He used to send me into fields amongst the cows, to pick up manure with a bucket and shovel!

On either side were the asylums. On the right was where the most dangerous people were kept in all of the time, some in padded cells, and occasionally I would watch them ploughing, only instead of using a tractor or horse, the warders made the inmates do it all, with a ;harness fixed to their chests, and all day they would have to drag the plough up and down the furrows of the hill. It was really sad to watch, and it was a very inhuman way of treating people who were unfortunately suffering from mental illness. One day I saw a warden punch one inmate in the face, and they would steal the tobacco from the inmates, and the cigarette allowance, and if anyone ever complained, the wardens would beat them up.

A gardener who worked there used to bring my father tobacco and sell it to him cheap. He was an Aberdonian and my brother and I couldn’t prevent from laughing when we listened to his accent.

When I was about 18, I worked in the Crow Road asylum, doing building jobs and experienced what its like to be inside there. I always found that the women were more violent towards each other than the men, who were mostly quiet and hardly ever spoke much. The women would scream and in the garden where I was working, and would fling border stones at each others heads. Sadly they never had the sense to duck. The wardens were unconcerned how much injuries they would cause, so sometimes I got involved, trying to protect one from another.

One day they sent down another bricklayer to help me build a pig sty and he was terrified. I told him they wouldn’t harm him, but he didn’t seem to believe me.

One inmate had an obsession with seagulls landing on the walls around the sties he would bellow at the top of his voice for them to clear off, or else! The new bricklayer was just taking his tools out of the bag, but he didn’t know about this inmate, as he was looking at the seagulls beside ;him, and thought it was he that the guy was watching, until he roared out ‘Get oot or al murder ye’. The bricklayer put his tools back and I never saw him again! The last I saw of him, he was running at full speed to get back onto the Crow Road.

I always found it hard to know who was the inmate and who was the warder! When off duty they both looked quite mad.. Maybe they had worked there too long

THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE.

I was sent there to build walls inside, and I never expected what I did see. I wanted to be a vegetarian after that, and the slaughtermen were cruel. It all made me feel quite sick.. That’s a thing you never forget either nor like talking about..

THE TANNERY

Which is situated at Mill Street still.

Where they cured animals skins in large pools filled with acid, what a stink. And there was only a small wall to step on round the pools so if you fell in, you would be in trouble. I guess you would be cured and die at the same time./.

THE COOPERY

Where the coopers made and repaired casks and barrels. I kept seeing them pass me, drunk, as I was building the wall, and mostly they were carrying casks under their arms. I couldn’t understand this until I was told that the coopers put boiling water inside the cask and swirled it about, extracting the alcohol from the wood. Its illegal because when the distillers get these barrels and casks back, they would loose a certain amount of seepage once more, but that didn’t stop the coopers. It was real comical to watch them keep staggering by with little casks tucked under their arms.

ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL

I worked in the furnaces where I had to crawl through a small opening where they shovelled the coal in. I had to replace the old damaged fire bricks and build new ones in. At that time, it was just opposite from the Alex cinema in Nelson Street. Now its further back facing Corsebar Road. The Asylum and Hospital have been replaced by an ambulance station and the new hospital.

.THE ICE RINK

I worked there digging up the concrete under the ice and repairing the ammonia filled pipes underneath. I tried skating, but the skates they hired out were awful and I was always scared that someone would jump on me when I fell down, and slice my fingers off with the sharp blades, which wouldn’t help with my learning to play the accordian, although I was never a Jimmy Shand!

I attended a house in Ferguslie to learn to play the accordian better. My teacher was a little man, and he didn’t like me to leave night. He seemed to be lonely and enjoyued my company He had a different accordian, which was a bit of a drawback. His was button and I had keys, so I never learned much. Then I went to a professional teaching by reading music. It bored me to tears. He told me I should stop laying bricks because my hands were muscle bound, they were too strong and stiff. So it was either the accordian or my job. It was easy to pick which –I could make a living out of. The old squeeze box became secondary.

I also built the walls at Hawkhead Cemetary, so they have still got to be there at least! And the houses over at Huntershill and Glebburn. I would still know them.

THE KIBBLE SCHOOL.

This is where all the boys still go, who are in trouble with the law. I was working on the outside wall and they were always asking for ‘snout’ and trying to act tough. I guess they had to do that to survive while they were in there. It was no place for softies.

What I remember was they would hide their money and when I wask knocing down one wall, I found out exactly where!

The old cement had perished, and they had pushed their coins into the joints between the bricks, so everytime I removed them money would drop out. Some were old coins, long forgotten. I don’t think I remember every enjoying knocking down a wall so much!

Well I suppose that’s enough for now about Auld Paisley, bad and good, sad and happy. If any other buddie has worked in Paisley I would love to know about it – when and where and what.

LANG MAY YER LUM REEK

TOM – GRIFFY.

AM GIE SCUNNET YA WEE BACHEL.

BIG TAM.

"Sadly Tom "Big Tam" Griffin died of a heart attack at the end of May 2005, at the age of 77 years."