Your picture of the Barrage Balloon assembly at the Kelvin Hall (June 17) brought back an unhappy memory for me.

I attended Oakbank Primary School in Garscube Road. Shortly after the war started in 1939, a barrage balloon station was positioned across the road from the back of the school.

We used to go over and talk to the ground crew at lunch time. One day there was a huge explosion while we were all in the school, the windows were all blown in. The barrage balloon had blown up, killing the crew.

Fortunately for me, the class I was in was around the corner from the launching pad, and I was sitting well away from the windows. Many of my classmates were badly injured.

The teacher did remarkably well in trying to calm us down.

Daniel Harris

Via e-mail

Gaelic signs

Has anyone noticed the ridiculous Gaelic signs we now see all over the place and for whose benefit exactly are they there?

Or has southern Scotland been invaded with Gaelic speakers that have materialised miraculously from some underground caves. We in the lowlands never spoken or understood Gaelic. What a waste of money. In Glesga parlance, pure dead nuts.

R Keery

Via e-mail

Clapton gig

I WAS shocked to hear the guitar legend Eric Clapton left the Hydro show quite so suddenly.

I had thought about going to the gig, but ticket prices put me off. It is incidents like this that you feel the ticket-buying public are getting ripped off and no-one gives us a second thought.

Where would these people have been in the early days without their fans to support them and help keep them where they are today? I can just see me walking off on a job and seeing how far that would get me.

C Gentles

Govan

Street decline

I WAS walking along Sauchiehall Street at the weekend and dismayed to see the amount of empty shops and bars.

Something has to be done to encourage new firms to open up there.

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