To all those who have left 'The Dear Green Place'.
Where do you think you would be today?
What do you think you would be doing?
Alex

Think I would have a nice wee hoose say 4 bedrooms in probably Auchanairn Bishopbriggs area so a cin have ma mammy move in beside me & I could take care of her.I actualy truly feel thats where I would be & what I would want to be doing.

hi i would be the boss at work still living with my ma and passing my good words on to the next generation .

Linda, sorry but four bedrooms is a big hoose here.

Hi Alex, born in Crichton St, moved to Balornock at 13 later got married and moved back to Adamswell St. then moved to Sauchie near Stirling, if we had not come to Canada think we would probably have still been living in the Stirling area??

Hi Alex, absolutely no idea

I DO know I wouldnae have met Geoff or had our two precious boys {they're in bed noo so they're precious }

Sometimes I wonder, especially when I'm in my own Family company from home and never feel any sense of explanation when retelling stories etc of what's been in my life since leaving.....they jist get it.
That's not always the case when you're in a similar but not the same Culture....what exactly do ye mean....cripes if ahv heard that wance ahv heard it a thoosand times!

I'd probably have travelled more by now for sure, Canada's brilliant for having the four Seasons so you don't have the same Oh where will we go for the sun in summer kind of thing.

I think I made the right decision though coming here, albeit it was jist for a year, twenty year ago.

Not a clue , but hopefully something good..

I do know if my dad had not died I would not have left .... On the other hand I did awright.....

Don't really know where I would be or what I would be doing but I do know one thing....I have enjoyed life as it is and really don't need to say "what if".

Intersting replies!
The reason I put this here is my cousin from Beeton, Ontario, was over last year staying with Allison and I in Springburn.
We took her and her Canadian hubby around all the places she used to know. She left Maryhill when she was 10 and has spent over 40 yrs in Canada. She used to wonder where she would have been if she had stayed here and what her life would have been like.
Alex

If I hadn't gone to the Locarno, I wouldn't have met my lovely husband. If we hadn't moved down to the south of England, our kids would never have met their lovely spouses and I wouldn't have my beautiful wee granddaughter with another grandchild on the way. Even better if my cousin hadn't moved to London and met & married a Spaniard then settled in Surrey, my son wouldn't have met my cousin's husband's gorgeous Spanish niece, who is now his wife and my daughter-in-law! Who knows what route our life would have followed if we had stayed in Glasgow. We have worked hard and played hard and I'm happy with life although, now that I'm a grandmother, I do look back and wish that I had lived nearer to my mum, it must have been terrible for her being so far from her grandchildren.

Who knows!!! all I can say this is the bottom line , I would be living on a pension and trying to exist , exactly like I am now hahaha Mind you I have had a wonderful ride to get to where I am at now ,made it lost it ,made it lost it , made it lost it , too late to recover this time . I really don't think I would have had the opportunities I have had if I had remained in Glasgow . You have to know what it was like for a guy with Irish name ,and Catholic schooling way back then in Glasgow. Thank god it is not the case now ( or is it? ).

If i had not taken the King's Shilling and served her Majesty in many foreign lands,i probably would have become a "wee nerd" as it is i would not have spent all these years being married to an Angel from Heaven,with wonderful kids and grandkids,I still yearn for the Burns and Braes of my Homeland.
Although i am a SCOT and ferocious in my patriotism for my country and kin,I could not return without my tremendous wife and family.

Baskabar why do you say you would have become a wee' nerd'?

As my mom used to say "whats for you wont go by you "I am where the good lord meant me to be ,and I am very happy to be here.Not one regret.

Ha! Ha! Well said Isobel!!!! As you probably know by now I have very good reason to love that wee phrase!

Hi Melody.
The way my life was back then "I was a scumbag" always with the wrong crowd,breaking my parents heart constantly,heading for BAR_L for a long long time. No excuses i had the best parents anyone ever could have,i was not bullied at school or any of the thousand reasons people blame for their behaviour . i was a wrong un!.
Then in a moment of unusual sanity for me at that time i joined the forces and met some "real men" who showed me the error of my ways.
The delight and joy in my mothers eyes when i came home on leave after 2 years a MAN is something constantly with me,also my fathers pride in me made me cry like a baby.
But all this happened a good number of years ago,thankfully all my children were not as i was when i was young.
Sorry to prattle on please don't think i am an old sweetie wife,but if i had stayed in Glasgow i would not be with my angel and our kids.

Well good for you Baskabar, I'm happy for you that your life was turned around. Take care

Are you an Eastender Baskabar? Cause I think ah like you. I always like Eastenders.

Baskabar your post was lovely to read

Careful Angela we could be gettin' 'fluffy' again.

Ah'll always be fluffy melody its me and who i am.

Not one bit of you Angela, I know you too well.

