SCOTS
CMSW

Document 351

Conversation 02: Glasgow woman on childhood memories

Author(s): N/A

Copyright holder(s): Dr Eleanor Lawson, SCOTS Project

Audio transcription

F646 [inaudible] Nae wonder her brain was slowin doon, she wisnae get- she wisnae gettin usin it. See now she's goin tae that day centre, day centre, isn't it?
F632 Aye, she was [inaudible].
F646 Well, she's going to the day centre, and she's busy.
F632 uh-huh
F646 I said that tae yer mum. She'll be in there helpin tae pour oot the tea,
F632 mm
F646 And do things, because, if you've been useful all yer life, ye ye feel, mean ye just sit [swallow] I'm better than her actually; I sit here and I don't have any company.
F632 uh-huh.
F646 But I can always turn on my book,
F632 mmhm
F646 or I can put a tape on over there,
F632 uh-huh
F646 or I could put one of these LPs of Jack Jones, o- up on the top, or a CD.
F632 mmhm
F646 And then, but she doesnae go in for that either, she doesnae have readin books or.
F632 No.
F646 She [inaudible] to have CDs on.
F632 mm
F646 Because it's the only way ye'll get out- outside yerself.
F632 That’s //right.//
F646 //Although// in her case, she would be sittin there, on her own, and is it any wonder her brain was slowin doon?
F632 mmhm
F646 I ent- I talk to myself a lot in here.
F632 mmhm
F646 I says to mysel, "they should have called me Thora". Like Thora Hurd. When she used to be workin away, she'd speak to her friend,
F632 uh-huh
F646 That's her friend. God's her friend.
F632 mmhm
F646 She says, "people'll say, ye've had a lot wrong with ye Thora." She's got two bum hips,
F632 mmhm
F646 have been replaced. And I don't know whether she's got her knee done yet, she was she was getting a replacement knee.
F632 mmhm
F646 [inaudible] And she says that people say, "Well, how is it that if you believe in God so strongly that he lets that happen to you?", but she says, "that's no what Christ- what it's about. What God bein your friend, and that, does for ye, it helps ye to cope
F632 [mmhm]
F646 wi the things that go wrong with ye.
F632 Yeah.
F646 The things that just happen in everyday life. It helps ye tae cope wi sorrow and different things.
F632 mmhm
F646 It's like havin, she says it's like havin yer friend beside ye. She has a talk tae her friend. Sometimes when I'm, this is years ago when I'm just maybe dustin round aboot and, see she lost her husband and they'd been married a long, they were married a long while.
F632 mmhm
F646 She called him "Scottie". He came from up, I think, the east coast of Scotland some place, and his name was Scott.
F632 mmhm
F646 And eh, I think when he died, now before he died, he was, for a long while, he was that way like yer granny only a lot worse. He'd had strokes, which made walkin, eh kind of slow,
F632 uh-huh
F646 and stumbly and eh and he would forget. //She would//
F632 //mmhm//
F646 de- she would be talkin aboot things and she'd tae keep repeatin them tae him, ye know. But eh she says "God helps ye", she says, "tae get through a thing like that". But I th- I never thought on it like that before, but that's it, she says, "God's no there to say that nothing'll happen to you.
F632 mmhm
F646 Things do happen to you." [laugh]
F632 mmhm
F646 And eh but she says, "if you've got a strong a belief in in your friend, it helps you to cope."
F632 Yeah.
F646 It helps you to get through it, because you know you’re not alone.
F632 mmhm
F646 oh aye, but she's a she's a Methodist though.
F632 Is she? I didn't know //that.//
F646 //I think// so. Aye, I think she's a Methodist. But she is a genuine Chris- seven day a week Christian. When I say that, I mean she doesn't go to church every s- every day, but she
F632 mmhm
F646 She says her prayers regularly, I think, and
F632 mmhm
F646 and, as she says, she talks to her friend. [swallow] And I think that's how it should be.
F632 Yeah.
F646 The number of people that really annoy me in this world
F632 mmhm
F646 are the types, they never go to church,
F632 mmhm?
F646 And, fact, they're they're inclined tae be derogatory about the people that do, but, when it comes tae a funeral, or a wedding,
F632 mmhm
