AT first I thought this was a scene from an old British crime movie - Brighton Rock or somesuch, with the chap in the grimy mac appearing friendly before he pulls a shooter from his pocket and orders the counter clerk: "Nobody needs to get hurt! Just stick all the money in a bag and hand it over!" But it is in fact the GPO training school in George Square, Glasgow. I'm not sure if the clerk is being trained to smile at the customers, or this is her first day and she is being taught how to take the smile off her face.
A little curious fact I discovered is that stamps used at the training school were overprinted with two vertical black bars so that they were not taken home and used on letters. A trusting bunch the GPO in those days, it seems.
The training school was inside the vast Post Office building in George Square which at one time was the largest post office in Scotland. There were heavy doors I remember, into the waiting area, with a large number of windows with staff behind, so queueing was never lengthy unless it was just before Christmas.
However the decision was taken to close the George Square post office in 1995 after it had been there for 138 years. In that baffling way organisations believe we are stupid, the Post Office said the closure, and the opening of smaller branches in the city, would bring postal services in Glasgow into the 21st century. Aye right.
After the George Square closure, we eventually got used to the post office being in St Vincent Street - until they closed that as well. Currently the biggest post office is now in the old Crockets building in West Nile Street, but presumably that will close once we get used to that as well.
The George Square building was empty for a number of years while its future was debated, with plans originally to turn it into an art gallery. It is now flats and restaurants.
GOOD sport Ann Glasgow tries her hand with a whip and peerie in Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street in 1983 as Scouts drum up publicity for the annual Gang Show. The Glasgow Gang Show was one of the world's oldest, running almost every year from 1936 until 2013. The cast was made up of young people from Scout Groups and Guide Companies in Glasgow and Lanarkshire who rehearsed for three months before putting on a very professional show, usually in the Theatre Royal or the King's.
Peeries were colourful wooden tops which you spun with a whip to see how long you could keep it spinning. I always assumed that this was more a myth than fact as I cannot imagine any child being anything other than bored witless after playing with it for more than ten minutes, but I could be wrong.
THIS was one of the most joyous days in Glasgow's recent history - a smiling, fist-clenched Nelson Mandela in George Square addressing a crowd of around 10,000 people after receiving the Freedom of the city. He also received the freedom of eight other British towns and cities that day, but the ceremony was held in Glasgow as it was the first city to make him a freeman in 1981 when he was still in jail. It had been a bold move by Glasgow's ruling Labour group as Nelson was still regarded by many establishment figures as a terrorist.
Showing its sense of humour, which does not happen often, the council had also renamed St George's Place, Nelson Mandela Place, purely because the then South African consulate had its offices there, and council leaders liked the idea of staff having Nelson Mandela as part of the address on the mail arriving every day.
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