Veronica McFadyen's Page

The Hurricane

What I remember most about the storm was the noise, I had never heard anything like it in my entire life. My mum and I had not long moved into the top flat at 567 Shettleston Road from the old tenement at 7 Edrom Street.

I slept to the front of the house, mum had the HOLE IN THE WALL BED at the back of the house. I kept moving from the front of the house to the back, even considered going down to the outside toilet or the close! My mum meantime was sleeping like a baby while I was having a major panic attack. Every time I heard a rumble I was sure a chimney would come through the roof. When I witnessed one crashing through the tenement straight across the road I could’nt stand it any longer and dragged my single bed mattress into the hall, I had decided it would be safer there.

Next thing was to persuade mum to join me, I woke her up again telling her about the chimney across the road, she looked at me with disgust and said, “I’ve lived through two world wars and bombs being dropped on top of me, rations and blackouts, if you think I’m moving out of my bed for a stupid bit o’ wind you had better think again, away back to your bed”! Totally humbled I dragged my bed back into the room and put my pillow over my head. Next morning after very little sleep I got up and got ready for work, went down stairs and couldn’t believe the scene. Shettleston Rd. was like a war zone, chimney pots, masonry, bits of trees.

The local busses were few and far between due to the debris, I decided to walk into work that morning and witnessed some awful scenes, but kept thinking about what my mum said, compared to what she had lived through I realised how lucky I was.

Italian cafes in and around Edrom St.
1945-1960
My sister, Josephine,
outside Matteo's cafe, circa 1952.

We had two cafes near our tenement in Edrom St. One on the corner with Shettleston Road, run by two sisters, Lena and Connie Marcella. I believe they lived in or around Wishaw.

When I was very young I used to think Lina and her sister lived round the back of the shop, it never occurred to me that they went home every night and came back in the morning before I left for school. This was a very homely café and preferred by the older generation, I have to admit their home made ice cream was the best in Shettleston. I think the café was called the Palaceum Café as it was just across the road from the palaceum picture house. My mother and her friends often met there.

The other café was owned by the Mateo family and they lived next door to the café in a bungalow. There was also a yard there, they kept vans in and stock. There was also a pigeon loft there and some local men used to stand around all day trying to persuade the pigeons to come home. Mateos café was a great favourite with the local teenagers as they had a jukebox with all the latest hits. It was also very popular with visitors to the local swimming pool, they served hot peas with vinegar, which went down a treat in the winter and of course icecream treats in summer.

Looking back, I realise what a great position our tenement was in - 2 minutes from the cafés and cinema, 4 minutes from the swimming pool, steamie, public baths, Turkish baths and sunbeds, 5 minutes from the local Tollcross Park and finally 2 minutes to bus or tram stops. In the 1950’s Shettleston also had a great variety of local shops and of course the Co-op which my mum preferred as she liked to collect points on her DIVI. We also had the choice of two excellent chip shops again only five minutes from the close.