then she changed it to the Locarno, but I didn’t understand that. So I’m waiting and waiting for her outside the Kelvin Hall. And she waited and waited for me outside the Locarno. And next day I went away.
About 2 or 3 months later I started workin’ in Glasgow. Kazik, he know a few tailors. I was demobbed but we still had the army pay till we get the job. And we have to report to the police, as an alien, you’ve got alien book, you have to report change of address, change of job. Anyway…tailors, tailors, tailors, tailors…walking on Buchanan Street and we see a sign. ‘Tailor Wanted’. And as it aspired, the manager was a Major Forbes and he was Liaison Officer with Polish troops in North Africa. He took me up to the workshop and introduced me to a Polish cutter called Bark who was working there. Zajac means hare in English. So Forbes say ‘Mr. Bark! This is Mr. Hare!’ So it was Bark and Hare! And everyone laughed! I had never heard of Burke and Hare!
And that was the first job I got. They take you on for a trial period first but to tell you the truth, I forgot all about how to do it. I just sat beside a good old tailor, Mr. Penman he was, come from Ballachulish, very nice man, he says ‘I’ll show you how to go about it.’ I picked up from him, mass of, mass of things. It was five pound a week and Forbes say ‘You be getting six, but don’t tell anybody.’ Maybe’cos of being a soldier or something you know? I was quite grateful for it till about a year after it was found out and what a
ballahoo
it was about it, so everybody got a rise after that!
I was working in Buchanan Street for about two or three months and I went to the Locarno. I’m sittin’ there lookin’ at the girls and then she’s standing there. ‘Here! Where you been?!’ So after that I meet her father and went to the house and all that carry on and, there you are, mm-hm.
She was cashier in fruitmarket. You know that big fruitmarket , it was the wholesalers. In Candleriggs. That’s where the fruitmarkets were one time.
Well going together and going to get married and father found out that I’m much older. He didn’t like it. Her mother talked ten to the dozen or twenty. I think she liked me. Anna’s father was a chef in the Athenaeum. Davey Graham. Anna and I went one time for lunch. It was quite dear. Half a crown! And after, we went for a drink with father and I discovered that father like a good snoot! So I met him quite often in the bar after that, in Horseshoe, in West Nile Street. He used to go to Horseshoe.
Her uncles on her mother’s side, the Steins, were in Hamilton and in Blantyre an’ granny an’ grampa, they still were alive. An’ a Grampa Graham, I met him about about two or three times. But I didn’t go to his house. The Steins, I been a number of times in their house up in Blantyre. The Grahams were a bit better off. They were more of a gentlemen lookin’ people, all bowler-hatted, but the Steins were entirely different, workmen. Miners. And the Grahams they were gentlemen farmers. Big farms they had. One family was Episcopalian and the other Church of Scotland, I don’t know which was which. But as far as I concerned, there is no difference, a Protestant’s a Protestant! But there is some difference. Aye.
I was living with Kazik’s father-in-law on Berkeley Street just off Argyll Street, near Kelvingrove Park. Kelvin Hall. Then I decided to go on my own. Och, I stayed in so many places, always movin, always movin’. I stayed in Watt Street, in
Ibrox, in Townhead for a while. And then I stayed in Royston Road, then Alexandra, Alexandra Parade for a pound! Very cheap. And then I stayed in Maryhill on Homburg Street. After that, we got married, so we stayed on Bollan Street. And then we stayed with granny. For about six months, Angela was just little. And then I spoke to the boss, man’s name Shearer, where I work, about the house. How to get the house? To get some permanent address. And he knew
About 2 or 3 months later I started workin’ in Glasgow. Kazik, he know a few tailors. I was demobbed but we still had the army pay till we get the job. And we have to report to the police, as an alien, you’ve got alien book, you have to report change of address, change of job. Anyway…tailors, tailors, tailors, tailors…walking on Buchanan Street and we see a sign. ‘Tailor Wanted’. And as it aspired, the manager was a Major Forbes and he was Liaison Officer with Polish troops in North Africa. He took me up to the workshop and introduced me to a Polish cutter called Bark who was working there. Zajac means hare in English. So Forbes say ‘Mr. Bark! This is Mr. Hare!’ So it was Bark and Hare! And everyone laughed! I had never heard of Burke and Hare!
And that was the first job I got. They take you on for a trial period first but to tell you the truth, I forgot all about how to do it. I just sat beside a good old tailor, Mr. Penman he was, come from Ballachulish, very nice man, he says ‘I’ll show you how to go about it.’ I picked up from him, mass of, mass of things. It was five pound a week and Forbes say ‘You be getting six, but don’t tell anybody.’ Maybe’cos of being a soldier or something you know? I was quite grateful for it till about a year after it was found out and what a
ballahoo
it was about it, so everybody got a rise after that!
I was working in Buchanan Street for about two or three months and I went to the Locarno. I’m sittin’ there lookin’ at the girls and then she’s standing there. ‘Here! Where you been?!’ So after that I meet her father and went to the house and all that carry on and, there you are, mm-hm.
She was cashier in fruitmarket. You know that big fruitmarket , it was the wholesalers. In Candleriggs. That’s where the fruitmarkets were one time.
Well going together and going to get married and father found out that I’m much older. He didn’t like it. Her mother talked ten to the dozen or twenty. I think she liked me. Anna’s father was a chef in the Athenaeum. Davey Graham. Anna and I went one time for lunch. It was quite dear. Half a crown! And after, we went for a drink with father and I discovered that father like a good snoot! So I met him quite often in the bar after that, in Horseshoe, in West Nile Street. He used to go to Horseshoe.
Her uncles on her mother’s side, the Steins, were in Hamilton and in Blantyre an’ granny an’ grampa, they still were alive. An’ a Grampa Graham, I met him about about two or three times. But I didn’t go to his house. The Steins, I been a number of times in their house up in Blantyre. The Grahams were a bit better off. They were more of a gentlemen lookin’ people, all bowler-hatted, but the Steins were entirely different, workmen. Miners. And the Grahams they were gentlemen farmers. Big farms they had. One family was Episcopalian and the other Church of Scotland, I don’t know which was which. But as far as I concerned, there is no difference, a Protestant’s a Protestant! But there is some difference. Aye.
I was living with Kazik’s father-in-law on Berkeley Street just off Argyll Street, near Kelvingrove Park. Kelvin Hall. Then I decided to go on my own. Och, I stayed in so many places, always movin, always movin’. I stayed in Watt Street, in
Ibrox, in Townhead for a while. And then I stayed in Royston Road, then Alexandra, Alexandra Parade for a pound! Very cheap. And then I stayed in Maryhill on Homburg Street. After that, we got married, so we stayed on Bollan Street. And then we stayed with granny. For about six months, Angela was just little. And then I spoke to the boss, man’s name Shearer, where I work, about the house. How to get the house? To get some permanent address. And he knew
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