F646 They've got the brass neck to charge charge up to the church and a- get the minister tae make arrangements. But he cannae really, I don’t think a minister can actually turn you down unless he’s got an awful good reason for it.
F632 Ours does. [laughs]
F646 They've got tae have an awful good reason for it. There are some of them that say "Well you never come here, what are you comin now for?"
F632 mmhm
F646 But eh they they use it. In other words, I don't think they so much use it, Eleanor, as they abu- abuse it.
F632 mmhm
F646 I don't think that's right. If ye don't go why you, mean why do you want it for weddins, christenins and and funerals then?
F632 mmhm
F646 My brother swore that eh [laughs] "that's the life-belt brigade". [eating] I says, "What dae ye mean?" and he says, "well, they’re kind, they're kind of usin it as insurance, ye know".
F632 [laughs]
F646 'Ye show face now at a funeral, in case.' But never mind, I think there's more people goin to church now than there was for a long while. Young people in, at one time used, mind I told you?
F632 mmhm. Yeah.
F646 [inaudible] Well, Eleanor. I'm no really a Christian, cause they thought that if they were a Christian, they were regular church-goer,
F632 mmhm
F646 But, I never could get the hang of it much at all. [inaudible] The boys that used to go regularly to church, the teenagers, and that, they used to get sneered at by their pals. They would maybe be passin in the evenin to go to the church service,
F632 mmhm?
F646 You were a wimp, if you went to the kirk. If you went to the boozer,
F632 mmhm
F646 you were a man.
F632 Mmhm?
F646 [laugh] I could never could work it out. Maybe it's me that's barmy though? I'm a perfect example when I see it, is that, the troops are marchin past, "oh would you look at that, everyone's out of step but our Willie."
F632 [laugh]
F646 You know, but it's maybe me maybe me that's out o step. Did you know this was Friday the thirteenth?
F632 Yes I did.
F646 They were talkin there about, "oh I never [inaudible] walk below ladders". They're talkin, silly women. I never walked below ladders either!
F632 No?
F646 But it wasnae because I was frightened that I would be "struck from above", but if there's somebody wo- workin up the ladder, you get the scrapins off the soles of their shoes or, drips off their paint-brush
F632 mmhm
F646 could be droppin on you; as long as there's enough room to get round the ladder, you're always safer
F632 mmhm?
F646 goin under it, plus the fact that you went under it and dunted it, you might, if it's up like that and you go under it and you dunt it, it might go like that and the poor sod up up the ladder'll
F632 [laugh]
F646 come crashin ontae the pavement, you know. Never was superstitious that way. The precious jewels brigade, no. I don't know what Auntie Barbara was expectin to find that day. I didnae know that wee hymn, wee, but I gather it was a wee childrens' hymn. But we hear all these quavery voices. Old voices sing- givin it precious jewels, "prec- precious jewels, precious jewels, his love and his own". And we're outside tryin no to laugh. We'd to run out the close, so they wouldnae hear us but th- it turned out, I told my mother. "Oh", she says, "Don't tell me our Barbara's goin; this was a woman who, she was a spiritualist,
F632 uh-huh
F646 and they went in for the "all put your hands on the table, fingers touching".
F632 uh-huh?
F646 You see, and see if somebody would come d-. I don't know what Auntie Barbara wanted anybody up there to come down and talk to her for, because they might have [laugh] said something to her she might not have liked, you know But eh, no unless it was the wee boy. See, Eleanor was a twin,
F632 mmhm
F646 But her wee brother William, who would have been the only boy in the family //I mean Aunty//
F632 //mmhm//
F646 Barbara, there was Grace, Rachel, Mary, Julia and then the twins,
F632 mmhm
F646 But the wee boy died. He only lasted oh about a week, or somethin like that, if he, if he did that. He took fits and spasms and then died, My mother says, "oh I'll never f- oh I'll never forget it," she says, [click] Willie, he was sittin cradlin the wee soul, while it was gaspin for breath, you know, and it would go stiff and everythin and she says the tears were runnin doon his f- he was soft-hearted, [laugh]. That's how my Auntie Barbara got away wi so much I think, but eh, his heart was broken when the wee lad died. But the time I came back fae Aunt- I'd been at my Aunt Barbara's and somebody said about Eleanor, and I says, I didnae know whether to s- mention it to my dad or to forget it.
