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tombro wrote:Robert, thanks for that link.
My family moved into theDrum (Airgold Drive) in 1955 and I spent the next five years living in what I thought was a paradise, albeit a paradise without the necessary services (I now realise) to make he scheme totally self-sufficient.
After watching your link, I am glad that my parents made their decision, at the end of 1960, to seek out a new life for us in Australia. Whilst the downturn in theDrum probably didn't happen until the eighties, and while everything did has not gone exactly to plan in Australia, that new life probably took me out of a situation I could never have coped with.
TheDrum in the late fifties was was an escape from the post-war slums of Central Glasgow for many but it is so sad to see that it eventually became a slum in itself. I think fondly now of my friends in theDrum and what has become of them, especially those who attended St Sixtus' School with me, and hope that many of them may still be in good health.
I guess I'll never know about that, but thank you Robert for connecting me to what happened to a place I'll always have very fond memories of !
Tombro
tombro wrote:Bridie,
Funny thing is that my family moved from Possil (25 Fruin Street) to theDrum ! How's that for coincidence ?
Tombro
You wouldn’t be blamed for asking how being housed in a high-rise flat could have such a positive impact on someone’s life.
But Jack Daley, who was just seven when he and his parents were some of the first tenants to be given the keys to their flat in the tower in 1964, explains how the move from a tenement in Cambuslang changed his life.
Jack, now 55, said: “The family moved to Motherwell because my father got a job at Ravens-craig and getting our own council flat in the Glencairn Tower somehow catapulted us out of the conditions we were in and made us relevant.
“Suddenly we felt part of this modern, changing world. We had our own bathroom, emulsioned walls and a two-bar fire.
“From our verandah on the seventh floor we had the most amazing view.
“It was like looking out at a picture every day.
“I think a lot of people, especially the older people, felt any opportunities they had in life had passed them by.
“But when they moved into the tower, it changed everything for the better.
“Until then, we had been living in rented tenement flats owned by private landlords.
“We didn’t have our own toilet, the place was damp and although my mother kept it beautiful it just wasn’t a nice place to live.
“Living in the tenement before we moved to Motherwell, I remember in the winter my dad having to start a fire to unblock the frozen toilet in the close.”
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