Leaving school in 1950 and searching for a job was not,[for our generation the problem,encountered by young people of to-day.
The steel industry at Clydbridge and Hallside was booming.leading the way in getting Britain'seconomy back on its feet,and providing good training and
wages,the mining industry [although in decline]was another option,olso the building industry was very busy, due to the acute shortage of good housing. offered the opportunity of apprenticeships.
At school and at home,we were encouraged to learn a trade and i joined many Cambuslang boys as apprentices at the huge marine engine works of Harland & Wolffe,Ltd Anderson, Glasgow,[now the site of the Kingston bridge]a fair and awkward bit of travelling required,until we reached the age of 16 a number of us worked in various offices,i remember being smartly rigged out[or so i thought]in my fathers demob suit.
Ileft the house at 6,30 with my pockets bulging with my pieces,[mostly cheese]and an identity tag ,[so the Glesga polis knew we were country boys]walking from the far end of the Circuit,to Cambuslang staion,to catch,the7.05 low leavel train to Anderson Cross,joined by [whoever could get out of bed] by John Mcadam.John Paul,William Mulroony,Tommy Kee
nan,John Reilly and a few other straggles,during the winter,Mr Duffy,the stationmaster would have a nice fire burning in the waiting room.
We had 5 years trade training on meager wages, filled with good fun, camaraderie,and good friends,others who travelled, Ernie Rooney Andy Thomson Charlie Hill [boxing Champion who worked as an electrician in the Harlands shipyard,] Bill Duff[who was an apprentice lens grinder]one of my best friends Willie Goldie[Who played as goalkeeper for Airdrie and Celtic was very badly injured,by machinery in the engine works, this ruined his career in football,but did not ruin his spirit or humour,they all made this awkward journey for little financial reward.

Your location East Kilbride

Phil

This is a great story. You must have many more like this? Where all those names now?

Have you seen my articles on Charlie Hill?

www.edwardboyle.com/EB/cambuslang/CharlieHill.htm

HI Phil.

I remember Wullie Goldie quite well, sadly don't remember any of the other names that you have mentioned, he was in my class for a time in school. his picture is still there, (If it is the same guy we are talking about) unfortunately he lived quite some distance from my home in Meek Place subsequently our active mischief was centered around St brides School area. Sadly as is fairly normal on leaving school one saw much less of school friends, then they disappeared completely. I have tried to contact so many, even those that I knew well after leaving school and before going into the army. I went up to Scotland on two occasions but could not find any of my old friends.One thing that I dread is to actually find some friends with the letters RIP after their names. I think that I should have gone to Canada or Australia to find all my old friends?
Best wishes to you and to your remaining friends from the past

James Harvey. (Goa India for the time being anyway)

Your location Goa India

Hi Ed,
I have read your your article about Charlie Hill.around this time
he lived in Flemington,
We all took a keen interest in his boxing career and i remember him
as a very pleasant fellow.
How Charlie travelled,i have no idea,but it must have beeen quite
a struggle tavelling from Flemington to Govan for 5 years +, in the early
fifties.
best wishes
Phil.

Your location East Kilbride

Hi James,
Wiilie Goldie,lived in a tenement building between Dukes Road
and Eastfield school {named Clyde View,}and which is no longer there,
As a scoolboy at St Brides, he played goalkeeper for Scotland
in 1949, winning against Wales.He played along with me in the boys guild
team,untill St Columbkilles claimed him as elligable to play for them,
by a quirk of the boundry between Cambuslang and Rutherglen his house
was in Rutherglen.
Sadly a number of the lads mentioned are no longer with us.
but Willie [who i met fairly recently}is still his cheerful self, and
Bill Duff {living in Canada}is well.
Best wishes,
Phil Collins

Your location East Kilbride

Really interested in your comments about Willie Goldie. I also worked in Harland and Wolffs although a little later than you, I started in 1958 as store boy in the E and M dept in block 2.
Willie's accident was on the big crank shaft lathe in block 3 and I met him and worked along side him in the planning dept at Harlands gun shop in Scotstoun around 1964.
I exchanged E-mails with him briefly shortly after the publication of the book "Oh Hampdon in the Sun" but he didn't really remember me as I was only a snotty nosed kid at the time in the gun shop.
I'm so happy to hear that he is still around and is still his cheerful self. If you see him again tell him I wish him all the best and hope he continues to do well.

John Doherty.

P.S. I'm not really a Cambuslang boy, I grew up in Parkhead and Barlanark.

Your location Canada