Growing Up

[Mary G]

first time getting drunk at 13 or 14 ... with some southend boys,

Some things never change then ...

[Bobh]

Fantastic stories from Kintyre. Thank you. It really is interesting to hear other peoples childhood memories from an area that differs very much from my own.

[numberplease]

I was born in 1943, in a hospital near Sheffield. I was my mother`s first child, she was a war widow, my father having been killed in action 6 months before I was born. We lived with my Grandma Eden and Auntie Hilda in my Grandma`s house at Hoyland, a few miles from Barnsley, in S.Yorkshire. I don`t remember much about that time, as my mother remarried when I was 3, and we moved to my step-father`s house at Elsecar, a coal mining village, he was a miner. We lived in a council house, and I suppose that life was fairly comfortable, although we weren`t well off. I can remember seeing the men coming home from their shifts down the pit, still with black faces, carrying their snap tins. Out on the street we kids played the games that were in season at the time, there was a skipping season, a whip and top season, a marbles season, etc. When it was whip and top season we`d get a new whip with a leather thong, but always changed the leather for string as it worked much better, then we had to have chalks to draw a pattern on the top, so that it would look good when it was spinning. Another favourite plaything was a bicycle tyre and a stick to bat it with, and make it run down the street. My step-sister hated me, and one morning she offered to get me breakfast in bed. I asked for bread and syrup, instead I got bread spread with some horrible malt syrup stuff that my mother used to dose us up with! I wasn`t allowed chewing gum, so consequently really longed for it, and can recall scraping it off the footpath to chew, never even thinking of germs and disease At school, you were really somebody if you had your own bottle of ink, rather than having to use what was in the desk inkwell clogged up with blotting paper, so we all saved our pennies like mad to buy a bottle of Quink, either Royal Blue or blue/black were the most popular colours. Even if we had the money, which was rarely, we weren`t able to buy many sweets because they were rationed. The only things not rationed were lollipops and halfpenny spanishes (thin sticks of hard liquorice) We used to go into the shop and ask "how much are your ha`penny spanishes?" It annoyed them no end! Aged 11, I passed the 11 plus and went to Ecclesfield Grammar School near Sheffield for a couple of years, before running away to my paternal Grandma in Lancashire, and continuing my life there, attending the Rochdale High School for Girls till I was 16, then leaving to become a GPO telephone operator, hence my user name.
I hope this hasn`t sounded too boring after all the really interesting tales already posted.

[westport321]

dont think this subject is boring at all, ( thanks Ionns) It puts a certain face of humanity on the names of the forum members and brings up more memories of growing up. Now I have a question number please.... how did you get hooked up with the kintyre forum????

[ionnsaigh]

Picking bluebells behind the quarry green
About sums it up for me - so different, yet so completely innocent, it took me back to a page in one of Enid Blytons Secret Seven books. Your Bluebells, my rats in the back court - both accepted unconditionally as being the norm for everyone.
Bearing in mind the Secret Seven, here's a wee story - that is true, cross my heart hope to die.

One hot summers day me and two of my pals - Terry Kelly, there was thirteen of them, in a room and kitchen up the next close
and a guy called Campbell ( he had thrown my cat out of the top floor window the week before ) so we wurnie really pals. Anyway I really liked Terry, he could dae a joaby without taken his trousers off - he would just shake a leg and it wid come oot, a great wee guy. We decided to go and look for luckies, as there was a big tenement ( Five Stories) empty in Parliamentary Road ( Parly Road ) Empty buildings where great for exploring, we even found one with gas mantles above the fireplace - and hundreds of empty wine bottles laid out neatly in rows. We would search every nook and cranny, this was a wee bit scary, however our inquisitiveness and desire for looty, would win the day. We caught a hudgie down Martyr St, off the back of a British Railways scammal ran across the busy road. Dodging buses trucks cars, and the odd horse and carts of the coal men and rag men. Past the chip shop that ma Da would sometimes send me for a special fish supper, I would nibble away at the batter - he would be drunk and wouldn't notice, he drank once a week on the Friday night.
Anyway to cut a long story short we found ourselves in this house at the top of the building, I went and looked into the coal bunker, we all had bunkers in the lobby, and sometimes pieces of coal had been left behind. The bunker was dark so I struck a match to see if I was in luck - alas only dross. However to my surprise, I noticed a piece of cord in the corner, behind the gas pipe, I gave it a pull and a rope ladder came tumbling down from above, revealing a trap door. After a short argument as to who would go first, my pals picked me, the youngest to venture into the unknown. As I pushed the door upwards I was met by a shower of dust soot and spiders, before entering a new world. The light up there blinded my eyes temporary, a few pigeons took fright and flew, leaving some wee white feathers floating in the dusty air. The place looked huge with four walls and some furniture ( a desk and chair) and some charts and maps on the walls. We found a radio transmitter receiver type thing, with a Morse code button. On the table we found a book however it was in a foreign language that we could not understand - the book was stamped with a funny wee design - that you would see on the side of Gerry planes. We hurried and left - never until this day revealed - what we stumbled upon that hot summers day in Glasgow.
The cat survived.

