THOUGHT this picture might cool you down after last week’s hot weather. It is a classic scene of sledging at Queen’s Park, Glasgow, in 1952.
The main difference from then until now is that there are sledges there that can accommodate four or five kids at once. Nowadays sledging is more of a solo effort as folk take to the slopes with lightweight bits of plastic. There is going to be some serious heavy dragging back up the hill with these wooden sledges with metal runners.
Life though didn’t always improve in Glasgow. The two lads sucking lollies sitting on a broken-down bogey are in Glasgow’s Blackhill area 23 years after the sledging picture was taken. They are not as well dressed and their play equipment is in a sorry state.
A council report in that year, 1975, revealed that half the adults in Blackhill were unemployed. Poverty, poor housing, and health issues were rife, yet a majority of folk said they would prefer to remain in Blackhill because of family ties.
Fortunately the poor housing conditions have been bulldozed, and Blackhill is no longer synonymous with the worst aspects of the city.
And across Scotland in Edinburgh here are some girls skipping - although it is not simply jumping on the spot but a skipping race for the under 11s at James Gillespie’s School for Girls in June, 1948.
Tough going, although the girl in the middle is certainly giving her all.
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