Reading Mum’s memories of my Grandpa’s work and the beginning of his business, I am struck again by how closely work and family life were intertwined. Like me many years later, she loved accompanying her dad on his rounds during the school holidays. She wrote the following :
My father built his garage behind the house and shop on Clober Road. This was big enough to hold three lorries.
One was driven by Bobby Salmond, who was quite small and yet lifted 2 cwt bags of sugar or flour on his back, delivering to bakeries. Bob Millar drove the second lorry and he had his own area to deliver to, and Dad had the third lorry. He did Milngavie and Bearsden, Anniesland, etc.
During and after the war you were only allowed to work within a 12(?) mile radius, as petrol was rationed also.
They had a few contracts, for example McNish, Washington Street, for whisky; Kirkcaldy Linoleum; and Hepburn Bros for prams. Fleming was for eggs and cheese. Bobby had a large contract for a firm supplying bakery goods to bakers. I think it was Campbell Henry. Those were very heavy lifts and I don’t know how he managed to lift the flour and sugar sackcloth bags.
Dad also delivered to the shipyards in Glasgow, down to Greenock, with nuts, bolts, etc. Those were also mainly in sackcloth sacks and you used a hook to pierce the bag, then draw it along the lorry before piling them up. This was for Jas Robertson & Co., Robertson Street.
After doing his local deliveries in the morning, Dad would deliver to Glasgow shipyards two days per week and Port Glasgow one day per week.
During the school holidays I used to love going with him, and if you arrived at a shipyard at lunchtime you couldn’t see anything but thousands of men leaving the yards, presumably to get food. There were no canteens in those days. It was quite a sight.
He also had the contract for Heinz and I can remember one day John Ferguson, grocer in Station Road, was not happy at not getting his delivery. So I loaded up a sack barrow with boxes of Heinz and pushed it through the village.
I was working in the office by this time, so I would be about eighteen years old. But he was a satisfied customer.
Craigachan 