F632 mmhm
F646 And I says but, I says, "can you be half a wean?" My father says, "what in God's name are you talkin about thi- noo [laugh] this time?" I says "Uncle Willie says that Eleanor, they’ve got to be awful careful with her, because she's only hauf a wean." "In the name o God", he says, "Look, she's a the wean she'll ever be. She's got all her fingers, and all her toes, and all the other bits." He says, "But she was a, she was a twin and she was the one that survived", //but.//
F632 //mmhm//
F646 So this was it, she was only hauf a wean, [laughs] half o a set of twins [laughs]. My father says, "I don't know what some folk use for brains!" [laughs], ah Go-, but, think about it.
F632 uh-huh
F646 How could anybody think that up? She's [inaudible] how could anybody be ha- I'm sayin, "How could anybody be hauf a wean?" So I decided I'd ask my daddy. I said, "Can you be hauf a wean?" 'What are you talkin aboot?', he says. I was aye askin questions about things, you know.
F632 [laugh]
F646 'Hauf a wean. What are ye talk- I says, "Uncle Willie says El-El- Eleanor's only hauf a wean." 'She's all the wean she'll ever be'. [laugh] oh you got some dilly- you got some wonderful stories when we all tried to fathom out how it was, if we saw nurse thingmibob, the district nurse, she wore a nav- I remember she wore a dark, I think it was a dark blue Burberry coat,
F632 mmhm
F646 And she tended to wear thon thi- you know the the sort o wimple thing that,
F632 uh-huh?
F646 you know, that comes right through fae the way people dressed in the Bible. Right through eh nuns wore it and then, it wa- at one time it was nuns that were eh the the the only people that nursed; they had hospices //beside//
F632 //uh-huh//
F646 their places, and they wore the thing like this, and the stiff bit like that.
F632 mmhm
F646 Well she used to have a thing like that, navy blue like that, that was across here. And every time, we found, every time she came, along the street, eh, carryin this bag, somebody had a wee brother or sister.
F632 mmhm
F646 And I hated her. See when she was walkin towards our close, I prayed and I'd say, "if she stops at our close I'll kill her."
F632 [laugh]
F646 Cos I loved my brother that much, I didnae want to share our Sam wi anybody.
F632 uh-huh
F646 You know? Anyway, she always manages to walk by our close, but we figured out, and we're sayin, "Aye", says the wee boy we're playin wi, he says "She brings them in that bag".
F632 [laugh]
F646 And somebody says, "Can't be in a bag, [inaudible] suffocate in the in the bag". 'What do you mean she'd suffocate?' He says, "because my cousin got a wee puppy and she carried it home in a bag and the the man that gave her it told her just, not to close the bag completely, because the pup would suffocate. "Cos it wouldnae get any air, you see? And ach he says, "don't be daft," he says, "she's got holes punched in it
F632 [laugh]
F646 tae let the air in." Ye know. [click] That's why I say, you you should talk to kids, because they'll speculate on their own
F632 mmhm
F646 as to how things fathom //but//
F632 //all sorts// of bizarre stuff.
F646 So, every time she came with it, it was a a Vanderbilt bag thing she carried her gear in, you know, So, she carried the bairns in that bag. And I used to pray, she was comin up the street, and got near our close, I'd be saying "pa- keep goin, keep passin, keep passin, keep passin, keep passin."
F632 [laugh]
F646 I wasnae wantin her to go up to our door, chap it and hand in anythin. //Because//
F632 //[laugh]//
F646 because I didnae want to share my brother wi anybody.
F632 uh-huh. aw that's cute.
F646 [click] But, oh no I loved him that, I would have been awful jealous, I know I would, //Having//
F632 //mmhm//
F646 another one in our house. oh I loved him dearly. [swallow] I've pinned boys to the wall,
F632 mmhm?
