Ann Watson recently messaged me with a great little snippet.
Her granny, Ann Summers was around 12 years old when this took place in 1940’s Blantyre.
Little Ann used to love when the fair arrived in Blantyre down at the “coo Park” at the bottom of the Dandy (the fields next to the Livingstone Centre!). The fairground people asked her to wash clothes for them. They would leave the laundry at the Train Station to be picked up on a set day. Ann would then collect it, wash and return it back to the train station a few days later, where the showmen and women would pick the clean clothes back up again.
Now, Ann didn’t say how her grannie got paid, but I would imagine it wouldn’t have been a lot of money. I can well imagine the 12 year old may have been delighted to do the washing in return for being allowed on the fairground rides for nothing!
Picture: For illustration only
Featuring Blantyre Project Social Media with permission. Strictly not for use by others on or offline, our visitors said:
Sandy Wilkie 10 years later, when they came to Bardykes, George Smith, the owner, used to cone over the the farm and give us wee paper cash bags (the kind we used to count the Milk Money into fir the bank) full of old pennies, (for rolling down the chute to land on black squares) plus wooden thruppenies and silver tanners to pop into one arm bandits and a bundle of Free Passes to get on the Helter Skelter, Waltzers and Speedway, till we were dizzy! It was ALWAYS muddy so Wellies were required but HAD to come off before going into Granny Smith’s luxury caravan with the white carpets and crystal everywhere!