Nae Streets in Drumchapel - Glasgow Life

from an old Drumchapel boy
The janitor at our new school was called Mister Knox. He had a
smashing big dog called Glen. Its fur was golden brown and white.
The janitor had a son who was in my class. He had great bikes. I still
see him now. He lives in a street near Summerhill Road.
*
In number One Scheme I had pals who lived beside me on
Glenkirk Drive and our everyday place for playing was down the hill
where we lived. We called it ‘the field’.
At the top of the top of hill we gathered. Then we started
running. You could not stop running once you started. Some boys
and girls fell while running. We had to be careful. It was a very steep
hill and it was swampy at the bottom with piles and piles of jaggy
nettles.
All different nettles grew here. The worst nettles were the ones
that left wee blisters. We searched beside the jaggy nettles for big
docken leaves. If you wiped the docken leaves on the stings it made
it a bit better. We carried docken leaves in our pockets in case we got
stung by jaggies. In the swamps there were special grass that had
shoots. We pulled the insides out the shoots. Thsee inside shoots
were tasty to eat. There were leaves we ate too. We just chewed them
and spat out the bits. We were very careful about the one we chewed.
Maybe now it is just poison.
Halfway down the hill from my close at 86 Glenkirk Drive was
the biggest boulder in Drumchapel. We called it ‘the big boulder’. If
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