A walk down Memory
Lane........ General
memories
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doesn't
time fly?.
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I am constantly adding memories to this page and placing them in
no specific order, so keep yer eyes peeled! Most of the entries are from my own childhood but I'd like to thank all the
people who have contributed to the memories and indeed to the website.
Any more?
Send me an e-mail.
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remember......
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Glesca
memories!.
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We met and married a long time ago,
we worked for long hours when wages were low
Nae TV nae wireless, nae bath, times were hard. Just a cold water tap and a walk
doon the park.
Nae holidays abroad, nae carpets oan the floors, we had coal burning fires and
we didnae lock doors
Oor children arrived....nae pill in those days, and we were brought up without
any state aids.
They were safe tae go oot and play in the park, and old folk could go fur a walk
in the dark
Nae valium, nae drugs and nae LSD, we cured awe oor ills wi' a good cup o' tea
Nae vandals nae muggings there wis nuthing tae rob, we felt we were rich wi' a
couple o' bob
People wur happier in those bygone days, mer caring and kinder in so many ways.
Milkman and papery boy would whistle an' sing, and a night at the pictures was
like a mad fling
we all got oor share o' trouble an' strife, we just had tae face it as a lantern
of life
And noo am alone, I look back through the years, but ah don't think of bad
times, the troubles and tears
I remember the blessing, oor home and oor love, that we shared them the
gither..I thank God above!
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Looking back........how did some of us "auld yins" survive? from
the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's & 70's?
As children we would ride in cars with no seatbelts or airbags.
Our cots were covered in brightly coloured lead based paint.
We had no child-proof lids on medicine bottles. We rode our bikes
we had no helmets.
We would spend hours building go-karts out of scrap and then ride them down
hills
only to find out we forgot the brakes..
No-one was able to reach us there was no mobile phones.
We suffered cuts, and broken bones and teeth, but there were no suing. they were
accidents.
No-one was to blame, but us. Remember accidents??
We had fights, punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over
it.
We ate cakes, bread and butter, and drank ginger, but we were never overweight.
because we were always outside playing. |
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We shared a drink with friends from one bottle and no-one died from this.
We did not have Playstations or X-boxes, 65 channels on pay TV, video films.
DVD`s, mobiles computers, Internet chatrooms-we had friends. We went outside and
found them.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend`s home and rung the doorbell, or just walked
in and talked to them. imagine such a thing, without asking your Ma or da!! By ourselves..Out there in the cold cruel world.
How did we do it??
Footie and netball had trials and not everyone made the team.
Those who didn`t
had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Our actions were our own. No-one to hide behind
The idea of your Ma or Da bailng you out if you broke a law was unheard of,
they
actually sided with the law-imagine that!!
This generation produced some of the best risk takers, problem solvers and
inventors ever.
The past 50years has been an explosion of innovation.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility and we learned how to deal
with it all. Congratulations!! |
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remember......
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Knowing all your neighbours and all the people in the local shops |
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House parties where yer aunties, uncles and everybody sang their songs |
Outside toilets
wi' newspaper torn into
squares for toilet paper
the lavvy
the
cludgie |
Lots of blankets on your bed
Houses without telephones
Yer mammy washing the stairs/close
Linoleum.....and waxcloth
Your first fitted carpet
Fireside rugs
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Yer Mammy going tae the steamie wi' the clothes in a pram |
Getting sent tae the steamie for a bath, rows of cubicles with individual
steamin' hot baths
Big brushes for yer back ( ...ah used it as a
boat! ) and carbolic soap in either green or luxury pink! |
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Remember
when a stranger or passing friend gave you some coppers and before you could
open your mouth your Ma would cry “ Whit dae ye’say?”
.....................…thanks!!! |
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When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like
going somewhere |
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The smell of Ham Haughs from Healeys on a Saturday morning |
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A trip tae "the Richie" tae feed the swans in Richmond Park |
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Fishing
for baggy minnies in the Richmond park, small net and jamjar |
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A visit to the "Sonnie pon" at Glasgow green next to the Gymnastic
rings and parallel bars |
Going tae "the shows" at Glasgow green in July, remember the noise and
the smells!!
the dodgems, the ghost train, the big wheel, the waltzers, rib
tickler, steam boats, dive bombers, Caterpiller..... |
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A real coal fire |
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All huddling 'round a big roaring coal fire wi the lights out listening
tae the radio or watching telly. |
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The
wee man selling briquettes from his barrow and shouting
“coa...aal briqueeeettes |
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Coal bunkers.....soot!
