Glasgow Old People's Welfare Association - Mattie Carwood Day Care Centre

Well I never, here we are in 2010 celebrating our Silver Jubilee. I used to read about Jubilees but never thought that I would ever be part of one, believing that only Royalty and National Institutions ever had Silver Jubilees.

Out here in the East End we are in the middle of one almighty worksite with continual workings and excavations going on all around us. Hardly a day goes by without some sort of new work site being opened up in regards to the extension of the M74 or the Sir Chris Hoy Commonwealth Stadium. And whilst many of our fellow Glaswegians are bemoaning the costs of building the Stadium and the staging of the 2014 Commonwealth Games, they should remember that the east end gave so much to not only Glasgow but the British Commonwealth over the years. If Glasgow was the 'Second City' of 'the Empire on which the sun never set' then the east end can quite proudly claim to have been 'the engine room'of that once mighty Empire. Although the industrial heritage of Bridgeton, Parkhead, Shettleston and Tollcross is only a memory for many of our elderly service users they still speak with a lot of local and civic pride of the industrial past of the various districts east of Glasgow Cross.

Whilst I could quite easily write a book on my experiences and the characters that I have met through working with the organisation these last twenty five years I would much rather look forward than back. Obviously there will be changes made and inevitably some for the better and some for the worse and it is how we deal with these changes which will decide how much of an input GOPWA will be able to contribute at the planning stages for the overall benefit of their clients and service users. Part of the plans are to move the Library in whose premises we are currently based into the Olympia Picture House at Bridgeton Cross once it has been completely renovated and modernised in 2012. So where does that leave the Carwood Centre, you may well ask? I have every confidence that we can secure suitable premises elsewhere in the area to continue our ongoing work not only as a Day Centre but also as a vital and much needed local resource and community base for the elderly of the area.

On a more positive note it has been a fairly successful year for the Day Centre and the projects that are affiliated to it. Despite a drop in attendance numbers during the terrible winter period of late December , January and February things have began to rectify themselves again. We were fortunate to get some 'new blood' into the centre with the new members from Edrom Path Housing Complex out there in 'sunny Shettleston'...who I may add are well worth the watching! Seriously girls and William it is a pleasure to work with you. Not forgetting the dozen or so members of the Springbank and Cairncraig Clubs who are now fully paid up members of the Carwood Club on a Tuesday and Thursday...so it is a good feeling to see the Carwood Centre being used to its full capacity most days. Mind you it still creates sutuations whereby that phrase I detest never ceases to come up 'that's my seat'...if ever anything annoys me more than anything else during working hours it is that phrase. I politely tell those who utter those words 'Em, excuse me in the first place it isnae your seat it is mine as I personally raised all the money to buy them and this isnae the Pavillion you don't book seats in here'.

Over the last twelve months since I last wrote there has been several 'well kent' faces amongst the volunteers who have moved on. However, as per usual as one volunteer leaves another comes along and we would like to say a special welcome to both Linda Muirhead and Mags Leese who have both joined our wee group of volunteers in recent months.

On a more personal note I have to mention that my daughter Lynsey who has recently joined our ranks on a part-time basis with the East End Neighbourhood Visiting Service. Which reminds me of all those years ago when I first joined GOPWA and had to do a lot of ground work which involved attending a lot of evening meetings with the old Area Liaison Committees and Parkhead Community Council in order to get ourselves known and established in the community. At that time my wife Maureen worked evenings and I had to literally drag my three children along with me to all these meetings before the days of creches were the norm. They were forever being shoved in a corner at the meeting venues with a load of paper and writing utensils and told to 'be quiet'. Little did I imagine that 25 years later our Lynsey would end up sharing an office with me...she is referred to as 'The Apprentice' and not as 'the Boss's daughter'.

As we go to print some of us from the Mattie Carwood Day Centre will be attending the official opening ceremony of the newly renovated Bridgeton Cross Improvement Project by the Lord Provost Bob Winters. On the day the bell which was recently discovered inside the Bridgeton Cross Umbrella will ring out for the first time in living memory. Hopefully it will ring in a change and a new era for the people of Glasgow's East End. With this in mind I will leave you all with the words of Patrick McGill 'the Navvy Poet'...

"There's a good time coming, though we may never live to see it".
Patrick McGill (1889 - 1963) 'The Children of The Dead End '.