F646 Willie Brown, in the next close, when we stayed in wee Gordon Street. His folks had a contractors' business at n- eh, he had a couple of lorries things, but he he kept one of them, one of the horse and cart things. Now what they did the-, was they contracted to deliver goods in them, you know?
F632 mmhm
F646 And eh, our Sam was in tears this time and I says, "Who hit you?" And my mother just missed me, she was grabbin me goin oot the door. And I doon the stairs, and when she ran doon the stairs at my back, here's Willie Brown, now he must've been a good two years older than me, and here's me, I wasnae old enough to be at school, and she says, to my father, "she had him pinned up against the wall by the throat!"
F632 [laugh]
F646 He says, she says, "and I'm draggin her off" and she's sc- she says, she's shoutin "did you hit our Samuel?" //[laugh]//
F632 //[laugh]//
F646 [inaudible]. Because boys didnae hit lassies in those days; it was unfair really, you know.
F632 uh-huh
F646 My mother had to drag me off him. He'd hit our Samuel.
F632 uh-huh?
F646 And anybody that hit our Samuel had the mark o Cain on them as far as I was //concerned, you know.//
F632 //[laugh]//
F646 Willie Brown, oh God. We'd some marvellous times. The th- the things you thought up. I was gonnae marry Angus McVicar.
F632 mmhm?
F646 Who stayed, just down the stairs, only they stayed in a room and kitchen. And we used to play under the table, and, the big chenille cover, and wee Angus and I got on great. We were just about ages. We werenae old enough to be at school, but Mr McVicar was tellin my mother, she told me years later, she says, and he says, "My wife and I", he'd a lovely Highland voice, "My wife and I, we sat there and we listened to them", she says, "and they were getting married,
F632 mmhm
F646 But, they were going to have a big house; they were going to have a two-room and kitchen,
F632 mm
F646 and eh, they've already made up their mind, it's, "we're going to have, we'll have it up the hill".
F632 uh-huh?
F646 You know. And he says there they're chaffin away [?]crattlin[/?] these toy cups and saucers under that table, and they'd it all planned. It was gonnae be a two-room and kitchen up Radnor Park.
F632 uh-huh? aw
F646 I [laughs] old enough to be at school. I mean, but see, I think Angus and I were pretty inseparable when we were, we were kids, //eh//
F632 //uh-huh//
F646 [swallow] oh aye, we were gettin married.
F632 aw.
F646 When we got bigger, we were gettin married, Angus and I. I don't know what happened to them at the blitz. I know his older brother Archie turned out to be a bit of a waster.
F632 mmhm?
F646 But Angus was nice. They were a nice family altogether. But the words we learned, the swear words we learned were beuch.
F632 [laugh]
F646 See, they kept this horse and cart for this old boy that worked for the family, for, and he come back from the First World War
F632 mmhm?
F646 wi a peg leg from under the knee.
F632 mmhm?
F646 It was a wooden, a wooden attachment he had, and he used to sit in the cart, and he would dunt the horse, like that wi his
F632 Wooden leg?
F646 wi his wooden- aye! And then, there was a bit sort of round the corner and there was a s- it was like a garage, but that's where he kept the, the cart
F632 uh-huh.
F646 and the horse.
F632 mmhm.
F646 And, we used to watch him as he brought the the horse along, and he was backin it in s- in the shafts, and the language was absolutely My mother was gonnae thump me because, I learned all these words off by heart. But one day my father was comin home from work, and it was rainin, so we were sittin on the stairs inside, and the game we were playin was to see how many swear-words you could say.
F632 mmhm.
F646 Before you had to take a breath.
F632 [laugh]
F646 Without repeatin any, and I remember it. There was a hand went down the collar of my coat and I got run up the stairs. [laugh] This is my father takin me inside, and I got a penny lecture.
F632 mmhm.
F646 And, and I says, but we were only playin a game, "well that's a game I don't want you playin at any more".
F632 mmhm
F646 So that was it. And then, did I tell you about the time we got the photograph taken?
F632 ehm
