946, also at Sandgarth.'
Cavy's birthname was Robert Henry Johnson. His nickname was acquired when he arrived as a schoolboy at the Janet Courtney Hostel in Lerwick and it has followed him ever since. Once, a friend seeing his signature of "R.H. Johnson" asked what the 'R.H.' stood for. Cavy, always a joker, replied "Right Honourable".
After attending the Anderson Educational Institute and Edinburgh University, Cavy had his career in the Met Office. He spent several years working at Lerwick Observatory, but most of his career was at Met Office headquarters at Bracknell in Berkshire, in southern England where he ended up leading a shift team operating the huge computers which produced the national forecast. He retired from the Met Office in 2001, and managed to return to Shetland in 2006.
Cavy contributed to the New Shetlander from the early 1960s. The pen name Aald Daa was first used for the poem Da Peerie Hoose Ahint Da Burn (inspired by the fiddle tune of the same name), which was a tribute to the passing of the outdoor water closet--a radical departure for the New Shetlander at the time !
