'Ramblin Toes' walk through SunnyGovan!
October 2002
Marion Campbell continues her walk.
Flash back..........
It's Winter. Time,…. Saturday morning. Place… The Macdonald household at 49 Copland Rd .(I'm about twelve or thirteen) .
(Mother). "Marion. Will you go to the coal depot and see if you can get me a bag of dross". I agree readily; this was something different to do. set off pushing the old 'Go chair' (This pram had been my young sister's. My mother used it to take her washing to the "Steamie" Now, it was serving another purpose)
I make my way to Govan Cross. .half an hours walk I arrive at the coal depot. It's a hive of industry. Coal merchants are loading their lorries. Without any inhibitions, I begin to wander round the coal merchants enquiring if they have any dross for sale.! I get it and a bag of it and it is loaded on to my pram .I hand over sixpence then triumphantly I push the pram up Govan Rd, Southcroft St, Vicarfield St, then home.and father get busy in the scullery. A pail is filled with dross. Water is added. Next, the mixture is put in tins, then in to the oven.time later the baked dross is brought out of the oven. My mother carefully upturns the tins and slides out the newly baked briquettes great ceremony one is put on the fire. We all watch.
Within a couple of minutes the prospect of a roaring fire is quashed. The coal briquette has collapsed leaving a little mound of dross.poor parents didn't know, that to make briquettes there has to be another ingredient…. cement!
Back to reality I move off again. This is Govan Cross and it's quite different. Helen Street seems to have disappeared and the pavement continues unbroken making it pedestrian all the way.
I'm still on the left hand side. The Co-op, Boots and Clarks are gone. Instead there is a shopping mall, some little shops and a few offices..
It is mid morning now. As I stroll up this street, buzzing with people, I become aware of how vibrant Govan is.
Another thing I notice is the amount of young mothers that are pushing them. Unlike where she lives, it's mostly 'wrinklies' that push the pram, and she is one of them.
The reason being is the young mothers have to work to help pay the mortgages.
Golspie street swings round now, and passing Harmony Row I come in to Langlands Rd. I continue walking and pass Roseneath St then Shaw St.tenements are still there and below them are the usual little shops.
Living in a suburban town I am deprived of them, I stop and gaze in their windows.I look in a butcher's window. The meat looks good and I go in. Waiting to be served I am entertained by banter flying back and forth from butcher to customers.
They are on familiar terms with each other.
A woman receiving her change says, "Oh take a pound off Jimmy. Put it in my Christmas club".
I feel a pang of nostalgia, and I don't want to leave this shop. This is the world I once knew. But I have to go on and I leave the shop with my parcel of meat.
I'm on my way again and pass Hill's Trust school - Obviously it is no longer a school: a notice reads Community Learning Centre.
At this part of Langlands Rd great changes have been made. The through road has been cut off. A housing development has been built smack bang in the middle where the road used to run.
I cross the road and passing between bollards I find I am in a walkway which is bordered on each side by trees, plants and shrubs and new terraced houses. It's lovely.
At the end of this road I pass between bollards and leave the housing scheme behind.
I am amazed. I have come out at Langlands Rd; again at the corner of Elderpark St.
This area looks more or less as it was years ago except that the road has been narrowed by the introduction of parking bays, flower tubs and traffic calmers.Elderpark Library. Is on my right.
From here I continue my walk following the curving perimeter of the park. Every now and again I stop and peer through the railings. I'm searching for something.eyes light up. I see it.
The pond! And my Govan baptism!
At this point I want to stress to you how true a Govanite I really am..wasn't yet at school when I fell in. My big brothers were fishing for baggy minnows. "There's one!. There's one!" I shouted excitedly and then….splash!
I plunged in and joined it. My brother to this day recalls how my knickers billowed out as I went under! take up my walk again; I'm still hugging the park railings.
After a large bend, the road swings round and opens up. To the right is Crossloan Rd. Straight ahead is Arklet Rd. The Vogue used to be here. A new block of flats has taken its place.
back………it's the last day of the school term. The whole school is crowded in to the cinema. It's prize giving.( I'm not getting one…. as usual!)) .
But like the majority of pupils who are not receiving a prize; I'm prepared to sit it out.
A carrot has been dangled at the end our noses; when prize giving is finished, a film will be shown be shown! 'pilgrimage' is just about over now but there is one final landmark I must see.
I cross to the other side of the road. I pass Arklet Rd; then some vacant ground where The South Govan Town used to be, and I'm there..High School.
This landmark pulls at my heartstrings. I loved this school but alas, many years ago it was raised to the ground by fire.
All that remains are the railings and the gates. It doesn't seem fifty years ago, that, dressed from top to toe in the school uniform I nervously walked through them.
For a few minutes I remain there, then, with a lump in my throat I turn and walk away.
I'm on the bus on my way home. This morning I set off from home in an exuberant mood but now I'm feeling a bit sad.
The Govan where I was born and bred is gone. The streets I played in as a child, from dawn till dusk are gone. Worse than that, nobody knew me. I was a stranger!
But then, I think, there is another way to look at it.
The Govan of today has changed but the Govan I knew is still vivid in my mind. I have a host of wonderful memories of Govan and of the people who came my way.
And as the song goes 'They can't take that away from me' (That is, as long as my memory holds out!!!!)
Since I started writing this, I attended a reunion organized through Friend Reunited
Seventeen of us met. The majority of us hadn't seen each other for forty-eight years.bonded right away and had a great night.
But then we all had something in common
we were Govanites TAKE ME ON THE NEXT WALK PLEASE.TAKE ME BACK TO THE LAST WALK PLEASE.
Take me back