Baskabar, That was a lovey post. Good to know you have a good life now.

Hello Ladies !

Melody fluffy to me means caring and respectful that kinda fluffy

Hello lennox

a nice post there baskabar ,noo if you see me in London ,jist say hello I will be in Acton where ever the heck that is ,and me and my son will be sightseeing so if you happen to see a wee fat wumin wae a Scottish accent its me ha ha

Of course it does Angela yer wee backbone is Glesga made fae girders like mine.

Melody a loved that Irn Bru advert right gruff voice made is scotland by girders ye canny whack it

Did we go to the same school cos I always thought that wit it meant

Lennox hen we are weegies we aw think the same well maist times

Fluffy?
Warm and soft and a nice place to fall.
GB

I always thought "fluffy" meant covered in "oose"

Hi,Iam happy with my life as its turned out,I do think sometimes what if we had'ent moved away.Would we still be together,Silly things like that.With him joining army its best thing that ever happend to us.But i still miss glasgow.xxx

hi maggie hen its nice that you live so close to glasgow - do you ever go to glasgow for a visit, although i fly guite often im still a white knuckle flyer and would rather take a train

Melody,Angela Chick and all you GG girls..........Stay Fluffy it's lovely

Thanks Angela Chick
Keep on fluffing,Your posts are brilliant along with all the GG gang........

Why thank you Baskabar(kind sir) your very welcome see am fluffing again

I used to wonder about that and would look back through rose tinted specs but now I am more of a realist.

I left for many reasons, looking back. One was that the job prospects were not wonderful. Another was that I wanted to get away from the out and out bigotry that I was brought up with. I can remember oh too well how I would be nagged to "get rid of" a boyfriend unless he was of the right kind. Meanwhile, he too would be getting nagged by his family. I could not face one of those situations in which both my sister and I were involved with the "wrong sort" and finally moved to London where nobody cared what you were, what you did. I accept that my situation may not have been what others experienced, but it was very real to me. Intolerance is a destructive thing, wherever you experience it.

I have had many opportunities to return, I have sometimes been tempted to buy a place there in case I decide to ever return but I think it is unlikely now, given that I have my own children (albeit grown up ones) here. Home is where the heart is for me and I would have to be dragged away from my family down here.

I am fortunate in that I still have my mum up there, as well as other family and friends. I love Glasgow but I was 19 when I left, a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then and there is not point in dwelling too much on the past, really. It is impossible to say what I would have done/become. Surrey is not so bad, at least the weather is better.

I made choices for reasons, like most of us did. I think things are mapped out for us.

GQ

hmm. Just how does one know how their life would have turned out if one had stayed in Glasgow.

I have soo many memories reminding me of the reason I left..I find it impossible to picture a future of hope,if I had stayed in Glasgow.

Despite the above statement, Scotland will always tug at my heartstrings.

if I had not left I would have become very sick in more ways than one and a joined the wraf to get me out of a rut and a needed excitment in my life and felt a was stagnating in glasgow as all my friends were either getting married or having babies and a still had the wonder lust in me even now if a was well enough a would be travelling the country living off the land and doing odd jobs for my keep as a am still a wanderer at heart what keeps me here is my granddaughter and my twin men they are men not boys now and a think if things were different a would still want to explore the banks and braes and nooks and crannies in the uk so who knows where a would be

Dito to that brother

I think we can only dare to hazzard a guess of perhaps what we wanted or wouldve have wanted to have become, by the time that factored by us, who knows what?.I mean who truly knows what wouldve happened had we stayed but I know what I wouldve liked to have happened & that is I wouldve wanted to have had a nice 4 bedroomed home in Bishopbriggs so I could remain near to my beloved springburn & also have my mother living with me so I could help take care of her, thats what I wouldve wanted.

Failing that I wouldve wanted my mother to move into my 4 bedroom home We have aquired here in Brisbane Australia, all because I remained here in Queensland instead of glasgow alas she won't leave her sons or her house, so the desire & hopes I have now are actualy the same with the same results as if I had stayed only thing that differs is that Iam here here insteada springburn /bishy

We moved to Dumbarton when I was about 4 and I went to Dumbarton Academy for most of my primary school. They decided that the Academy was to be secondary only, so we got moved to Heartfield School. I learned my tables to the rhythm of the rivets going into ships being built on the Clyde at John Browns, et. al. Jackie Stewart's dad owned Dumbuck Garage where my dad got his petrol and bought a new Austin. I remember seeing Jackie in an old Austin 7 driving round a field at the side of the garage. When I was 10, we moved to kirkintilloch and I finished my primary education at Townhead School. Then having passed the qualifying exam, I went to Lenzie Academy. My friend (dead now) and I often went swimming at Townhead Baths -- sometimes Springburn Baths. A bag of chips after ! When we were older, bus to Bishopbriggs and into Jackie Bells !

