I wish I'd had a Digital Camera and a Camcorder back then

I wish I'd had a Digital Camera and a Camcorder back then

I wish I'd had a Digital Camera and a Camcorder all those years ago when I lived in Germiston.
I could have made records of my childhood, of the people I knew - the characters that lived there. I could have taken a photographic record of the tenements that were knocked down in Coll Street, the Tenements in Forge Street that came down. I could have taken photos of the backcourts before they 'tarted' them up. I remember two types of backcourt from Glasgow - the ones that had no grass growing in them, just a load of mud and puddles and the outhouses ( middens washhouses and, although I never saw any, I believe there were air raid shelters).
The backcourts in Germiston were a bit nicer; roughly partitioned off, tenement to tenement by metal pailings. I say roughly because there were glaring gaps in between some of them which allowed kids to go from their own 'bit' into a neighbouring or rival 'bit' dependant upon how friendly you were with the kids there. These back courts had long lush grass (for making 'traps' and hiding in), honeysuckle, seed-blowing thistles in August, and other wild plantlife, which just as pretty in a different way, was not exactly along the lines of the hollyhocks in an english country garden. There would be a stone midden, all with a very distinct smell of potato peelings and fire ashes. I hear the backcourts dont grow as wild now.
If I'd had a camcorder back then I could have recorded the occasional train which exited the Gas Works into the Gemmy (it must have been doing some turning manouevre, as this piece of track went nowhere). Later I could have looked back at the recording, shown it to someone knowledgeable and learned a little more of what went on in there.
I could have taken photos of the old style lamp posts in Forge Street, which were so easy to climb. Inside the tenements my photography could capture the atmosphere of a coal fire, but really the camcorder would have been necessary to get the 'CRACK' sounds that went with it, or the roar up the lum when you created a vacuum across the hearth with a newspaper to make it light.
The old black range-cooker, on the other side of the chimney would have been a challenge to photograph as the kitchen was fairly dark anyway.
I could have taken a photograph of one of the tower blocks in Coll Place (the one at the top of Coll Street hill) before it was demolished. I reckon I would have needed three types of digital camera - a compact type, just for snapping away merrily at anything and everything - a bridge type for those moments that were a wee bit more considered and an SLR for taking night shots ( because they have manual focus ).
The things I really would have liked to get a photographic or video record of, which are now long gone: the tardis style Dr Who police box that stood in Royston Road in a corner of Glenconner Park. Just beyond that over the railway bridge on Royston Road was an abandoned cottage. At the top of Forge Street on the site of what is now St Gilberts School, and on the corner of Coll Place, there was what could easily be described as a farmhouse, beige in colour, and if I recall with a stone external staircase going up one side of the building - was that anything to do with the piggery. I also have a vague memory of houses over on Royston Road, up on the Gemmy which burnt down, these could have been prefabs. Anyone I speak to doesn't seem to have any memory of these buildings. Do You? With that in mind I urge you to buy yourself a camcorder video recorder or digital camera and get documenting Your grandchildren will love you for it.
While you are out snapping away be prepared for "Hey you, ur you fae ra social?" and Haw, Jimmy, ye waant tae take ma fucken fotie?" Nostalgia aint what it used to be!

Alasdair Gray, Hugh Collins, James Kelman. Books about Glasgow.

Books about Glasgow:

This is not so much recommended reading, this list is inclined to be more of a suggestion.
Particularly relevant to this blog is the work of Hugh Collins, as he was brought up in nearby Garngad.
"Hugh Collins was born and brought up in Glasgow. In 1977 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for a murder that took place in a Glasgow bar. Released in 1992, he has since written two volumes of autobiography - Autobiography of a Murderer (1998) and Walking Away (2000), as well as two novels, No Smoke (2001) and The Licensee (2002). He is married and lives in Edinburgh."
I have read No Smoke and Autobiography of a Murderer.
No Smoke
Glasgow, 1976. Jake McGinty and his gang are running around town, drinking, fighting and getting involved in all sorts of minor criminal activity. Then a scam goes wrong and dead bodies start to pile up. The police are quick to try to pin it on Jake - but are the real suspects closer to home?
With consummate plotting, a host of brilliantly drawn rogues and an uncanny sense of pacing, No Smoke is set to do for Glasgow what Ian Rankin did for Edinburgh.
Only, unlike Rankin and the majority of crime writers, Hugh Collins knows the territory he's talking about.