F646 And they took the spool over and got developed. And Dalgleish the chemist says to my father co- to to you see. I'll show you your snaps, Sam, [click] He says, "I showed them to the wife", he says, "and she's in convulsions through there". We're all standin there, see we're goin out some place, I think it was a Sunday-School picnic or something, and we'd on the wee frocks and the boys had, were tidy wi the
F632 uh-huh?
F646 wi things to go to the the Sunday School, and we're all standin there. And the yard at the foot of Wee Gordon Street, the wall bit was was big sleepers, railway sleepers //up and//
F632 //mmhm//
F646 doon the way, you see. And they went round; there was a gate that that thingmibob, but the, what it was for, was that part at the side of the of the canal, the barge, there was a barge used to come up, and it was a a builder that used it and it used to unload sand,
F632 mmhm
F646 and bricks and things into that yard. But anyway, we're standin in front of this thingmibob and it wasnae, nobody noticed it, cause it'd been there that long,
F632 mmhm?
F646 And it, when it was developed, we're standin, Adam McBride, Barbara McBride, that's cousins, there was our Sam and I, and we're standin there four of us, and up a- painted in great big chalk letters on it was S-H-I-T-E, //[laugh]//
F632 //[laugh]//
F646 was written on the sleepers, and it had been there that long, nobody, and he clicked the camera, and here we were standin and it said "shite" right across the top of the picture. [laugh] [laugh] ah, we'd a happy life, when you think aboot it. They all got, all these things got thingmibobbed in the Blitz you know, we lost all these things in the Blitz.
F632 [laugh]
F646 But, oh my God, and then the wife in the bottom clo- her husband eh was the the sort of, watchie at this yard.
F632 mmhm?
F646 And they were a weird couple. He had a kind a humphy back, you know, he'd kind of
F632 mmhm?
F646 And stran-, never spoke much to anybody, you know, and his wife was awful funny; she was practically bald.
F632 urgh
F646 Her hair was that thin
F632 mm
F646 she really was, she was practically, her hair was that thin all over, she was practically bald. and, anyway, somebody kicked our Sam's ball and it hit the wood and over into the yard, and he was a crabby old sod, if he got yer ball so-, he would, nine times out of ten, you didnae get it back, and our Sa-, it was a new ball, and I loo- our Sam was nearly greetin, so I "I'll get it".
F632 mmhm
F646 So I goes marchin in, chaps the door. Now I was bein very civil //here.//
F632 //mmhm//
F646 So the door opens and she, she comes to the door and she says "Whi-", she says, "Well?" I says, "Excuse me Mrs Mowdy, could I have S-, could I please have Samuel's ball?" Well my mother nearly died, cause she was doin her brasses on her door up the stairs,
F632 mmhm?
F646 And she, the door got slammed in my face. And my mother came down and she says, "What did I hear you sayin there?" I says, "I was only askin Mrs Mowdy for [laugh]
F632 [laugh]
F646 "For Samuel's ball." "Her name isn't Mowdy". See the boys used to call him, "See him, he's a, that's old mowdy, old mouldy", and oh no, they didnae like him. Old Mou- old Mou-. Well I didnae know her name wasnae Mowdy, so I //went to the door//
F632 //[laugh]//
F646 [laugh]. And it turned out her name was McFarlane, And eh "Please Mrs Mowdy we- could I have Samuel's ball?" oh dear God. My mother says, "It's got to the stage where I'm frightened I'm frightened to go doon the stairs." [laugh]
F632 [laugh]
F646 oh dear, well I really didnae know. I'd never heard them called anything else, but "oh, go, run, here comes the Mowdy", you know.
F632 uh-huh.
F646 [inaudible] the Mowdy, [click]. But the man wi the ca- horse and cart, oh the sweary words that he knew werenae canny, //you know?//
F632 //uh-huh.//
F646 I had to get stopped, I mean I really did have to get stopped there. And then I shaved myself one day and cut my face wi my, corner of my eye, right down to here wi an open razor.
F632 [laugh]
F646 [laugh] Because my uncle, my uncle Adam was givin my dad a haircut,
F632 mmhm
F646 before they went to the football match in Kilbowie Park.
F632 mmhm
F646 And eh he had been usin an open razor against a comb to to run doon the back, tae thin this bit out at the back. And he just closed it and stuck it in his waistcoat pocket. Now his waistcoat was hangin hangin over the back of a chair,