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Coalmen delivering your coal |
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The smoke belching oot the lums and Foggy "pea-soup" nights |
Blinds made of brown paper, which were held to the wooden pole using
press-in tacks,
fancy blinds had a tassle! |
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The spray baths in the school playground and the smell o' carbolic soap |
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The school dentist coming tae fix wur teeth |
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Marching into class 4-abreast, a teacher playing a marching tune
on the piano at the top of the stairs. |
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Getting the belt at school.....both hands held out crossed over, then the
teacher let fly! Ooooya! |
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A stone hot water bottle in your bed on a winters night |
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Smoking cinnamon sticks and playing wi' fire lighters |
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Going the messages wi' yer mammy, standing in queues in every shop. |
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Scrambles at weddings....
all the weans would wait
outside the church, for the
bride to throw pennies out
the car window
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Christening pieces....remember getting the christening piece, money between two
digestive biscuits.
if the baby was a girl it was given to the first man
the parents met, and vice-versa. |
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Boys Brigade companies and Boy Scout troops were everywhere |
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BB bugle bands and church parades |
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Girls Brigade, Girls Guides and the Brownies, remember 'Brown Owl' |
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see Sunday School choruses.....'running over', 'deep and wide' ( remember the
hand actions!) |
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Sunday school trips...all singing on the bus and races at the beach. |
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Salvation Army playing round the back and at street corners. |
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Band of Hope |
.. when a funeral cortege passed by you said:-
Touch my collar to be a scholar Never to be a patient
Touch my nose, touch my toes Never to be in one of those. |
Student's rag day! I used to love going into the town on the rag
day....all the students were dressed up
and carrying oan all over the place, raising
money for charity. Shame it was stopped. |
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Blue 'Polis' boxes with the wee flap which housed a telephone |
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"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest. |
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Walking everywhere or getting the tram or bus.........no cars |
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ABC minors at the picture hall, luminous ABC
badge! see song |
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Going away for the day tae Ayr, Saltcoats, Largs, Millport & Rothesay |
Standing in the chip shop queue every Friday getting the family treat.
Fish suppers, Pie 'n chips, Black Pudding, Hamburger, Big Pickles |
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Building of gang huts & doocots which was
a good starting
point for DIY, straightening
rusty nails and constructing a wooden frame
covered
with old carpets and "waxcloth"
from the derelict tenements.
This was also an age of sexual enlightenment
for us so the privacy of the hut
with a lit candle
allowed the opportunity to have a kiss and cuddle! |
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Trams and buses had conductors who took your fares, helped you on, and rang the
bell |
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Steam trains puffing along and belting oot smoke |
Brown ambulances |
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Tramcars and busses |
Horse and carts....horses dung in a nice neat row |
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Rag & Bone man..wi' his bugle
......"Toys for rags!"
see poem The RagMan
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Learning to do joined up writing with horrible scratchy pens. Gold star on your
jotter for good writing, |
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Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a 'sling' (catapult). |
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How it was magic when your Da would 'remove' his thumb |
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When being sent to the 'headies' office was nothing compared to the fate that
awaited you at home. |
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Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin. |
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Gas street lights
and gas lights in
the close
and the wee
gaslighter
with his ladder
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Being scared when the lights
were oot in the close
Ghost
stories roon the back,
Skeletons in the stair head toilet and you
were feart to
go up the stair.
When you wanted in the house in a hurry
you called “OooPEN..P..EN”
as you ran up the stairs.
The old man singing round the back for money |
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Dressing up for Halloween and chapping all your neighbours doors.
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Neighbours
who “hung out the windae” watching nae cheating in the game of rounders
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Bookies being raided and punters quite
happy to be arrested in illegal premises as the bookie paid their fine and
bunged them a few pounds each for inconvenience
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Big bonfires round the back every Guy Fawkes |
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Skint knees iodine zinc ointment and a
bandage OUCH
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Haircuts...were a crew cut or square back 'n sides......remember the
'bowl' haircut, whit a belter! |
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Pavillion & Kings Theatre shows..Lex McLean, Francie & Josie,
Jimmy Logan....brilliant! |
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The one o'clock gang...Larry Marshall, Dorothy Paul & Charlie Sim wi' his
banana |
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'Sticky Willies' seeds of the Katkin Willow plant called the 'burr' which we would throw
at each other to stick on our
jumpers....... there were loads of these plants on the railway
embankment at Baltic Street |
Holding
a buttercup under a friends chin and ask them if they liked
butter,
If it glowed on their chin then they
did......yeh we all liked butter |
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Dandelions
to tell the time, counting the puffs until the seeds were clean away, whatever
number you reached was the 'time'.......one o'clock...two o'clock etc |
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Searching
among the privets (and there wasn't many of those around) looking out for caterpillars
to put in a matchbox
**green hairy caterpillars |
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Spending
hours learning the technique of how to put a blade of grass between your
thumbs and blowing to make a loud whistling sound.
