a to z challenge

  • F is for Football

    In Glasgow, football isn’t a game. It’s a war, a religious war built on bigotry and ignorance. If you support Celtic you are a catholic, a Tim, a Tim cat, kick with the left foot, a papist bastard. If you support Rangers you are a Protestant, a proddy, a proddy dog, kick with the right…

  • E is for Easterhouse

    When you mention Easterhouse to most people, an image of deprivation, unemployment, gang warfare, mugging, glue-sniffing and drugs is what will often spring to mind. Well, try living there. I lived in the ‘Greater Area of Easterhouse’ – I won’t talk about exactly where today or I’ll have nothing to write about for ‘Q.’ Gang…

  • D is for Doon The Watter

    There can’t be any schoolchildren of my generation who don’t remember a school day trip ‘doon the watter’ on the Waverly paddle steamer. We would board at Broomielaw with our school-provided packed lunch (white bread sandwiches, weak orange juice and a Penguin biscuit) and, depending on the weather, jostle for a place above or below…

  • C is for Closes

    In Glasgow, a close is a communal stairwell of a tenement off which individual flats may be accessed. The best kind of close was the ‘wally (to rhyme with galley) close’. These were closes whose walls were tiled with glossy ceramic tiles, usually in dark reds and greens, and often with a decorative tile border…

  • B is for Barlinnie

    We didn’t live too far from Barlinnie prison in Glasgow. There was always someone whose “da had gone up to the big hoose” while the younger members of the family went to the local borstal. The prison was a big part of east end life. We even had a wee song we used to sing…

  • A to Z Challenge

    Against my better judgement, I’ve decided to have a bash at the A to Z Challenge again this year. Last year I chose a movies theme and got as far as G for “George of The Jungle.” This year I’m going to blog about growing up in Glasgow in the 60s and 70s. Expect dialect…

  • D is for Demolition Man

    [tweetmeme source=”nettiewriter” http://www.URL.com] This is the first guilty secret I’m revealing during the A to Z Challenge. I love this film and I refuse to apologise for it. In 1995 John Spartan is imprisoned for recklessness in duty, causing the death of a busload of children. His quarry, Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) is also imprisoned.…

  • C is for Close Encounters of the Third Kind

    [tweetmeme source=”nettiewriter” http://www.URL.com] Richard Dreyfus plays Roy Neary, a family man who has a UFO experience when driving home one night. His car is drowned in a bright, white light and the electrics break down. From that moment on, Roy is obsessed with a need to know more about what was responsible. Meanwhile, the government…