F632 mmhm?
F646 and I had taken it, and I decided that I would sha- I would have a shave, you know. And I drew, but I I didnae draw, I'd drawn it doon that way. And, my mother says, "ye came over me there and", she says "I think I'm biddin".
F632 uh-huh
F646 My mother says, "when I looked at her", my father says, "I'll never forget it either," he says, "yer mother ch- changed about three shades o white." [laugh]
F632 mmhm?
F646 "I I, he says,"'I'd to sit her dou-", she says, "All doon the front of yer wee frock at the side, //there was//
F632 //mmhm?//
F646 there was blood drip, drip drippin off yer face all over it "I think I'm biddin" [laugh]. He says oh God! I carried a scar. My my, he wouldnae take me to the doctor.
F632 No.
F646 He was scared, he didnae want the doctor puttin stitches in.
F632 mmhm
F646 He says, "Because if he stitches that, she'll carry a scar for the rest of her life doon her face."
F632 mmhm
F646 So, he he cleaned it, butt-ended it like that, put a wee d- and taped it, all the way doon tight like that. And it, the flesh knitted by itself, but for quite a while when I was a kid, if, I'd awful rosy cheeks in the cold weather, there would be this thin white line
F632 mmhm?
F646 doon ma cheek, but as my, as I got older and the skin got tougher,
F632 mmhm
F646 you know, the layers of skin came over, it disappeared. But my mother didnae have her sorrows to seek. My brother, eh, did I ever tell you about the time I I broke the thingmibob off of my brother's nut?
F632 No!
F646 Well, he was in bed, and the there was a s- the chair. This was the, sort of, fire-place and this was a chair wi its back up against the thingmibob, the the woodwork of this bed he was in. Now it turned out he'd he'd somethin up wi him, like tonsillitis, or or somethin. He was in bed anyway, and I was talkin to him and he didnae answer me.
F632 mmhm
F646 And my mother had been bakin.
F632 mmhm?
F646 So, I I I didnae, I hi- boinged him on the t-, and I hit him that hard that s- know know the bit you hold to roll it? The handle came off.
F632 uh-huh?
F646 On his h- [laugh] //[laugh]//
F632 //Off the rolling-pin?//
F646 The rollin-pin [laugh] and the wee soul's lyin there greetin. [laugh] [inaudible] This great big lump's comin [laugh], my mother said, "And what did you do that for?" I says, "Well he did, he wouldn't answer me." My father says, "It's a damn good job she didnae hit him any harder, he'd never've answered anybody else either!" But eh, I was upset, mind you, when I realised I'd hit him so hard, you know. But, cause I always remember, we had that right up till the Blitz,
F632 mmhm
F646 Because my father, where the handle had come off,
F632 mmhm?
F646 there must have been cracked or somethin, surely! But, when it came off, he he sanded, he thingmibobbed it all the way doon to it was smoo-. My mother used to use it to mash tatties and things wi, you know. But I'd used it before that to mash my brother.
F632 [laugh]
F646 See kids //nowadays,//
F632 //[laugh] I// thought you loved him?
F646 I did! But he wasnae speak- he wouldnae answer me! So I gied him a tap wi the thingmibob, but, ach, I doubt it must of had a crack in them, crack in it or someth- for the handle tae come
F632 mmhm
F646 Co- ha- be hangin off, you know. He was as gentle as a May mornin. There was a wee Sunday School doon our, in the next close, to us, there was our house and they had, they had a wee Sunday School in it. And he comes in sayin, "I I'm no goin back. I am not going back to that Sunday School if she goes." And my mother's sayin "Why?" He says, "because, ye know the polished bench," he says,"'they had." Ye know, wooden, wooden b- benches wi backs on them. He says, "she spends her time", you know, it's highly polished, "slidin up and [laugh] doon the, slidin up and doon the seat." [laugh] //[laugh]//
F632 //[laugh]//
F646 So, my mother kept me back and let him go on his own, you know.
F632 aw.
F646 I was bored about half-way through. As long as they ke- they were singin songs, singin hymnsy things, I was as happy as Larry, but eh, the rest of it over, right over my nut. Aye it was great, it was that highly polished you could, you could slide. You know, you could you could lie on your stomach or your back and catch the end of the bench and drag yourself up //up.//
