Dad would get up early most mornings to go to the Market at Blochairn in Glasgow. He would buy boxes of fresh flowers and plants, pack them up in the van and bring them back for sale in the shop.
During school holidays I would go with him and loved these early morning visits. Going through some old papers I found this letter that I’d written and left on his pillow.
Anne & Jane’s Bedroom
101 Main Street
Milngavie
Glasgow
Dear Mr Duncan, On the morning of 26th July 1977 will you please awaken me to accompany yourself to the Glasgow Flower, Fruit and Fish Market.
Thank you, Jane Duncan.
P.S. I have written this large so that you may be able to read it.
I remember these early mornings as such happy times. Dad would creep up the stairs to waken me and I would always sense him coming and be up in a flash.
The morning would start with a cup of tea in the kitchen, always freezing cold at that time (yes, I know it was summer but it was still cold!). Tea was accompanied by a McVities Digestive Biscuit – always McVities, Dad’s favourite. (Aside, in my house, digestive biscuits are now simply known as Papa’s biscuits 💕). There was something decadent about having a biscuit so early in the morning. Then we would get into the van and drive off to Glasgow.
The market was always buzzing at that time in the morning, I think it would have been around 6am we got there but the market people had obviously been at work for hours. Dad had his regular places and we would visit them in turn depending on what we were looking for. Sometimes we had a wedding order and needed something special, pink roses say, or stephanotis and he would need to visit a few places to get what he was looking for.
After we’d shopped we would have to pile the boxes of flowers and plants into the van. Dad was an expert at filling every space turning things around and moving up and down to make sure everything fitted in. I have always had very short hair and was a real tomboy and the market people who didnt know me would shout “lad, get this” or “here, son, I’ll help you” etc. I was always amused that they thought I was a boy.
On some very special days when we were ahead of schedule we would sometimes go to the cafe in the market for another cup of tea. On these occasions we would also have an iced gingerbread slice – imagine how that felt when a biscuit before breakfast was a treat – sometimes we also had cake!!
One of the vans we had had sliding doors and when we were driving around the market we sometimes didn’t close the doors but left them open. It was such a thrill to be driving around the market , sitting high up in the van with the door wide open!
This photo above of me and Anne would be taken around 1970 dressed for a Milngavie Week parade shows the van with the exciting sliding doors!
Sometimes Dad would also buy fruit – we didnt generally sell fruit in the shop but would have tomatoes, cucumbers and syboes (spring onions). Originally these were grown in the nursery but by this time it was more usual to buy them. Mum and Dad enjoyed a grapefruit for breakfast so Dad would buy a box of grapefruit every now and then. Sometimes we had a box of apples and in the summer time he would often buy summer fruits like peaches, rasps and strawberries. His absolute favourite was cherries and these boxes were often half empty by the time we got home.
Shopping complete we would head home reaching there just about time for breakfast.
Craigachan 