MARION HARRIS (NEE SCULLION)

Earliest memory of Glasgow? Going with my mother and elder sister Susan to Dallas’s to get clothes suitable for the spring. This was pre World War 2.

What street did you live on? Garscube Road.

Describe your house: We lived on the second storey of a tenement, in a room and kitchen with an inside toilet. There was a set-in bed in the kitchen. Originally we had gaslight, but in the late 1930s electricity lit up our lives. We had the usual coal fire in the kitchen, complete with an oven, and a gas ring used for cooking and boiling water. Our back room looked out on to a wide, spacious area including a large swingpark. My younger brother Hugh played football on the pitch made by the local lads.

What school did you go to? Oakbank Primary until WW2 broke out when I was nearly seven, and I was evacuated to Aberfoyle with my elder sister to live in a dormitory with other evacuees. My education there was very limited. I went to St. George’s Road Junior Secondary school and started working at 14.

Glasgow Times:

Favourite cinema? The Blythswood. It screened films which starred actors who were just starting their film careers. One was a very early film of Kirk Douglas, before he became famous, entitled Champion. He portrayed a boxer.

Favourite local shop? Alex Bryce the newsagent. He gave me a part time job behind the counter and delivering newspapers, after my mother died when I was 11. Later, I loved C&A at the corner of Sauchiehall Street and Cambridge Street. I couldn’t afford the clothes on sales with my wages, but I just loved to be in that shop. I felt grown up.

Where did you go dancing? Maryhill Burgh Halls and Barrowland for jiving. Great fun.

Best thing about growing up in Glasgow? The community spirit.

Happiest childhood memory: Playing skipping ropes, and peever in the backcourt before the war. When the air raid shelter was built, that was the end of our playground.