REGULAR Times Past reader John Reilly from Maryhill was inspired by our recent feature on the old Glasgow trams to send us this magnificent poem.
Do you remember city streets full of trams? Share your memories and old photos by emailing ann.fotheringham@glasgowtimes.co.uk or write to Ann Fotheringham, c/o The Print Centre, 125 Fullarton Drive, Cambuslang, Glasgow G32 8FG.
Glasgow Clippies
‘Come oan, get aff.’” they used to cry
Those great old Glasgow clippies
When tramcars ran in Glasgow’s streets
Streets full of pubs and chippies
Read more: Skating on puddles in the back courts - Glasgow tenement life in the 50s
‘Fares please,’ you’d hear her cry
‘Huv yir money ready.
I’ve plenty of change so I’ll take pound notes
This cash bag’s helluva heavy.’
Wee drunk men on a Friday night
Would always try tae chat her,
But the clippie would send them on their way,
With ‘shut up, don’t gies yir patter.’
When wee boys tried tae skip their fare
She’d grab them, trying not tae laugh
And march them up tae the end of the tram
And told them ‘Come oan, get aff.’
Read more: C'mon get aff, tales of the Glasgow trams
Glasgow Cross and Gallowgate
Polmadie and the Gorbals
Glasgow Green and in between
Maryhill and Cardonald
We’ll never see their likes again
They were just a different breed
‘Auchenshoogle, here we come –
Away and bile yir heid.’
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