Earliest memory of Glasgow?

I was born in 1933 and my earliest memories are from our house at 154 Portugal Street in the Gorbals.

Describe your house:

It was one of four two-apartment houses on the second landing, with gas lighting and a communal outside WC. On the opposite side of the street, there was a council-run lodging house which had a shop, where you could buy a half pint of milk if you ran short. As a four-year-old, I unwittingly became a police informant. While playing at the tenement entrance I was approached by a plain clothes policeman who offered me one old penny, if I told him where the local bookmaker lived, which I promptly did. My parents were annoyed when they found out.

What school did you go to?

My first school was St John’s Infants on Warwick Street (later Nicholson Street.) Prior to the Second World War, we moved to Hutchesontown and I started going to St Francis Primary on Mathieson Street. In 1943, several classes and their teachers were relocated to Hayfield Street Primary school, but after a year our class returned to St Francis to prepare for our 11-plus examination, which I subsequently passed, with enough marks, which allowed me to go to Holyrood senior secondary school.

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Favourite local cinema:

The Wellington Palace on Commercial Road. When I was 12, Mr Murray the manager gave me the job of delivering the Universal Newsreel to the Paragon Cinema in Cumberland Street, for showing and bringing it back. This allowed me to see pictures for free at both cinemas.

Favourite local shop:

Boab’s Bookshop in Naburn Street, where you could buy and exchange books.

Where did you go dancing?

The Barrowland Ballroom, which I went to regularly.

Best thing about growing up in Glasgow?

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I lived within walking distance of the park.

Happiest childhood memory:

Leaving the Belvidere hospital after recovering from illness.