|
2008 DOUGLAS SNEDDEN - "The
Best Day of the Year Again"
"BO'NESS IS ITS PEOPLE, AND
ITS PEOPLE ARE BO'NESS". So wrote a good a good friend of mine some years
ago. I agreed with him then and heartily agree with his sentiment now, for when
it comes to writing about memories of our fair and I have been invited to do
that very thing names, peoples names, will appear like milestones along that
particular pathway of life..
So - where do I start along
that pathway? at the beginning of course always a very good place
to....................
Once upon a time I was a
schoolboy, and as such I was chosen to be a presentee from the Public School. My
partner, a girl called Petra Johnston, was Toothpaste and I was toothbrush.
Memories? My friend Louis Dickson owner of the Hippodrome made a yearly
film of the fair which was shown the following week. No sound track, just
excited shouts of "thats me" from the packed audiences which filled the cinema
twice a night three times on a Saturday! His instructions to all the
presentees !As you leave the stage to return to your school look straight at the
camera". I was only 9, and ever since he had caught me stealing apples from his
garden, I always did what Mr Dickson said! So after bowing to the Queen I
descended the platform clutching my gigantic toothbrush in my left hand ( my
right wrist had been sprained playing cricket at the coup) looking straight at
the camera, tripped on the grass verge, fell, and in doing so sprained my LEFT
WRIST! My claim to fame? Who else has ever walked round Bo'ness in his
pyjamas, carrying a gigantic toothbrush, with two sprained wrists and in the
procession?
As a teenager I was a Rover
Scout, and in 1939 was in charge of the Queen's escort. Memories? It
rained! And Queen Jean Paterson and I sat in her parents home in Deanfield Drive
until the decision was made to hold the crowning ceremony at 12 noon. I can't
remember that happening and other year, and the procession also halted when the
heavens opened, and Jean was returned safely to Kinneil School.
Came the war, and after 5 years
in the RAF, I was demobbed a couple of days before Sadie Potter was crowned
Queen in 1946. I got the first train home from Bedford, and along with hundreds
of returning servicemen and women I stood in the Glebe Park and thanked God that
we were safe, back home in the wee town that we loved. It was probably then I
realised how important the Fair is to every one of us, and it is a day that I
will never forget.
As a young parent, in 1961. I
was invited by Head Teacher Bob Robertson to help organise the Public School's
Safety First float. My son Douglas had been chosen to be the presentee to bow to
Queen Nancy Cuthell from the Grange School. I was given the responsibility to
make sure that the real workers were kept suitably refreshed with lemonade and
tea and all that jazz! My lifelong friend, and Fair enthusiast, George McFarlane
and I put our heads together and converted my front garden into a model village,
complete with a major road Belisha Beacon crossing, buses, cars, houses,
gardens, tennis courts, swimming pools and paraphernalia acquired from ROSPA.
It was floodlit, police were directing traffic until midnight on the then much
narrower Dean Road, and all of us who had helped (including the policeman!) sat
down to a fillet steak breakfast at 4 o'clock in the morning! It was arguably
the very first house frontage, and I have got the Special Prize 10/- note to
prove it!
1968 was the burgh's
tercentenary year, with ex-Provost Charlie Snedden at the helm. Charlie
invited me to produce and direct an Historical Pageant depicting the life of
Bo'ness over three hundred years. It needed a cast of several hundred, and Mrs
Josephine Turnbull was given the onerous task of recruiting the necessary
participants from local organisations. I visualised that the climax of the
entire show would have been a floodlit Fair retinue (the performances would have
taken place in conjunction with the Edinburgh Festival and at night) but sadly
Josephine became terminally ill and the whole idea never happened.
Something happened that year,
however. The Glebe Park stage was revamped and extended into the shape
that it is today, and our old style revels were revitalised into the Royal
Command Performance with which my good friend David Cunningham had some
considerable input.
When Regionalisation took place
in 1973/74, and the Fair was no longer run by our Town Council, I was invited
firstly to produce the Royal command Performance, and then subsequently become
commentator at the Crowning Ceremony. Memories?
Again, where to start. I
remember in 1977 being asked by Andrew Strachan if I would produce and direct
the musical "South Pacific" in aid of Fair funds. We ran the show in the Town
Hall for a week and it was a sell out. The cast was composed of members of
the 1959 show of "SP" and friends of mine from Falkirk, Edinburgh and Bathgate.
We borrowed equipment from the American Marine Base in Edzell and invited the
American Consul General, Theodore B Dobbs with his wife and family. the Dobbs
were so intrigued by the idea of our Fair that they came to see for themselves
in 1978! And were so gob smacked! We had, that year, the Band of Her Majesty's
Royal Marines, and when they struck up the American national anthem in honour of
Mr Dobbs' visit, I had to pinch myself was all this really happening right here
in Bo'ness?
