I ended my Milngavie week memory with a trail for similar events in Montrose. My Dad was born in Montrose and, as children, we spent many of our Easter and October holidays in the town. Dad would take us round his old haunts and remember stories of his youth. Later on we often visited Montrose in April around Dad’s birthday on April 12th.
One year, after a wander around the High Street, I had gone into the library for a nosey. I hadn’t found anything to give Dad so, on the way out, when I spotted a book called “Old Montrose” by Tom Valentine, I picked it up for him.
Imagine both of our surprises when he opened it to the front page and spotted a photo of himself! There he was as a child of maybe 7 or 8 standing beside his father and their decorated van having won First Prize!
When I first wrote this piece I had included the following “Sadly I’ve no idea what the event was but clearly some sort of gala or festival.” I’m thrilled therefore to have found this newspaper article in the Montrose Standard and Angus and Mearns Register for July 20th 1934
“Mr Robert Duncan, Old Montrose, had an easy first in his section with his lorry of garden produce. Everything that was shown came out of the Old Montrose gardens, and, although it seemed rather difficult to believe, only one was a hothouse product, this being a tomato plant. Topping the exhibit was a fine collection of flowers, and from the sides of the lorry were hung branches heavy with raspberries, red currants, cherries and the like, while almost every fruit and vegetable imaginable seemed to find a place in this galaxy.”
Probably the following year my Grandpa entered again this time with my Dad’s cousin, Cathie, dressed up and wearing a label “Nature’s Way to Health”.
They don’t appear to have been prize winners that year but are noted as being “distinguished”!
I cant help but reflect that the messages promoted in the 2 photos are “Eat more Fruit” and “Nature’s Way to Health” – not too far removed from messages we see around some 90 years later!
Craigachan 