Autobiography of a Murderer.
Sentenced to "life" for murder, Hugh Collins served 16 years in prisons in Scotland. This is his account of the life that led to his imprisonment. Collins describes the wanton violence of the Glasgow streets to the culture of prison.
This extract from the opening chapter is both amusing and straight to the point:

"I'M FIVE AND A half years old, attending St Roch Primary School in Glasgow. The teacher, Miss O'Donnell, has asked us each to stand, walk to the front of the class, and tell the others what our fathers do.
'My da's a railway worker,' says one, and sits down.
'My da's a postman. He delivers the mail.' ~ It's my turn, and I walk to the front with some pride. 'My da,'
I say, 'is Wullie Collins. He's like Robin Hood. He takes from the rich and gives to the poor. My da's a bank robber.'
The class erupts, shrieking with laughter. I'm immediately embarrassed. Miss O'Donnell is taken by surprise. That's the end of that exercise, and my granny is summoned."

I usualIy buy books on ebay, these two I happened to get on Amazon

Glasgow's People: 1956-88 by Oscar Marzaroli.
Shades of Grey : Glasgow, 1956 - 1987
McIlvanney, William , photographs by Oscar Marzaroli
ANY book of Oscar Marzaroli's photographic work is a MUST HAVE item.
The Glasgow Almanac: An A-Z of the City and Its People by Stephen Terry
The Wee Book of Glasgow by Robert Jeffrey
The Legend of Red Clydeside by Iain McLean
Beloved, The: St. Mungo, Founder of Glasgow
Glasgow: The Making of the City by A Gibb
I recommend anything by Alasdair Gray, but particularly Lanark, which was published in 1981 after about thirty years in the making. Gray's works combine elements of realism, fantasy, and science fiction, plus clever use of typography and his own illustrations. He has also written on politics, in support of socialism and Scottish independence. He has been described by author Will Self as "a creative polymath with an integrated politico-philosophic vision" and by himself as "a fat, spectacled, balding, increasingly old Glasgow pedestrian". He was born just up the road from Germiston, in Riddrie.
Lanark, subtitled A Life in Four Books, was the first novel of Scottish writer Alasdair Gray, and is still his best known. Written over a period of almost thirty years, it combines realist and dystopian fantasy depictions of his home town of Glasgow.
Lanark comprises four books, arranged in the order Three, One, Two, Four ( there is also a Prologue before Book Three, and an Epilogue four chapters before the end of the book). In the Epilogue, the author explains this by saying that "I want Lanark to be read in one order but eventually thought of in another", and that the epilogue itself is "too important" to go at the end. This is something I particularly like about Gray, is a particular 'openess' about what he has plagiarised and from whom he has sought inspiration.
Don't be afraid of James Kelman - he might be a little hard going, especially if you are used to reading fiction in standard English - Kelman writes in Glasgow dialect, but it feels as if he has taken it a little further, and not just for the sake of a Glaswegian aucience. Alasdair Gray does this somewhat in reverse in Something Leather, where he gives the Queen of England's language a dialect through the character of Harry and her chums.

If you are having difficulty finding any of these books on Amazon or ebay, you could always give Abebooks or Alibris a go. Some of the more established 'real-life' shops such as Waterstone's and Blackwell's are rather good sources.

