I think we had a wonderful life then. We looked after each other and Mum and Dad were always around for us. If someone was ill we looked after them; did their shopping, cooking and whatever we had we shared.
I grew up in Glasgow. There were 9 houses on 3 levels where we lived. There were 3 bathrooms for all these houses. The only place I could read the News of the World was on the loo as Mum wouldn’t allow it in the house.
We had wind up gramophones and I remember one scout/guide dance where we had to all sing Waltzing Matilda together when the gramophone broke so that we could carry on dancing –we were too busy singing for much chatting up that night.
I was brought up in the Glaswegian slums and at the age of 16, 17 and 18 I was a member of the scouts. We had a canny scoutmaster that had great foresight and organised us to save money each month and when we had enough money organised rail trips abroad to international scout rallies. When I left school I got a job to pay my way. We went to Switzerland for one. Another time we visited Rome where the scoutmaster had contacted the Scots College and they chaperoned us around the city and I can remember taking Blue Ribbon chocolate biscuits that they’d never seen and loved. After our first departure at the train station we remembered to say cheerio at home as our parents ended up crying when saying goodbye.
You didn’t envy people – no one had anything.
We were hard up and happy.
You didn’t have to lock the door; we had nothing to take.
When the gas man came to empty the pennies from the meter you’d always hope to get some back if you’d over paid – so that you could go and buy some food.
We always had a best front room; it was cold. I can’t remember ever using it. We can’t have had any posh visitors! After I got married we lived with my Mum and Dad. I saw a 3 piece suite and just wanted something that was ours so I persuaded my Mum to let us store it in the front room even though they had their own it there.
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