A SLICE OF HOME; Proud Scots are keeping our traditions and customs alive every day in 'little Paisley' EXPATS IN KEARNY, NEW JERSEY, WILL CELEBRATE ST ANDREW'S DAY WITH HAGGIS, BRIDIES AND BURNS' POETRY.

Byline: By Claire Prentice

STANDING in front of a huge mixing bowl in the back of the butcher's shop, Alastair Stewart pours a large jug of blood into his haggis.

At this time of the year, he works around the clock making Scotland's national dish. It's a familiar scene, but the hard-working butcher makes his haggis in an American town that is a little slice of Scotland.

With St Andrew's Day just around the corner, his culinary expertise is in demand as far a field as Canada and the Bahamas.

Alastair's Saltire-covered shop is less than an hour's drive from New York's Fifth Avenue.

And as a butcher in Kearny - a town of expat Scots - he has his work cut out keeping his customers supplied with mince, pies and Scotch eggs.

"This is probably my busiest time of year," says Alastair, whose customers include St Andrew's clubs across the US.

"Everyone wants a haggis. We've got orders from all over North America."

Alastair runs Stewart's Scottish America on the high street of America's "Little Paisley", which was given the nickname because of the large number of Paisley buddies living in the town.

Kearny's other claim to fame is that TV drama The Sopranos was filmed there.

But on St Andrew's Day, it will skirl with the sound of bagpipes. Tartan will hang from every lamp-post and Scots from all over the state will come to town for an authentic taste of their homeland.

Alastair's grandfather, Albert Stewart, opened Stewart's butchers in Kearny in 1931. He visited America on honeymoon with his bride Gracie and the young couple never returned to their Paisley home.

It was Albert's dream to open his own butcher's and with so many Scots living in Kearny, the customers flocked.

He quickly became known throughout the region and customers would come from all over America to buy his meats. He passed the trade on to his son, who then taught his own son - today's owner - everything he knew.

Outside his shop, Paisley-born lollipop lady Betty Regan is helping fellow Scot Mary Lang cross the road. Mary's dad came to Kearny from Glasgow to work as a bus mechanic 80 years ago.

Betty, like many Kearny Scots, watches all the Scottish football games on TV. They are shown on a big screen in the Scots American Club and famous visitors have included Sir Sean Connery, who dropped in to watch a Rangers v Celtic game in 2006.

The club - on the corner of Highland and Patterson Avenues - is the town's social centre. And it is hosting a St Andrew's dinner for Scots from all over New Jersey.

They will tuck into a feast of haggis, Scotch pies, bridies and sausage rolls.

The soundtrack will include The Corries' Flower of Scotland and music by The Proclaimers, Runrig and pipe bands.

Club bartender Bobby Kelly left Saltcoats for America in 1964. Like many Scots, he was looking for work and found a job as a mechanic.

"I loved New Jersey from the minute I arrived," says Bobby. "You could walk down the street and hear all these Scots accents.

And you didn't feel homesick as you could buy Scottish things in the shops.

"You hear all the Scottish jokes and if someone has a copy of the Daily Record, they'll bring it in so we can all get a read."

The first Scots came to Kearny in the 1860s. Paisley thread mill Clark's opened in the area in 1865, followed by Kirkcaldy linoleum company Nairn's.

An appeal went out for skilled Scots to work in both factories and also the Federal Ship Building Company and the Ford Motor Car Company.

Generations of friends and families followed over the years and the number of Scots living in Kearny reached 21,000 in the 1960s. They got jobs as machinists, domestics, molders, boilermakers, clerks, printers, electricians, mechanics and factory workers.

There were so many Scots in Kearny that the tram driver would shout out "Paisley Cross" when he reached the crossroads at Bergen and Kearny Avenues.

The new arrivals brought traditions with them - football, Highland dancing, pubs, fish and chip shops, butchers and restaurants.

They looked out for their own, setting up abenevolent fund to help out fellow Scots in need.

Piper John Nisbet - known as "Jock" to his friends - left his home in Musselburgh 46 years ago and arrived in Brooklyn, New York, looking for work. A friend in a pipe band in Kearny told him about "Little Paisley" and he moved over straight away.

Today, he plays in the Kearny Caledonian Pipe Band. And John and his son are booked to play at St Andrew's dinners all over New Jersey and New York.

"People here love the sound of the pipes.

I've lost track of the number of haggises that I've piped in," he says.

John runs the Argyle fish and chip shop and restaurant. The walls are decorated with photos of Robert Burns, the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and a sporran once worn by the Scots entertainer Harry Lauder.

On Friday nights, the queue for fish and chips reaches all the way down the street.

Next door is the Piper's Cove gift shop.

The shelves groan under the weight of Edinburgh Crystal, kilted Scottie dogs, miniature bagpipes, tartan tea towels and Scots treats like Barr's Irn-Bru, tablet, and Tunnock's Teacakes and Caramel Wafers.

Despite living in America for more than 50 years, Mary Crawford, who works in Stewart's, still has a broad Scots accent.

She says: "My husband is Scottish and all my girlfriends are Scottish so you don't really lose the accent. And I go home about four times a year."

Anna Dixon came out 47 years ago to work as a domestic help for one year, met her Scottish husband, and stayed. Now the Bellshill native works in the local library where she does her bit to support Scottish writers.

"I really like Ian Rankin," she says, "and I've persuaded the library to stock crime writer Denise Mina, too. The Scots here are atight-knit bunch but I still miss home."

Whenever one of the thousands of Scots living in Kearny goes back "home", they take lists with them of things that family and friends want them to bring back.

Scottish newspapers, tins of Baxter's soup, recordings of TV soaps and hard-to-find turnips are the most sought-after items at this time of year.

Those neeps should come in handy on St Andrew's Night...

'You could walk down the streets in New Jersey and hear Scots accents'

CAPTION(S):

KEARNING A LIVING: Butcher Alastair Stewart supplies meat products to Scots all over North America and, below, Paisleyborn Betty Regan, who works as a lollipop lady in Kearny; LITTLE SCOTLAND: The Argyle fish & chip shop, top, run by Jock Nisbet, middle, who also plays the bagpipes, and, above, the Scots church in the town centre PICS: LLOYDBISHOP