44 replies to this topic

[thomas]

Looking back on some of the topics here and elsewhere, it suddenly dawned on me just how many folks remember the same things and how so many of us miss the same things. What do you miss the most in the West End?

1/ Mississippi Chicken - where Antipasti is now (It wasn't KFC).

2/ Hillhead Burgh Hall - why they never converted that...?

3/ Woolworths - when it was F.W. Woolworth Ltd - there was something about the goods they sold then.

4/ Gardens Cafe - my favourite, followed by Cosy Neuk. Which shop holds that spot now?

5/ The Original Subway Entrance - I remember the wind, smell and the fancy entrance.

These are just my fav memories - what's yours?

[ozneil]

QM dances on a Saturday night.

[weansmaw]

Being young and hardy enough to go pub crawling then the dancing and then arriving home to find out next door were having a party and joining in but still being able to get up and go to work/library/lectures and back out again that night !

O and the carnival at the Kelvin hall and that unique smell of the elephants. You just cant describe that smell, can you ?

There was a cafe across from Bank St long gone, in that building where Clatty`s was where we went for coffee and bacon rolls when we could afford it.

[Dexter St. Clair]

QM dances on a Saturday night.

which era?

Paul Coiao n the decks?

[ozneil]

No Idea ... late 60s early 70s was back here by mid 70s

[Germolino]

Museum with the kids ("yes, girls they are real bees, and I have no idea if they might sting the dinosaurs") followed by indulgent ice cream sundaes at the wee cafe on the gusset.


Feeding peanuts to the squirrels in the park when the snow was a foot thick (again with kids, honest).

[weekie]

Some of us didn't actually come from the glasgow area Thomas. We may have passed through or live there now so I cannie comment on what I miss most about glasgow.
What I do miss now when I go home, just east of Glasgow, is that there are no weans playing on the streets. No loud shouts of laughing and giggles, no street games, no maws hinging from windows shouting them in. I miss that.

Oh!.... and fish'n chips, no matter what shop they are bought in, from one end of Scotland to the other.

[Germolino]

Well done sir. I could try to claim intent, but it was but a simple typo.

Although, if you look at the plan of the area maybe gusset isn't too far off.

[rolo tomassi]

QM dances on a Saturday night.

which era?

Paul Coiao n the decks?

Come on, Dex, it's been 30-odd years. I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.... :wink: Time to forgive?

Thomas, I miss Aquarius. And Alan Fullager's shop down where Mr Smiths is now, I was a Saturday girl there in the 70s, we sold loon pants, clogs and t-shirts all with stars on. :-)

And the old Grosvenor cafe on Byres next to the Tube. Or I should say underground or Dex'll be getting at me for US-isms. Anyway the wind and smell from the U's exactly the same...

And FW Woolworth's with its wooden floors and the counters that went longways, wi sweeties and makeup you could afford on pocket money.

I think the Gardens cafe spot is now a building society, a couple of doors down from Woolies.

[ozneil]

I miss these miserable January mornings with the East wind, straight from Siberia, blowing flurries of rain mixed with sleet into your face as you try to walk along the inside edge of the pavement to avoid Corpy buses trying to drown you by driving close to the kerb & throwing up copious fountains of dirty slushy water.

[rolo tomassi]

Ozneil, with the greatest of respect:

FECK RIGHT OFF my mate! Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. LOL.

[HollowHorn]

With bells on.

[The other guest]

Thompsons the barber shop next to the Gardens Cafe

The Berkely restaurant where my dad took us when my mother was down with migraine.

The toy shop that was roughly where the Amber is now

Masseys with its huge pats of butter

The fishmonger which was opposite Gt. George St and had dead game birds hanging from its open windows

Tullys the ironmonger which was 20 times better than that place in Kelvinbridge.

The Gardens cafe which was run by an older Italian couple. The wife had her hair permed a different elctric colour every week (blue, pink, green, etc.)

The 2nd hand bookshop which was next to Archibalds shoe repair shop.

[The other guest]

And FW Woolworth's with its wooden floors and the counters that went longways, wi sweeties and makeup you could afford on pocket money.

Pick-n-mix

[The other guest]

The Original Subway Entrance - I remember the wind, smell and the fancy entrance.

Especially the smell and the wind. And paying a penny ha'penny to go two stops. And the light that went on above the wee office to tell you a train was coming.

[The other guest]

What I do miss now when I go home, just east of Glasgow, is that there are no weans playing on the streets. No loud shouts of laughing and giggles, no street games, no maws hinging from windows shouting them in. I miss that.

The West End I grew up in was full of kids. It was very different to the West End today. We played in the street and in the lanes. We didn't play in the parks cos you usually got chased by the parkies. We played hide-n-seek, kick the can, commandos, crosses and headers, we dreeped down dykes and we rode our bikes all over the West End.

[The other guest]

And the old Grosvenor cafe on Byres next to the Tube. Or I should say underground or Dex'll be getting at me for US-isms. Anyway the wind and smell from the U's exactly the same...

Tube is a "Londonism". I never heard it called anything but the "subway" or "underground" (if you were posh). The first time I heard anyone call it the tube was in the 1970s

[The keltie clippie]

The West End I grew up in was full of kids. It was very different to the West End today. We played in the street and in the lanes. We didn't play in the parks cos you usually got chased by the parkies. We played hide-n-seek, kick the can, commandos, crosses and headers, we dreeped down dykes and we rode our bikes all over the West End.

Funnily enough ah grew up in the Eastend and we did exactly the same kinna things, but in our end ae the city Kids eh!

[thomas]

Funny that 'the other guest' should mention children playing in the West End. I know there are kids around because of the schools, but now that I think on it, I don't see kids playing in the West End. I remember the little rose garden on Cranworth Street and kids playing there but even the most innoncent child, reading a book would be chased away by an obnoxious old woman who lived opposite.

I too remember climbing dykes, running along the walls in the lanes between the buildings and cycling through the Botanics - (we used to line up around 20 or so of us on our bikes and wait for the parkie to shout at us and then we would cycle like mad over the front lawn of the Kibble Palace - at that time it was out of bonds to mere mortals).

Where are all these weans now? Are they all indoors? Are they playing on computers or too frightened to go out?