Germiston Tower

Germiston Tower

Yes Germiston did have its own tower. I am not talking about the highrise tower blocks at Coll Place. The tower I am talking about was in the field in Royston Road, next to Provanmill Gasworks, sort of diagonally across from Stroma Street. I don't know if this field was considered part of the Gemmy. To pin the location down a little bit, there was a railtrack, which came from the gasworks which ended in this field. Many a time I stood, with my Dad at the bus stop in Royston Road, waiting for the Number 27 or the Number 11; the tower was right behind this. Now me and dad used to discuss loads of stuff, but I never got round to asking him what the tower in the field behind the bus stop was for. Hopefully there are some older residents of Germiston reading this who can tell me.
The tower itself - I cant imagine its height. I am not talking anything gargantuan, like the once nearby Tennent's Stalk or Tennent's Stack - there were probaly three or four 'floors'. I use the term floors loosely, for if I remember correctly there were none, just three or four windows to suggest this. Try to picture one of those older brick built rescue practise towers you see in Fire Stations. It resembled one of those. Now for all I know it could very well have been one of those, however I don't seem to be able to find any info about a fire station in Germiston.
Entering the tower was easy - there was no door, just the gaping space where there may or may not have been a door. Many a day I went in there, thankfully I usually went alone. I say thankfully because kids tend to egg one another on. One day I decided to egg myself on. You see, on entering the tower, it was just a small square space, approximately 9ft by 9ft - it could have been bigger or smaller, time plays tricks on the memory. There was nothing to see except the usual beer can or two, and definitely no syringes - how times change. All you could do was look up. Again, as far as my memory serves there were no floors. I cant remember if there was a roof, I am sure there was though. Now as I said all you could do was look up - or, GO UP.
So I did. There was a rusty old fixed ladder on the wall to the left as you went in - and one day I egged myself on to climb it - on my own. Now I am no Urban Explorer, although the idea of Urban Exploration interests me, and I suppose for a 9 year old, this must have been my one of my first attempts at it One thing I do know about UE is that the most important two rules of Urban Exploration are:

Never go Urban Exploring on your own.

Always let someone know where are you are going, and when you are due back.

Now that I have told you that, you think I am going to build you up to some exciting story, of how I climbed all the way up this ladder, found a gap onto the roof, installed myself there and planted a Saltire. Then realised I hadn't told anyone where I was going, only to be eventually found cold, wet and miserable the next day by the Fire Brigade.

What actually happened: After pulling on the ladder a few times to test its integrity, I very gingerly put a foot on the first rung. Everything seemed OK thus far, so with both hands on a suitable rung I hoisted my other foot onto the next rung, first foot onto third rung. Everything seemed to be going well so far, although each step was still cautious, and by the time my second foot was on the fourth rung, I had wrapped my arms around the rungs rather than just hold on with my hands- just to be sure. Now I think I must have gone on a few more rungs, just to that height where it would have been safe for me to jump off, and that is when I heard it. There was a definite CRACKING noise then a definite CREAKING noise, and I thought the ladder was coming away from the wall. Now there is a phrase that many people use these days which goes "F*ck this for a game of soldiers". I don't recall ever hearing anyone use it in Glasgow back then, and it is fair to say that Glasgow children are exposed to some coarse language. Now even though I had never heard that phrase, I am sure at THAT MOMENT I INVENTED IT. Yes it was definitely a "F*ck this for a game of soldiers" moment. All in one instant, I looked behind me and saw that I was up TOO HIGH (I wasn't, but in moments of panic, this is always how it seems), and I thought: "If I hold on the ladder decides how I land", I simultaneously thought "If I jump I AM in control". So I jumped, landed safely, ran like thunder across Royston Road, through the back courts and over to the flats, bumped into my mates and never mentioned it to them. That was it!
Now IF my mates had been with me, I wonder how far up the ladder I would have gone, despite the creaking and egged on by their shouts.
So that is my little story of 'Germiston Tower'. Does anyone remember this structure? When was it pulled down and why? Better still does anyone have any pictures of it?

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This is how YOU might feel trying to look for free webspace WITHOUT ads
I recently switched from one ISP to another. Here is what I found happened when I tried to FTP files to the many free webspace accounts I had with my previous provider; I could not upload any files. Unknown to me your 'own' ISP will usually only allow you to FTP files to them if you have dialled up or connected via their service. So I now had to find somewhere else to host my websites and store my files, which allows me to upload files no matter what ISP I connect from. Fortunately there are plenty of providers of free webspace out there who will give you free webspace, there may be some bandwidth limits, or otherwise, but MOST CARRY ADVERTISING, which may disagree with the context of your website. And this is exactly what I found - the new free webspace I was signing up to carried advertising which did not conform to what my webpages were all about. I did eventually come up with a few (which are advertised on THIS webpage - which is OK with me as they are contextual and should help you, and you may want to try them.

A lady bangs her head against a brick wall: perhaps she was trying to find some ad free webspace

Oh dear!!!! Blame your old ISP for blocking FTP uploads via your new ISP.

Perhaps I should learn to use google!


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photo credits all used under the creative commons licence
frustration by cilladesign
After 5 days of processing in a 10 day index build by Elaine with Grey Cats
Dani discovers the joys of packing by Don Fulano
I can't find my contact lenses! by beesparkle