Nan Martin From Fallin Nr Stirling.

A Memory of Fallin.

My name is Nan Martin, I was born in the Blocks at Fallin in 1943 and lived there until I was about six or seven years old before moving to King Street. The Blocks is a place that is locked in my memory and can never be revisited as it doesn't exist anymore.
Of all the places I have lived in throughout my lifetime, the Blocks hold my strongest memory. It was like a childs adventure playground, with it's coal bing where we collected buckets of coal until dad got his ton delivered from the pit. The drossy bing that we used to slide down on shovels. The jumping over the Co op wall and pinching the jam jars that were kept at the back along with the empty ginger bottles, which we used to take back into the shop and get money on them. The gummy pond where we collected frogspawn in jam jars, and watched it change into tadpoles. The tip where folks would sneak out at night and dump things like an old mattress, pots and pans broken furniture, all sorts that they no longer needed. It was treasure to us kids, because we made use of them for playing houses.
I also remember Fallin School with Captain Gracie, and the strict lines each class had to make in the playground when the bell rang. I'm sure he thought he was still in the army the way he'd make each class stand in single file like soldiers, then he'd march up and down the lines examining your hands and face to make sure they were clean. We had to salute him as we passed on our march into school to our classroom. If you were late and sent to his room you had to stand in the corridor with all the other late comers and wait for him to come out of his room. There was no good thinking of an excuse because you never had a chance to tell him. He would come out armed with his two tonged leather belt and just go down the row and belt each and every one without a word spoken. If then I had to choose the man I hated most, it would truly be him. But now I think there's a lot of schools out there that could do with someone like Captain Gracie.
If anyone out there has a class photo with me in it at Fallin School I would be grateful for a copy. I absolutely hated that school and was glad when I moved to Riverside School in Stirling.
I had a pal by the name of Betty Simpson who I would love to get in touch with. We were known as the siamese twins as we were always together and had many adventures. So if you are out there Betty please get in touch.
I left school at fifteen, and twelve months later moved to England with my family when my dad got moved with his work.
I've lived here in England for over fifty years, married an English man, got three children nine grandchildren and one great grandchild, although I am happy my roots and heart will always remain in Scotland.

---

---