SOMETIMES the simplest of memories are the most powerful.

Liz Harvey, nee Wilson, found herself transported back in time to her childhood in 1950s Glasgow when she visited our latest Thanks for the Memories event at Hillhead Library.

“When I saw the article in the Evening Times calling for west end memories, it made me think of lots of places I hadn’t thought of for many years,” smiles Liz, who was born on Bank Street.

“But most of all, it made me think of my grandparents, and the happy times I had in their dairy.”

Liz’s grandparents, Lilian and James Thour, were well-known in the neighbourhood and across the city as proprietors of the Star Dairy and ice cream shop on Bank Street.

“I remember helping my grandfather make the ice cream, and sitting with my grandmother as she made me a roll and tomato,” laughs Liz. “My grandfather used to deliver the milk on a horse and cart.”

Liz’s family – mum Barbara, who was a hairdresser and dad John, who was a buyer in Govan, and her brother John – lived close to their aunts, uncles and grandparents.

“Families did stay within a few streets of each other – sometimes in the same tenement close,” she explains.

“It’s not like nowadays, where families are scattered all over the place.

“Everyone was so friendly – we all knew each other and trusted each other. It feels like it was a much simpler time.”

Liz, who now lives in Cardonald, recalls: “Growing up in the west end was fun for my brother, friends and I – I remember playing in Kelvingrove Park, splashing in puddles in the rain, and playing in the hot tar on the roads in the sun, getting it all over our boots and getting into trouble when we got home.

“There were lots of shops and businesses around Bank Street – I remember Hubbard’s the bakery, and Cooper’s the big supermarket too.”

Liz was a pupil at Willowbank Primary and then Knightswood Secondary, and she left Bank Street when she was 19 years old.

“Everything has changed in the area today – it’s much more studenty, and many of the old shops I remember are gone,” she says.

“Although I do remember the students in my day, coming in to the dairy to get flour and eggs to throw at each other on Byres Road, as part of fresher’s week…”

The Thours sold the Star Dairy when Liz was in her 20s, she recalls, and it has since closed down.

“It was a big loss to the area as it was the main dairy at the time, and I know my grandparents were sad to leave it behind,” she smiles.

“It was always busy, and my grandparents were always chatting to people and telling me wonderful stories. I’ll always remember my childhood on Bank Street as a very happy time.”

Ken Lawton also recalls his time as a ‘west end schoolboy’ as a happy period in his life.

“I went to Hillhead High School - both the junior school in Cecil Street near Byres Road and then on to the senior school in Oakfield Avenue,” he recalls. “I remember Byres Road, with its huge choice of shops and pubs and the chance to spot a radio or TV personality, who might have popped down from the BBC at Queen Margaret Drive for a meal at the Ubiquitous Chip.

“I loved Ashton Lane, with its quaint shops and the busy bookshop at Kelvinbridge, which I think was called Lawrence and Lang, although it was along time ago!”

This was the shop, says Ken, where he and his friends would stock up on school supplies and textbooks.

“We all had to buy our own, as the school didn’t supply them but you could get some money back by selling them on the next year as you moved up the school,” smiles Ken. “On the opposite side of the road was The Red Hackle whisky firm offices, including their School of Piping and a whisky bond.”

Like Liz, Ken also remember’s Hubbard’s, a bakery on the ground floor with a restaurant above. “It even had a large table reserved for senior pupils attending Hillhead High School,” he grins.

Details of our next Thanks for the Memories event will be available soon – in the meantime, if you want to share your recollections and old photos of Glasgow through the decades, please email them to ann.fotheringham@heraldandtimes.co.uk

Find out more at www.eveningtimes.co.uk