[EMDEE]

That story's that bizarre i'm inclined to believe it!

Incidentally, what a skill wee Terry had! Does he still do it? Good party trick!

Do those of us who recall the exploits that we used to get involved with in our youth agree with the common complaint that youngsters today don't have as active a lifestyle as they used to have? Obviously the computer games consoles and internet get the blame. I was never a great one for football, which was and is probably the most popular sports activity, but I was mad keen on the bike, and used to cover great distances in Kintyre during the school holidays (when I wasn't sprachlin' aboot doon the skeegs catching cuddies and crabs) We didn't ever use a bus to get to Machrihanish or Southend. The bikes were the thing. The weather didn't matter either for the bikes.

From my experience with my own three sons, now 24, 21 and 18, (it's his 18th birthday this very day 7/3/1991 ), their lifestyles seemed to change when they began to get into computer games, and it's really inevitable that this is going to happen, because everyone has them.

Is the computer generation losing out on activities that they will never be able to do when they are older?

Regarding Parliamentary Road. Does this place still exist? I've tried to find it on Google Maps, with no success. I remember it as the location of MacBrayne's bus depot when that company used to do the Glasgow-Campbeltown run before it was taken over by Western SMT in the 1970s? I remember having to sit for about an hour in the waiting room one Sunday morning in November 1969 with my mother to get the bus to Campbeltown, and I thought it was the most dismal depressing freezing place I had ever encountered. Their buses weren't much better!

[ionnsaigh]

EMDEE, Aye the story is true enough word for word. One difference between Kintyre and Townhead that I can determine, is that all the friends we in Townhead made - disappeared off the radar - when they decided to wipe out this thriving community. The Glasgow Corporation achieved more damage than Hitlers Third Reich .
My first big bike, was a collection of bits and pieces - wrapped lovingly around an old frame. We would cycle under the new Clyde Tunnel ( very fast on the way down ) or cycle up to the Campsie Fells ( I fell off the highest point once, carried off the hill unconscious, although that's a different story) Aye the bikes where great .
I would say that today's youngsters miss out on outdoor activities - on the positive side however - think how good they will become with computers

[ionnsaigh]

Aye the bus station was a bit dour - although it had to it's credit - a milk machine over in the corner.

[EMDEE]

On the subject of Townhead, in my first year at college in Glasgow (1974/75) we had to go to what was known as the "Townhead Annexe" for certain lectures. This was a former school in MacLeod Street opposite the Royal Infirmary and Cathedral. The building was a compact square shape, with a maze of stairs in the centre of the hall leading to the different floors. It was like a Krypton Factor puzzle to work out what stair to take to get to your room. I was in this locality last year and could not find the place. Has it been demolished as well? (I can't find it on Google Earth either)

[Pans Lass]

I asked for bread and syrup, instead I got bread spread with some horrible malt syrup stuff that my mother used to dose us up with! I wasn`t allowed chewing gum, so consequently really longed for it, and can recall scraping it off the footpath to chew, never even thinking of germs and disease
. The only things not rationed were lollipops and halfpenny spanishes (thin sticks of hard liquorice) We used to go into the shop and ask "how much are your ha`penny spanishes?" It annoyed them no end!
I hope this hasn`t sounded too boring after all the really interesting tales already posted.

Great stories everyone ....seem to have few things in common with you numberplease although i think you are a good bit older than me My mum used to dose us up with a daily spoonful of pure cod liver oil ....remember holding my nose and trying to swollow the stuff without boaking ..and have to admit to the chewing gum too....used to peal it of the pavements and try pick all the wee stones out ...yuk ! Remember when the school bell rang when i attended Drumlemble school which was in the village at the time ...we all made a mad race to the village shop ..a wee garden shed ..and asking Jessie the owner how much her penny caramels were .... and I wasna joking .


ionns ....brilliant story and I believe you Read Enid Blytons Secret Seven books too...loved the adventures they went on .