** I was a dab hand at this. |
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Jaggy
nettles and a docken leaf to ease the sting
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The
Wee Daisy park making daisy chains |
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Yer mammy's divi at the co-op
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Putting a shilling in the gas meter
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Beating your carpets roon the back
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Brass pull door bells
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Twisting to Chubby Checker with yer auntie.
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Old record players and plastic 78's & 45's
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The provi cheque
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Getting your first telly...black & white
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When gay meant you were happy
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Kissing yer girlfriend at the back of the close
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Lucky middens! Oh we had great fun
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Yer mammy knitting. remember balaclavas & woolen mitts.....some of the mitts
were joined together by a long piece of string which would go up your sleeve, round your back and down
your other sleeve. See the weans in the photograph wearing their balaclavas
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Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.
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We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back
when the street lights came on.
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We made up games with sticks and ate worms and although we were told it would
happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us for
ever..
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There was only 3 types of trainers - boys, girls and Dunlop and you only wore
them at school PE !
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Itchy woolen vests
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Parish clothes
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Yer mammy knitting. remember balaclavas & woolen mitts.....some of the mitts
were joined together by a long piece of string which would go up your sleeve, round your back and down
your other sleeve. |
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Wifies carrying there babies in Tartan Shawls
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Woman in turbans!
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Woman
in rolled down stockings and 'corned beef legs' from sitting to near the
coal fire |
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Factory
lassies wae headscarfs with rollers underneath' |
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For boys yer first pair o' troosers
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Hipster trousers and flares
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For girls yer first 'over shoulder boulder
holder'
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Remember getting yer first 'made-to-measure' suit. |
Shirts with tab collars |
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Italian suits with cloth buttons and channel seams |
3-peaked hankie on cardboard for your suit top pocket! |
Snakebelts (snakies)
different colours with the silver
hook
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Army belts (webbies)
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Newspapers Saturday Pink Times &
Green Citizen. ( Pink times nowadays would be a
gay newspaper!)
Sports newspapers, the times was a normal tabloid
size the citizen was the big size
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The Scout racing tipster
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The Noon Record
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The Sunday Post with the Broons & Oor Wullie..........
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Merry Macs fun parade & the Francis Gaye column
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Brasso & Duraglit.....great for BB belts!
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Cherry Blossom shoe polish
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Carbolic, Lux & Camay soaps
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Adverts from the past
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Glesga Pals ADVERTS
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1001 cleans a big big carpet for less than half-a-crown
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Opel fruits..made to make your mouth water
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A mars a day helps you work rest and play
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If I knew you were coming I'd a baked a cake
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Murrymints, murrymints to good to hurry mints
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Can you tell Stork from butter?
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The Brylcream bounce
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Omo adds bright bright brightness
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Camey-Imported
from Paris at nine guinea's an ounce
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Only
one tea in Scotland....Coopers Tea
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You'll
wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsident
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Dont
forget the fruitgums mum
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I'm
the mother in Mothers Pride (says Molly Weir)
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John
Collier John Collier the window to watch
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Hot
chocolate.. drinking chocolate
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THE
PINK PARAFFIN MAN
"I've
got a cold house....Why don't you heat it?
My
heater's empty..I think...Why don't you fill it?
I'm
out of paraffin...Here's the answer ring for pink.
Can
I afford it?
Most
economical, only a penny per hour,.
Now
can you tell me who will deliver it?
Ring
this number, right now.
Ring
CITY 2828 for your PINK PARAFFIN MAN
LA
LA LA LA LA RING FOR PINK!
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Boom,boom boom, boom...Esso blue
Tick
a tick a Timex..tra la la
Lifeboy,
only your best friends will tell you
The
Esso sign means happy motoring
Ahhhhhh
Bisto
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.Any more?
Send me an e-mail
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