Glasgow Generations

The Tenth: "Rabbits".
In this, the tenth instalment of our regular fortnightly podcast, Faither yaps about holidays in and around Glasgow. So as you can imagine, this involves stories about hunting for small change on the beach, skinning rabbits at scout camp, and, of course, saving up all year to afford a taxi ride to the train station. Nowt like today's expensive breaks to sunnier climates for him, no siree. Up there on his soapbox he'd much prefer the good old summer days of being chucked out the house at 9am and not allowed back in until teatime.
Feel free to give us some of your own holiday memories at [email protected]. Thanks for continuing to listen, despite the content...

The First: "Rambling".
In this, the first episode of the new Glasgow Generations podcast, you'll hear Scott Docherty talk Glasgow with his dad, Charlie Docherty. You'll hear lots of rambling bits and pieces about the Townhead area Charlie was brought up in, some of the bombs that either exploded or didn't explode in the City during WWII, a little about the teacher's strap & punishment exercises, oh, a great deal about banana rationing! To be fair, we do say at the outset that it'll be pretty general to begin with, so surely we're off the hook on that one (erm...), but no doubt in time we'll get far more specific about the history of Glasgow if we work out how to keep faither on track!
The photo you might see attached to this episode is of Charlie and his motley crew from school, circa 1949-ish, including Brother Gabriel and another particular teacher who, after listening to this show, may sue us for defamation!
Welcome to Glasgow Generations, and feel free to share your own memories of the City with us.

The Second: "Coal".
This one's all about Christmas and Hogmanay in Glasgow back in the day, and I think you'll soon come to the understanding via Charlie's fading memories about the festive period, that when he was growing up in the City, the real celebration was at the Bells rather than around the Christmas dinner table.
He really tries his best to call up some recollections of the homemade toys and penny caramels, visiting the genuine Santa at the old Lewis's store in Argyle Street, and saving for some Italian treats at Christmas, but what becomes clear is that back in the 40's and 50's in Glasgow, the New Year parties were far more important, with the spinning of bottles until 8am, the first footing of all the tenement neighbours, the walking through the East End to find another bash, and the strange tradition of polishing coal...
...That said, the main revelation in this episode is actually the choice of faither's first record, but it's probably best to keep that one quiet. Have a great festive break on us and we'll see you in 2010!

The Ninth: "Muscular".This one was supposed to be all about Glasgow's unfortunate tag as the "No Mean City", but as expected, we digress into the usual nonsense including the Burns Howf and the Muscular Arms, Maggie Bell and Stone the Crows, playing "jorries" and working out what "gird wi a cleet" means. Charlie gets corrected once again by our ever-vigilent listeners, and we yap about the only cinema in Glasgow that was located up a close.Don't worry though, we do manage to cram in a minute or two about the dark crimes and gangs of old, and Charlie even recalls with fondness the only time he was beaten up as an adult. So it all ends well really...

The Twelfth: "Potatoes".
Coming only 18 months following our last venture into cyberspace, Faither and I bring you our promised episode about football. Well, except it's actually about food. Stealing excerpts from Maw Broon's nutritious cookbook we make stomachs either rumble or turn with talk of pieces and dripping, finnan haddie, rabbit stew, stovies, and even something pretty rude called 'tickling trout'.
We're glad to be back in your ears again so please let us know your own Glasgow food tales and check back soon (or in a few years...) for our next episode. About football?