[Govangirl]

I so agree with you EMDEE that they miss out on these activities although Ionns is right in that they will become better equipped for a technological world. It's just that I think they miss out so much more on the social side of it - when I was wee, I had a lot of really good pals (most of whom I still keep in touch with despite being scattered over the four points of the world) but kids nowadays have dozens of 'friends' - on Facebook!! I would have loved to have chased my young kids out all day to go and explore but you can't now. Luckily, Mr Govangirl loves going off the whole day on his bike so the kids haven't lost out there (he once told me I had a surprise Christmas present and on the big day I was so excited about my new Jimmy Choos/designer handbag/piece of bling and my mouth fell to the floor when he proudly presented me with a bluddy BIKE! It lay rusting for years!). That's why I loved taking my kids to Islay every year - we could let them go off for hours and not worry - it was the only time I could be on a beach with them and not watch them constantly. Once, my very cool, grown-up son of 15 spent 2 hours rolling down a hill and another half day searching for sheep bones. My kids are very lucky - they've had exotic holidays in Europe, the States, Australia, the East, etc. but when I ask them about their childhood memories it is mainly about Scotland.

Thinking about that, I recall once in Islay my mother hearing that coconut oil was a good suntan lotion (these were the days when you had factors of 2 and 3!Many a time I was in Bowmore Hospital with sunstroke!)) but she couldn't find any. She did find some coconut oil shampoo though ( ) and slapped it all over us before we all ran off to find adventure in the sun. Being typical Scottish weather, it wasn't long before it rained and the sight of four wee weans running over the hills covered with bubbles and foam must have been quite a sight for the confused locals!!!!

[ionnsaigh]

I think you mean what we called - the nurses school or college in Macleod St. A large square type wood and glass building. We had swimming lessons on a Friday Morning at the baths - we would all be looking for the pretty nurses as we went by.
Talking of blueboyno1's school the Martyr - this was opposite St Mungo's chapel ,and a religious retreat - adjoining the quadrangle that was St Mungo's Academy. The close next to the Mungo led to my back. We as weans became acquainted with the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, up close and personal like. In other words the school was a great place to play.
One of the entrances was surrounded by two walls with balustrade decorating the tops - a balcony outside the stained glass window made a great castle and fort - my how I loved Macintosh

[numberplease]

[quote="westport321"]dont think this subject is boring at all, ( thanks Ionns) It puts a certain face of humanity on the names of the forum members and brings up more memories of growing up. Now I have a question number please.... how did you get hooked up with the kintyre forum????[/quote]


That`s an easy one to answer Westport321, we came up to your lovely part of the world on holiday in 2006, and fell in love with it, then I found this forum whilst searching for some information after we arrived back home. So, providing outsiders are still welcome, I`ll carry on reading and making the occasional contribution to the forum, although I`m not qualified to write in detail about the area, even after 2 visits.

[westport321]

It is a great place numberplease, glad you enjoy it!

[blueboyno1]

Ionnsaige - a couple of things in your stories remind me of one of my own adventures while a boy in the Toonheed .There used to be a small factory which was owned by Askeys ,the people who made all the ice cream cones and wafers ,i think it was up near the Parly road .It had a flat roof with a stone parapet around it and we used to climb up the pull down metal fire escape ladder and play on it .We would kid on this was our fort and defend it against attack with our wooden guns .This summers night we were playing on it when one of the boys discovered that one of the big skylights was unlocked and one of the braver ones dreeped down to the floor below ,located a ladder put it up to the skylight and the rest of us climbed down .Well talk about weans in a sweetie shoap .There was big vats of chocolate ,big vats of cream ,boxes and boxes of wee cream cups covered in chocolate ,cream filled cones ,the cream filled wafers you get with double nougats .Needless to say we all got stuck right in ,so much that we all forgot the time and as it was getting so late our parents had got worried and informed the police .The whole of Toonheed was searching for us and when one old lady reported she had seen us on top of the roof the police found us and marched us back home to our frantic parents .Most of us were off school for days ,not just with the skelpet erse we got from our faithers ,but because we had stuffed ourselve that much we all had sore stomaches for ages after .It was worth it though and to this day every time i buy a double nougat and taste the cream it brings back the memory of that night.