I worked in Glasow until I left aged 22 and took a job in England. I am still there, but I do like to take trips back to Scotland and tour round. I miss silly things --- Govan Ferry.

I saw a few acts at the Empire --- Cliff Richard and the Shadows. I met Hank Marvin in 1962 -- I think they came in '62, but my memory is a bit vague.

As for music, I have a few guitars, a trumpet, a couple of banjos, an old violin, half a drum kit which belongs to Willie Stirling (who just didn't turn up one day and I never saw him again) but I kept his stuff safe and sound. I also have a Yamaha Clavinova which is great fun and so much more versatile than a piano. My son plays guitar much better than me and my grandson is already better than me too ! Anyway, neither of them met Hank Marvin, or have his signature on their Fender Stratocaster. My son and I met tommy Emmanuelle the fabulous Australian guitar player --- and a few others amongst the finger-style fraternity. I use to play charity concerts organised by Tommy Tutin (from Kirkintilloch) and I enjoyed doing that.

If I hadn't left? Well, like the lady higher up the list of replies --- I wouldn't have the son-in-law and daughter-in-law that I have, or four fabulous grandchildren aged 15, 13, 11 and 10. Three boys and one girl. The girl is 11 going on 16! hahaha. Will I ever come back to stay? I don't know --- its a maybe --- but if I came back I think I would go for somewhere in sight of the Campsies, maybe Bishopbriggs, Kirkintilloch, Kilsyth, Lenzie === don't lnow.

I meant to make a quick reply and have written half a book, sorry

I know this sounds a bit like double dutch - but if I'd never left - I'd still most probably be away!
The reason I say this, is shortly before I did leave, I'd just been accepted by Langside College, for to train as a chef.

But then, who knows - I might have just finished up as Glasgow's answer to that irritatin' wee n'yaff - Jamie 'don't eat chips whitever ye dae' Oliver!

Or - dishing up pizzas at pitza hut lol

Neither I nor my mates were what you might term bad lads but there was so many gangs and fights in those days that it was difficult not to get involved. I'd been to court but missed doing time. Not only I but my old man too was pretty sure I wouldn't see 21. Imagine walking down the road on your own and hearing a motorbike roaring up behind you and turning to see that it was on the pavement bearing down on you with a nutter stood up behind the biker waving a chain big enough to cleave your head off. Catholic school saved me. I leaped over the big spiked steel railing fence and ran through that playground to climb over the other side and disappear.
Leaving was on the cards for me anyway. As a kid I was always wandering off somewhere; always needed to see what was further over the hill.
Had I stayed I probably would have either come to harm or done someone else harm.
Mind you, being on the move has brought me into many a dodgy situation too but I've been dead lucky, instead of dead.
Meetin' the burd (Mrs Bird) put an end to my wanderlust.

I've asked myself the same question over the last 46+ years since I left Glasgow. I had a good job in the Health Department, lived at home (a SSHA flat in Cadder) with my Dad and younger sister. I was going with a real dishy bloke and was in 7th heaven. Then, wham .... a letter arrived from NZ Immigration, offering my sister and I tickets to travel to New Zealand, with less than 3 weeks notice. Our older sister had emigrated 4 years earlier and had been very persuasive in getting us there too. Our Dad, who had to pay his own way, had to wait for a suitable passenger ship.

Naturally, I was pretty cut up about leaving the gorgeous boyfriend, but we had come too far as a family to pull out. I've often thought about the situation and imagined me turning down the ticket and staying put. My younger sister would have been a bit reluctant to travel on her own (she was barely 18) but if she had gone and I'd stayed, my romance may not have lasted anyway. Maybe our Dad would have refused to go to New Zealand. It would have split up our family which would have been tragic as we had been close after the death of our mother in 1953. As it happened, my younger sister and I met new boyfriends in Christchurch and we both got married the following year, followed by children and then grandchildren. My Dad married a wonderful Irish lady and they had many happy years together. All this has gone through my head a thousand times but I think it was meant to be. Who knows what might have happened if I hadn't left Glasgow but I can definitely say I would not do as our former neighbours' two sons did - they are still living in the same flat in Cadder after 55 years!

Good topic. I would not like to think too much about the "what if". I know that I made the right decision and have no regrets and a great family. I go back pretty often on business to England and always manage a weekend in Glasgow but feel that I have been away to long and feel a bit of a stranger, when the conversation gets going you don`t know who they are talking about.Maybe the weather here has an influence.

I agree with zascot, good topic.
I think I'd be in Dubai. Yes, the climate is a big influence, I don't think after being away for 30 years I could go back to the cold & rain but never say never.

For me it has always been the weather & beuteful beaches that keep ma feet firmly planted in Australia if Scotland had the same weather Id likely have stayed put.