Saltcoats Swimming Pool
This was the scene of many an hour of enjoyment. The Pool opened on the 15^th of May every year and closed on the 15^th of September, much of my summer holidays was spent there as I could swim from an early age. I can remember at 13 years old in 1958 mum let me head off to the pool on opening day at six in the morning to queue up for the No. 1 season ticket which cost 4/- (four shillings) I got No.7. The following year I was down there at 5 in the morning and still only got No.5 I didn’t go any more after that. The big chute was great and I could swim all the way between the catwalks underwater. The rafts were good fun too, especially if you got twenty of you on them and it would submerge. Lying upstairs in the sun was also good and you could look over onto Willie Bond’s boating pond at all the holidaymakers going round in circles in wee motorboats. Who will forget the wire baskets with a number on them and the wee rubber band with the same matching number you gave in to the kiosk get your clothes back out. The tea room was something out of the old colonial days, I could just picture the Colonel and his lady sitting there sipping afternoon tea. The cost of a normal ticket was 3d Monday to Friday and 4d on Saturday and Sunday. There was also a clubhouse just behind the big chute where the boys who had a season ticket could join for another shilling. This enabled you to go straight in and leave your clothes on a hanger or the bench without having to queue up for a basket. Mr Hamilton was the only bath master I can recall and he had the water temperature displayed on a little wooden model of a thermometer outside his office. The coldest temperature I can remember was 48 Fahrenheit one day and the warmest 64-Fahrenheit. There were also the midnight bathing sessions under floodlights which went from 10.00 p.m. till 12.00 p.m. No season tickets allowed for this, everyone had to pay.

The Glasgow Fair and the Fair 
This was a time when an enterprising young lad could make a coupla bob for himself. It was down to the station with your trace (a trace for those who don’t know was two sets of wheels usually purloined off an old pram, with a small plank of wood in between, the front set had a piece of string which you held onto as you steered with hand and feet while your mate pushed you.) You waited for the first train to come in and as the families came out you approached and said, "Carry your cases mister"? Every time was a winner; there were not enough traces to cover everyone and if you hurried back you would get another who was waiting. The destination might be Windmill Street and you put the cases on the trace and pulled them along to the destination. The most common tip was 2/- or half a crown, sometimes you got 4/- and at worst 1/-. The rich people took a taxi, the only problem was there was only one taxi in Saltcoats at that time and that was owned by Bulldog Drummond (who incidentally had the distinction of having the phone number Ardrossan Saltcoats 1) There were trains running all day on the Saturday and you could quite easily make a couple of quid. This would be spent on lemonade, sweets and many other things a young boy needed. I needed a slug pistol, which cost me 19/11for a Diana model 2 in that bike shop on the corner of Raise Street and Glencairn Street. I also bought a rifle, which was a Diana model 16; I hid them both in some old rags under the back of my dads hut so he couldn’t find them, there was no such thing as plastic bags in those days. Many a window got a rattle from a slug pellet and many an irate tenant never found out who it was as we were so far away.

The town was humming with holidaymakers and so was the fair, this was also a chance to make a few bob. In the amusement arcades the penny slot machines used to play up and people would bang on the side of them. When there were so many people the attendant couldn’t see what was going on everywhere, there was one particular machine if you banged it on the top left side a ball would come out and you got a free go. If you won you turned the handle and got a penny and another free go. There were all sorts of ways we could make a few bob in the arcades.

Who could forget the Waltzer and the Jungle Ride? Blaring out the latest in music and attracting all the teenage girls to go on and scream their heads off. I can remember Elvis singing "All Shook Up" Connie Frances with "Lipstick On Your Collar" and many many more. When we were about 10, John Macdonald and I would walk round the side of the Waltzer where the girls were standing on the walkway above, we would kook up and squirt a water pistol up their skirts on to the back of their legs, that made them scream all the more. One day a lassie ran down after us and caught me and I got a right cuff on the ear, needless to say I gave that one away. There was the Ghost train, the Hobby Horses, the Rockets that turned you upside down. Fortune Tellers, Rifle Ranges and all sorts of side shows from Roll a Penny to stick 3 cards with 3 darts to win. The list goes on.

The Sea Queen
I did play a part in the Sea Queen Pageant. Ruby Soden was elected Queen that year and I was the Town Drummer. Many rehearsals were held upstairs in the hall adjacent to the balcony of the Countess cinema, where the Bingo was played at night. I was to lead the parade with the Ardrossan Pipe Band directly behind me all the way from the Public School along Argyle and Gladstone roads, down Guthrie Brae along Canal Street over the railway bridge then Bradshaw, Dockhead and Hamilton Streets a left turn at the Melbourne Café down to the seafront and along to the Pavilion. The Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald reported that John Bone the town drummer did a wonderful job of leading the parade all the way. I can reveal this was not so, it was pouring with rain that day and the official car I was in along with a few others was waiting at the Public School. As I was about to go the driver told me to wait for a bit and not get too wet, he repeated this several times as I was about to go. They must have got fed up waiting, for the parade went off without me and I travelled in an official car all the way to the Pavilion where it was still raining and the ceremony had to be held inside. Poor James (Pimi) Wight, he was the Queen’s Champion and had to ride all the way on a horse soaked to the skin. A good time was had by all despite the weather, my dad used to tease me I looked better with the false beard on. More