To Name a Few Activities in Otago Street in the fifties: Peter Mcnaughton born 1944
GAMES: - Cowboys and Indians, Release, Hide and Seek, Football, Marbles, Fr3nch cricket and Peever and Skipping Ropes for the girls – these were all common place. In the summer months the girls like to dress up as nurses in the back green.
CUBS AND SCOUTS: Many were in the 84th Glasgow cubs and scouts. The cubs were on a Friday night at the original Hillhead school and the Scouts in the Presbyterian church hall just down for University Avenue. Periodically there was a Church Parade and occasionally to everyone’s pleasure a Bugle Band of the BB would come down Gibson Street. How I miss that display!
TRANSPORT: The numbers 3 and 14 were the trams that ran up and down Gibson Street to the terminus at University avenue. I can recall only one accident when a tram came off the track and ran into the building at the corner of Bank and Gibson Street. I do not think anyone was hurt. This service was augmented by a bus service and I think the 59 was the number of the bus.
WEEKENDS: Saturdays were always special days as we got out pocket money. For me it started at 3d and then became 6d. This called for a walk down Gibson Street to Nancie’s Sweetie shop. There was rationing in place at the time and you had to take your ration cards with you. Rationing finished in the late fifties if I recollect correctly.
Church attendance was mandatory and everyone put on their best clothes for the service. We walked to and from Woodlands Church. We were very active in the Youth Fellowship of the day.
SCHOOLS: Most of the children attended Willowbank School which we all walked to however coming back after school was mote adventurous. We would wait for an old tram at the Bowling Green and then sneak on and sit on the steps of the tram hoping to avoid the gaze of the conductor. The trip saved us the half penny fare! When older I went to Hillhead High School which we walked to. Its motto was “Je Maintiendrai” which means I will uphold but I translated it as “Abandon hope all ye who enter here!”
JOBS: When we got older we all applied for jobs whether it was delivering milk for Jimmie Thour wha had his dairy in Bank Street or delivering newspapers for Mr Teale in Gibson Street. I had a morning and after noon job there delivering newspapers mainly in the Park Road/Barrington Drive/ West Princes Street areas.
There were dozens of other activities such as Halloween, Penny for the guy, birthday parties so life in Post War Britain was not a dull thing by any manor of means. I knew every family who lived there and enjoyed most much of the time.
The Red Hackle Building was owned by Charles Hepburn. He went to Hillhead High School as I did although I was a lot younger than he!
Hubbard’s Bakery and Claude Hamilton’s garage went on fire in the early fifties. Fortunately no one was hurt but it was a big fire.
There was an area of waste ground behind the Student’s Union and it was known locally as the Sahara Desert.
At the back of each building they built a baffle Wall to protect the inhabitants of the tenants during an air raid.
The Barrage Balloon was a piece of waste ground in Kelvingrove Park. We used to play football there with a bladder made of leather. Today’s soccer players have it easy!
The Quadrant faced an iron fence with a thirty foot drop down to the river Kelvin. It was a right of passage to climb the fence into the Park Maintenance area at the foot of Otago street and clamber along the wall holding on to the fence about the Kelly!
Tom Kerr, the Lord Provost lived down Otago street. He was a kind and jolly man. They put up two ornate lamp standards outside the stairs leading to his home.
I was born in 1944 and lived in Otago Street from 1949-~1966.
Peter McNaughton
