thegorbals

I feel sure everyone has vivid memories of characters in the workplace in the 50s and 60s and the one that I remember most was one from Hospital Street, Robert "Bobby" Snell. In 1964 I was a second year apprentice at James Howden, 195 Scotland Street and gunner Bobby Snell was a boiler maker journeyman who I worked alongside for a short period of time in the metal fabrication shop. Howdens also had a pressed steel office furniture manufacturing plant in MacLelland Street. Bobby was a real character of the time and he was a gunner in the Royal Navy during the war. He had very strong views and was very outspoken. He stood 5ft 4ins tall in his navy blue boiler suit and his black tuf boots and when he wanted to make a particular point he would push both arms behind him just like Super Man taking off and now and again he would point a finger at a bank of offices across from the shop floor where we worked, and where he also got his work sheets and put in his time keeping cards. He would always comment about the fact that he should be paid a few pennies per hour more than the rest of the people in the factory. After tea break he would often disappear somewhere with his Daily Record to pick the winners from the race meeting of the day. In those days there would be a resident bookies runner and come the Friday Bobby would either be anticipating his accumulative winnings for the week or, alternatively, it would be his last chance to clear his losses. He gave us many tales of his drinking sessions over the previous weekend and in particular the number of people that would be in his company and think nothing of buying a round of drinks for 8 or 9 people at a time. This would terrify me at the time as my weekly earnings of £3.5s.7p. would be just enough for one of Bobby's famous rounds of drinks. Bobby had a saying that he used quite often and it was "do you arra-sipple a tangerine" which meant in Glaswegian "do you know what I mean". He also smoked Capstan plain cigarettes but most of the cigarettes he smoked would burn away either in his mouth or he would lay them on top of an old oil drum nearby while we were working on the shop floor. I can still picture him today and all his quirky mannerisms. Does anybody also have characters from the workplace in the 50s and 60s that they remember?

Hi Reg,
Yes your right we all have memories of people that we worked with in our lifetime, one of my memories is of John Donlon snr who taught me my trade as an apprentice bricklayer[think John was from Hospital st or Thistle st]. I was 15 years of old when I met John who then was a 60 year old bricklayer and a fine tradesman, he took me under his wing and taught me all the tricks of the trade, one event sticks in my min, we Had built a wall up to scaffold height [5 feet ] and our labourer's erected a scaffold for us to work on and finish building the wall. Now this scaffold was only 4 feet high and me being young and super fit would just leap up on to it without thinking [ah it's great to be young], well John said to me go and get me a wee ladder Danny son will you and I must have looked at John with my mouth open for I saw him smiling as he said don't worry Danny you will be asking for a ladder when your my age!!. John was perfectly right because as the years marched on and I became a 60 year old bricklayer I also was asking for a ladder !!!
Regards.
Danny

Thanks Danny , for your comments and staying on theme their was a couple of characters when I
used to do a summer holiday job during school holidays.I used to help deliver fruit and veg. door to
door and the produce was delivered in an old 1950,s ambulance. Their was load of cheerie characters
that you met on the way round, but the characters I remember at this time were the ones at storage
area where the vehicle was stored overnight. There was an old lock up stable where cases of apples and bananas and sacks of spuds were kept. The house was an old Georgian house which was virtually falling down. There was no Electric power but there was a gas mantle and a beautiful rickety staircase.
The stable originally kept horses for the owner Mr. Arthur Polk who ran a successful house removal
business. He did not move forward with the introduction of Motor transport.
Mr. Polk used to come out early morning especially on a Friday to collect the rent and my memory of
the characters here was firstly Mr. Polk would always be wearing a black waist coat a collarless shirt
and hob nailed boots and usually on a Saturday morning he would come out to have wee chat with
my boss and we knew by the large bump on his forehead that he had had a good drink the night before and when this happened he would usually fall down the stairs in the dark.
He ould be about 70 at the time and he had a son in law called Melville and he would come out to the yard with the Glasgow Herald under his arm but I never ever saw him read one.!
Arthur had a brother who was a Japanese prisoner of war. Melville would always wear a brown leather flying jacket and most of his upper teeth were missing.Yet in spite of this he could talk the hind legs of a donkey.!! Now there was also a daughter called Hilda who was in a time warp and she would always come to buy a few things of the van dressed in a pencil line skirt and furry boots
summer and winter. and her hair was always in rats tails and I dont think she had ever combed it.
Arthur had two guard dogs "Old Ted " and his son Towser and they were pretty formidable dogs.
There was always a Volkswagen Beetle parked under a canopy and the picture on the wall of a previous historical time namely "Kartoum" where Lord Kitchener arrives to late to save
General Gordon and his beleagured troops. This place was a little "World of Its Own" and it
ended up being sold and it became a Jehovah,s Witness church/building.


Best regards Reg