In our memories series, Everett Wylie shares her thoughts on growing up in the city's Gorbals.
Which street did you live on?
I was born at 58 Eglinton Street in the Gorbals – I have four sisters and four brothers. My dad was Irish, from Ballymena and my mum was originally from Ayrshire.
Describe your house:
We lived in a tenement, one toilet between 11 of us, no bath or running hot water. I went to the steamie every Friday to help my mum after school. She would send us up the stairs in the steamie for a bath, for thruppence.
What school did you go to?
St John’s Infant School and then St Margaret’s Secondary, like my big brothers and sisters before me. I worked in Gratispool developing films for a few years then Robert Whyte’s Photography but I felt in a rut with the same old day to day routine. Glasgow at the time seemed dull, smoky, rainy and grey. I left and thought it would be just for a year, but I’m now 65, and living in Guernsey. I still love Glasgow and come home to the Gorbals every year, and in an odd way, I miss the old smoky, rainy Glasgow – it was great and I didn’t appreciate it at the time.
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Where did you go dancing?
I started going to the dancing when I was about 15 – the Portland, mainly. Me and my friend would drink a can of lager between us and we thought we were the bees’ knees going to the Portland ‘drunk’. It was a bit of a dive, but a good one. As I got older, I went to the Square Peg pub in St Enoch Square, Terminal One, Clouds up in the Apollo. The Mally Arms on Eglinton Street was another good pub, and the Coliseum Bar – I worked in the lounge bar for a while and my mum worked in the kitchen, making lentil soup with ham hough on Saturdays.
Best thing about growing up in Glasgow?
Money was tight for us, as it was for most in the Gorbals, but although we didn’t have much, we were raised very well.
Happiest childhood memory:
Hanging out the window with my mum, watching all the hustle and bustle of the street with the people – I had my mum to myself for a wee while. My heart will always be in Glasgow.
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