F632 //uh-huh.//
F646 And then slide back doon and drag yourself up again. So [laugh] I'd got checked for it and he was affronted. [laugh]
F632 aw
F646 So, he wasn't goin back, "If she's goin back there I'm not goin back." So that was that. [laugh] [inhale] But when my hair fell out,
F632 mmhm
F646 eh, ma- I think I must've been about nineish when [inaudible], and eh, oh I can remember it. [inaudible] It started to come out in patches.
F632 mmhm
F646 It was a form of alopecia, and eh it eh I nev- I wasnae near as outgoin after that. //I got very quiet.//
F632 //mmhm//
F646 Because when people, when you go to school and people jibe at you for things like that, you you you don't really, [inhale] you don't really get over it. It takes you, all your assurance disappears, //you know.//
F632 //mmhm//
F646 There's nothin worse than the people sniggerin, or laughin at you, you know. Some of the things my father got, they got s-, my mother got stuff in the Western Infirmary; the doctor sent her up there for them to see what they could find out. And they gave her a bottle s- I mean, see, my father had to, sort of rub it into the bald bits. But, whatever it was, it rose it and it blistered.
F632 eugh
F646 And, I used to cry myself to sleep. My father says, "I I'm s- I'm no usin that." He used it two nights and he wouldnae use it again. But then they discovered it was eh, it was electric treatment I got.
F632 mmhm?
F646 This, you had to sit on a a chaise-longue thing,
F632 mmhm?
F646 wi arms like that; then there was two brass sort of handle bits stuck out, like that
F632 mmhm
F646 And they came in, and they had a, it was like a, if you could picture a long w- long rod like that, wi electric wire goin along it, and, at the end of it, there was a thing shaped like a, it was almost like a sort of pear-shaped, flat-on-the-bottom, eh electric bulby thing, it looked like.
F632 oh right.
F646 And they used to plug that in, and I had to hold onto these bars. If you l- If you took your hands off the bars a wee bit, like that, you could feel a funny, thingmibob feelin in your hands, and there was, it was the same feelin on your scalp.
F632 Prickly?
F646 Aye, it was the electrics eh thingmibob that was comin through; but it worked.
F632 uh-huh
F646 Eventually, it worked. The hair started comin in again.
F632 uh-huh, must've stimulated the //hair//
F646 //Aye.//
F632 follicles.
F646 But, eh anyway, the hair come back in again, thank God, but eh I'll never forget it. That's what I'm sayin, you should never jibe at kids, you used to hear them sayin to, if a if if a kid had to wear glasses at school, you always got some smart-Alec, generally it was boys.
F632 mmhm
F646 Christened them "old four eyes" and things like that, you know, and it's it's no nice, it really isnae. Should never, should never hurt anybody's f- I think you'd be better, you'd be better to hit somebody,
F632 mmhm
F646 than hurt their feelins, Mean, you hit you hit somebody, you can always rub it, kiss it better. But you hurt somebody's feelings and eh, you cannot kiss it better.
F632 mmhm
F646 So, my grandpa's favourite phrase was k- "Hold your tongue between your teeth!"
F632 mmhm
F646 oh, he was a character. The things like, "I don't know, gossips!" You should always make sure you've swept the shit off your own doorstep before you start lookin for muck on somebody else's.' oh he'd a saying for everything. And eh it was pithy. It was it was it was p- I mean it was was right.
F632 mmhm
F646 [sniff] Heard a a thing, a wee thing the day Dulcie. You know, Dulcie, you know, a girl's name?
F632 Really?
F646 I means "sweet".
F632 hm
F646 As as in, it must be, as in "dulcet".
F632 uh-huh
F646 You know how they talk about "dulcet tones", when somebody sings.
F632 mmhm
F646 And, I didnae know, I didnae know that; I thought it was just one of these names folk picked up, but it turns out Dulcie means "sweet".
F632 oh right?
F646 [swallow]
F632 I wouldnae call my kid that.
F646 No, I don't think I would either.
F632 mm
F646 There's funny enough names goin the rounds these days.

