Hi Margaret,margaretmcgettigan wrote:Hi Amelia, I lived on Sandyfaulds Street and none of the closes around us, two closes up from the Pend, had Wally Closes...I remember the closes, during and after the war, having these "rafters" they called them to hold up the close if a bomb fell on the street or nearby...Now that I think of it, a lot of good they would have done..then there were these big felt-like curtains at the front of the close and a baffle wall on the pavement and around the back of the close to keep debris from blowing in on you while you were hunkered down waiting for the "All clear" to sound and your Mammy and Daddy took you up the stairs back to your bed...Some people came down to the close during the air raids and some preferred to stay in bed...After a few times of sitting freezing in the close, my Mammy said, "We are having no more of that...If we die we will die in our own beds." It took a while for the rafters to come down but the closes were a mess after that because no one came back to fix the holes in the wall where the wood beams were attached...That is my memory of closes...
How you keeping good I hope, yes Wally closes , I'm trying to recall when I first saw one [canny remember where] but I thought they looked terrific. When I was winching my girlfriend Rena from Dennistoun in the late 60's her close was a wally close and looked really posh and her Ma had an inside toilet I was amazed because they were tenement buildings When we left the soo-side in 1961 and Ma and Da got a house in the new housing estate in south Nitshill we actually got an inside toilet with a bath !!! and a wee verandah too we thought we were Toffs ha ha. I see some lovely photos of wally closes have been posted and they really look nice Margaret, speak later take care and God Bless.
Regards
Danny
