I was 3 ½ my mum had just got Peter and me ready for the Fair. We were told to stay in the back garden until Mum and Dad got themselves ready.
Well, I heard Carriden Band coming up Harbour Road, I was so excited, I ran to the back gate which is usually closed but, on that day, someone didn’t close it properly. I was out that gate like a rocket following the sound of the Band. I didn’t run along to the end of the road as my mum and dad thought I ran up the run to see it coming up Harbour Road. I then followed it down to The Grange School where they picked up the school so I just walked along with them to Glebe Park.
You could imagine Mum and Dad going to the back garden to get Peter and me but I’m not there, they were frantic running around Fountain Park asking the neighbours but no one saw me. They put 2 and 2 together thinking where I could have gone when they remembered the Band whilst they were getting ready.
Mum and Dad ran to Grange School but the school had already left with me following so they ran to Glebe Park and managed to get a Policeman to put an announcement over the loudspeaker if any could see a little girl on her own called Fiona Baillie from Fountain Park, I remember a woman asking my name and me saying Fiona Baillie from Fountain Park, she took my hand to the back of the Town Hall to the nearest Policeman who took me to my Mum and Dad. I can’t remember getting into trouble but I do know I had a great time listening to the band.
About a week later, none of the neighbours told my mum that my picture was in The Journal and Gazette’s window, It must have been taken when I was on my own, unfortunately, I don’t have the picture mum through all the old pictures out.
My First Fair Day Memory
Fiona Meikle ( nee Baillie)
