thegorbals

My first memory is looking across from our close and there was a pub . Idont recall the name but the brewery name I think was Aitkens. The sign above the door was a striped Tiger. Sometimes
when a brewery lorry turned up it would be lunch time and my brother and I would help ourselves to a couple of
empty bottles from the crates. Later on we get I think it was old type Threepenny bit. We did this a few times
till our sister who was eight said that the Polce were at the door and Ihid under the bed .After that we went
Legitimate and just went to the back courts and the empties out of the “Middens” This was up to appoint quite lucrative until my older brother Billy and his friend John Pettigrew found our secret hiding place for our empties
Where we try and hide about 5 or 6 of them and that would be about one and sixpence in old money.

yep remember this well enough, ginger bottles and even bleach bottles as well......when you think about it everything was recycled in those days.....when you got sent to the shops you took a message bag and a net bag for the vegetables.........those bottle bought me all my sweets and paid for me to go to the pictures on a saturday afternoon and crossmyloof to the ice skating

I seem to remember that you could get in to the "Pictures" by paying with empty Jam jars!
P.S. It may have been my mother who told me about that!!
P.P.S. ...and it was a "jeely jaur" then!

Accobra, the beer bottles were one source of pocket money, likewise selling sticks and running messages, John Pettigrew you mention was he from Bedford St ? I was pally with a John Pettigrew in the 1950's Frank. Oz

Yes Frank big John I think lived at 100 Bedford St in the 1950 s and my older brother Billy went around together.
We went to Abbotsford Place school and my parents actually bought there tenement and I believe they paid
around 200 pounds for it. We moved to to Knightswood mid 1950 s and big John visited my brother twice that I remember. The first time he cycled from the Gorbals to us age around 14 .
The second time was New Years eve and John turned with another pal and I think he was late teens early 20 s.
I don’t it was his brother James so could that pal have been you? ,
When we moved to Knightswood we were more civilized and we would knock on the doors and ask for the Empties lemonade or beer ones ,we would also find and sell golf balls from the local 9 hole course.
Part time job selling fruit and veg. I also delivered 6 mornings a week 25 dozen rolls Johnson Rools of Partick
All for the princely some of 25 shillings a week. I tried to avoid the jam jars as you could only carry so much and bottles were more lucrative. Are you still in touch with Big John?

Best Regards
Reg

Can you explain what the significance is in quoting a whole message and not adding anything to that message or replying to it. Just interested to know.

You must remember that The Gorbals were what they were slum dwellings but that did not prevent tenants
From taking a pride in their up keep and maintenance. So much so that the first neighbour that I remember
Speaking to my mother was a Mrs Mc Quade and the first thing she told her was that they cleaned the stairs every Friday and was my mother's turn the following week to clean the stairs. So there was some sort of social order and certainly pride in
Keeping the “Close “ spick and span. There were 8 of us sharing that room and kitchen in the mid 50 s
And as a six year old I remember walking to Abbottsford Place school. Some mornings it used to blow a gale and I remember seeing elderly people getting blown against the tenements the wind was so strong.
My primary teacher at the time was a Miss Minnie Wilson .and I can remember having a “tantrum” and her carrying
Me down the stairs and me trying to pull at her “Bun “ type hair do. Whether it was the overcrowding at home or
The blazing rows you would sometimes hear from your parents maybe to do with the over crowding I could not say
So when our family moved to the west side of Glasgow it was so spacious and a big garden. Sadly within a year of
Moving I was to read about the murder< strangulation> of my teacher at Abbottsford Place Miss Wilson.
The murderer was eventually caught and Peter Manuel was prosecuted for I believe 7/8 murders and was the last
Convicted criminal to be hung in Scotland in the 50 s. Possibly Scotland's first serial killer.
But overall the people living in our close and in general were the salt of the earth and would always help out where they could.

tweedlie5 wrote:yep remember this well enough, ginger bottles and even bleach bottles as well......when you think about it everything was recycled in those days.....when you got sent to the shops you took a message bag and a net bag for the vegetables.........those bottle bought me all my sweets and paid for me to go to the pictures on a saturday afternoon and crossmyloof to the ice skating

Hello , Tweedie5 and Jimbo,


Many thanks for replying to my post and while my rich vein of empties was very intermittent I did run
the odd message for a neighbour or two for and old penny and that would buy a "penny dainty",which was in effect a wee toffee.Earnings at that time never quite got us to the Ice Rink at Crossmyloof
but as a 6 year old with older brother we did "skip in" to a cinema called I think The Cinerama,
in Bedford streeet. We got ejected within 5 minutes , by the female usherette who shone her torch
on our guilty faces and when she asked to see our tickets we were rumbled. However what made
our guilt more apparent was the fact that it was an X- rated Film. !!!


Not sure if cinema was the Greens playhouse or Cinerama '

Can anyone out there Confirm?

Regards Reg

There was a cinema on the corner of Eglinton St and Bedford St, it was called the Bedford. The cinerama was the Coliseum on Eglinton St.