A Great Place To Grow Up
T
hough I didn’t realise it at the time, l really enjoyed childhood in the flats. There were lots of families with young children and I grew up knowing just about everyone in 213 Petershill Drive. Anything up to around 30 kids would get together and play British Bulldogs or Kick the Can or whatever sport was on TV - we would all think we were Jimmy Connors for a fortnight in June or Jack Nicholas when the golf was on. All the kids from all the blocks would get tea trays out and slide down hill opposite 123 Block when the snow fell - it seemed to always be up to my waist - I don’t know if that’s because I was so short or the snow was so deep. When I got to secondary school, I was told that tower blocks deprived kids of a proper childhood but I really didn’t know what they were on about, or rather they didn’t! It’s a pity it’s gone downhill but during the 70’s, it was a great place to grow up. Alistair Little 1968-1968
Reflections on Red Road
T
he first memory of Red Road was when TV cameras came to film at the flats for a news report and all the mums and dads got their kids in and cleaned up for the cameras. I however was out on my bike all day and my parents couldn’t find me. My parents turn on the news that night to see me on the tele, manky from being out on my bike all day at the BMX track being asked if I liked living at the flats, picking my nose and telling the interviewer it was rubbish living there! No one likes to see where they took their first tentative steps as a child raised to the ground, but housing requirements and the state of the flats are such that they must go. I’ll honestly miss the silhouette of them against the Glasgow skyline, and if ever in time of reflection it’s always the red road I drive to. I will miss them. Ian Douglas 1980 - 1989