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Conversation 02: Glasgow woman on childhood memories. 2024. In The Scottish Corpus of Texts & Speech. Glasgow: University of Glasgow. Retrieved 28 March 2024, from http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/document/?documentid=351.

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Information about Document 351

Conversation 02: Glasgow woman on childhood memories

Audio

Audio audience

Adults (18+)
General public
For gender Mixed
Audience size 1

Audio awareness & spontaneity

Speaker awareness Aware
Degree of spontaneity Spontaneous
Special circumstances surrounding speech Only one participant had a microphone, so responses of second participant were minimal. Main informant was asked to chat about any subject they liked for 30 minutes.

Audio footage information

Year of recording 2002
Recording person id 632
Size (min) 28
Size (mb) 107

Audio medium

Radio/audio

Audio setting

Private/personal
Recording venue At the home of one of the participants
Geographic location of speech Chryston in North Lanarkshire

Audio relationship between recorder/interviewer and speakers

Family members or other close relationship
Speakers knew each other Yes

Audio speaker relationships

Family members or other close relationship

Audio transcription information

Transcriber id 632
Year of transcription 2002
Year material recorded 2002
Word count 5509

Audio type

Conversation
General description 30 minute conversation about the childhood of one of the informants/participants

Participant

Participant details

Participant id 632
Gender Female
Decade of birth 1970
Educational attainment University
Age left school 17
Upbringing/religious beliefs Protestantism
Occupation Lecturer
Place of birth Glasgow
Region of birth Glasgow
Birthplace CSD dialect area Gsw
Country of birth Scotland
Place of residence Oxford
Region of residence Oxfordshire
Country of residence England
Father's occupation Concierge
Father's place of birth Glasgow
Father's region of birth Glasgow
Father's birthplace CSD dialect area Gsw
Father's country of birth Scotland
Mother's occupation Marketing Manager
Mother's place of birth Glasgow
Mother's region of birth Glasgow
Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area Gsw
Mother's country of birth Scotland

Languages

Language Speak Read Write Understand Circumstances
English Yes Yes Yes Yes
Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic Yes No No Yes Learned a bit because I was interested
Scots No No No Yes

Participant

Participant details

Participant id 646
Gender Female
Decade of birth 1920
Educational attainment None
Age left school 15
Upbringing/religious beliefs Protestantism
Occupation Housewife
Place of birth Clydebank
Region of birth Dunbarton
Birthplace CSD dialect area Dnbt
Country of birth Scotland
Place of residence Chryston
Region of residence Lanark
Residence CSD dialect area Lnk
Country of residence Scotland
Father's occupation Shipyard Worker
Father's place of birth Glasgow
Father's region of birth Glasgow
Father's birthplace CSD dialect area Gsw
Father's country of birth Scotland
Mother's occupation Housewife
Mother's place of birth Clydebank
Mother's region of birth Dunbarton
Mother's birthplace CSD dialect area Dnbt
Mother's country of birth Scotland

Languages

Language Speak Read Write Understand Circumstances
Scots Yes No No Yes At home

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