Remembering the Hammer of the Nats

When I was a wee girl I was dragged to many a local event in the Ayrshire village in which I grew up.
My father was minister in Kilmaurs, a small village near Kilmarnock, and my mum worked, so I tagged along on dad's visits to sick people in hospitals or to boring functions, such as the annual Christmas Old Folks Treat.
This morning, a memory stirred of sitting next to a man called Willie Ross at one Old Folks Treat.
I remember he made a big impression on me - a big bear of a man with a twinkle in his eye.
My dad told me afterwards that he was our local MP and also the Secretary of State for Scotland. He was Labour, dad said, and Labour would get in every time in Kilmarnock & Louden. It was just the way of things.
Willie Ross. I even remember writing about him in my school news jotter. (The reason I remember this is my teacher corrected my spelling of Willie as I had taken the 'Oor Wullie' route courtesy of my favourite Sunday Post cartoon character...)
Well, Willie Ross, the so-called 'hammer of the Nats', must be birling in his grave this morning as the SNP not only take over his old seat, but most of the seats in Scotland.
There is just one Labour MP in Scotland. Unthinkable to people of my dad's generation.
And despite this, the prospect of five years of Tory rule looms over us.