I firmly believe that my job as
commentator is an individualistic one, and to quote old blue eyes himself, I do
it my way. I also subscribe to the philosophy that you cannot please all
of the people all the time, and that mistakes will be made. There isn't a
script, just the names of the characters and their order of entry. So any
mistakes are mine.
Although every Fair day follows
a similar pattern, every Fair is different. The weather plays an important
part. On a sunny day, my task is an easy one. On a dull day, I have
one eye on the entry of children into the park and another anxious one on the
clouds as they roll in from the west, and pray that we can get the crowning
ceremony over without rain. I'll never forget 1990 when heaby rain made it
impossible to carry on, and the entry of the retinue was aborted. Near
pandemonium ensued, as anxious and sometimes unthinkable adults blocked the
foyer of the Town Hall as efforts were being made to safely escort the children
into the hall. I remember literally pulling one very irate mother away
from Chairman David Brown seemingly it was his fault that it had rained!
David has done an immense amount of work for an on behalf of the Fair before and
since, and he rightly holds position of Honorary President.
Despite being indoors, the
crowning ceremony was held in a wonderful atmosphere almost as if everyone
involved were determined to make this day a very special one for Queen Lisa
Welsh. And the beautiful smile never left her face despite all the hassle!
Our Centenary Fair was in 1997,
and I was part of a small committee formed in "95 or 96" to make plans for our
landmark Fair. Either Charlie Snedden, George McFarlane or Andrew McFarlane
(another Fair stalwart) suggested that I could write a song to commemorate the
Centenary. I played around with a few melodies on my piano, and knew that
the lyrics would have to be about the Fair and our town, but what to call it?
Well, in congregation what made them happy. The usual answers like
Christmas, holidays, presents, birthdays were given, then one little boy said, "
The Fair Day, it's just like Christmas, only better, it's the BEST DAY OF THE
YEAR." I asked my wife Nan for a pen, wrote it down, came home, went to
the piano, and wrote the chorus in less than an hour. Arrangements were
made for the formation of a Centenary Choir, I went round the various schools
and taught the ten children from each school the words and music. I asked
my friend Ian Boulter to arrange the music for brass bands, somehow or other
persuaded both Carriden and Kinneil Bands to PLAY THE ACCOMPANIMENT TOGETHER
(the caps are international!) recorded it with the children separately and we
produced the finished version on a CD. It was sung by the choir at the
Coronation of Queen Ashley Oldham and has been played ever since at every Fair.
It's a work that I am proud of for it tells the tale of what our town once was,
and still is, a wonderful place to be.
For something like 27 years I
produced and presented the Royal Command Performance. In that time almost
every TV and Stage star in Scotland came and entertained us Acts from all over
the world have appeared. The Ukrainian Dancers, American Marching Bands, French
Singers and Dancers, bands from Norway, Denmark, Canada an Aerobatic Display
with a musical accompaniment which drowned out my vain attempt to describe what
was happening in the air! Happy Days! And none happier than when we have to
improvise and put the show into the Town Hall because of bad weather. Remember
the Rainmaker? Chris McClure (Christian) was dubbed with that unfortunate
name tag, and a nicer guy you couldn't wish to meet. He was determined to do an
outside show and at his third consecutive visit he succeeded and even performed,
at his insistence, at a very much reduced fee. I was fortunate that I was
able to make many contacts without having to go through the Mr 10%s, due to my
friends in "the business", and as a result many acts came to the Fair at a much
reduced rate.
Remember the Drifters? They
were a perfect example of a headline act coming here for a comparative song or
in their case several wonderful songs! They were undoubtedly the biggest act
ever to grace the Douglas Park stage.
I can't claim full
responsibility for the Presentees performing at the Douglas Park, but it was at
my request and suggestion that they should "strutt their stuff" just one more
time at the Royal Command Performance, and with the necessary cooperation from
the schools they have continued to entertain the thousands of spectators for all
these years. And Don't the kids just love it!
As I go around the schools
teaching the Fair songs, I am courteously received by every school including
tiny Blackness, and it's a pleasure and a privilege, indeed, to have been
allowed to contribute in any small way to the success of Bo'ness Children's Fair
Festival, and would simply like to close by wishing that it should go from
strength to strength in the next 100 years. For wouldn't this town be a
poorer place without it.
Go North go South,
go East or West,
No town has got our measure,
Our Fair stands abune them 'a,
A day that we all treasure.
It is, after all, simply the best!
DOUGLAS SNEDDEN
|
