Maureen Moir recalls her childhood growing up in a Glasgow tenement.
EARLIEST MEMORY OF GLASGOW? Starting school and meeting my two lifelong friends Mary Sanfey and May McGill, May moved to America in the 70s, but we kept in contact and visited each other through the years until May passed in 2015. Mary Sanfey moved to Ireland in the 60s and although we are now both 85 we still keep in touch by phone.
WHERE DID YOU LIVE? Fingal Street in Maryhill, in a first floor tenement, with an outside toilet and a wash house round the back. I lived there with my mum and dad. My mother was born in that flat and stayed there for the majority of her life.
WHICH SCHOOL DID YOU GO TO? I attended St Mary’s Primary and St Columba Secondary schools.
FAVOURITE CINEMA? I used to go to the Rio Cinema in Bearsden and the Roxy Cinema in Maryhill where I saw the Wizard of Oz four times in one day. Eventually they had to stop the movie as my mother had reported me missing and didn’t know I was in the cinema.
FAVOURITE LOCAL SHOP? Johnstone’s in Maryhill Road, as they sold every type of grocery and all kinds of sweets. It was a pleasure to go in there and at the time it seemed really special.
WHERE DID YOU GO DANCING? The Locarno, the Barrowland and the Dennistoun Palais- I loved ballroom dancing and learned to jive there. I went dancing every week until I met my husband John. We met at work in Singers Sewing Factory. John passed away in 2017.
READ MORE: Fantastic photos show Glasgow in the 1990s published for the first time
BEST THING ABOUT GROWING UP IN GLASGOW? It was a great community, with friendly neighbours. We loved going out to play, and we had so much fun playing hopscotch, skipping ropes, kick the can and rounders. There where always lots of children to play with.
HAPPIEST CHILDHOOD MEMORY? Attending the Shakespeare and Garrioch Club where I was did drama and country dancing. I also learned to bake - I made toffee apples and my trademark tablet, which I made often for my children and grandchildren.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here