The McDevits and the Glasgow mafia
The flat in Manor House was a cornucopia of exotic characters. The most exotic of all was the McDevit family. They lived on the floor below us and expanded to take over all three bedsits.
The first to appear was Mr McDevit, a small middle-aged scruffy looking man with shaggy eyebrows and not a lot of personal hygiene. He arrived one night, moved in and established himself into a pattern that he maintained for the duration of his stay. That largely involved sitting on the bench by the park with a bottle of scotch in a brown paper bag. He always, regardless of weather, wore a long tweed overcoat. I later discovered why.
The next to arrive was Mrs McDevit. She was a larger lady with an assertive disposition. It was probably good that Mr McDevit spent most of his life outside the flat because he had been known to raise his voice and I think they might have killed each other.
Shortly after the other bedsits became vacant and various children of assorted ages, from around fourteen to late twenties, began to arrive.
They kept themselves to themselves but were friendly enough if you passed them on the stairs though utterly incomprehensible. Mr McDevit had such a strong Glaswegian accent that it would have been difficult to decipher at the best of times but when you factored in the perpetual slur from the alcohol it became merely a series of guttural sounds.
Shortly after Mr McDevit moved in all the telephone boxes in the area stopped working. This was because they had all been jimmied open. Within the recesses of the overcoat were a number of ‘tools’ one of which was a crowbar. This was deployed on phone boxes in order to replenish the stocks of alcohol. I found it interesting to imagine what the storekeepers thought when he came in to pay for a big bottle of whisky with those old many sided three penny bits.
The rumour soon went round the house that Mr McDevit was on the run. He’d had to flee Glasgow owing to a ‘dispute’ with fellow gang members. I do not know how accurate that might be but future events suggested that there might well have been some truth to it.
They were not there long.
The dry-cleaners across the road was broken into. There was no money so the burglars had stolen all the dry-cleaning.
One of the criminals had dropped an envelope with an address. The police visited the McDevits and discovered mounds of dry cleaning, along with a number of other stolen items. More worryingly they found a cache of guns under the mattresses.
No longer would I hear Mr McDevit’s greeting – ‘Arlriii thun?’ as I walked past the park bench.
Just as well by the sound of it. Can’t wait to start the book.
They were an interesting family.
You are the most interesting person I have got to know.
Really? Well that’s something. I’m certainly opinionated and headstrong if that is what interesting means.
You are not opinionated you have strong views which are very interesting to read, I meant you are so intelligent, travelled so much and seen so much and done so much – more than I am ever likely to do and I see it all through your eyes when you write and that has made such a difference to me, you opened up a World I wanted to be part of but was not, and that I thank you for.
Well that’s good to hear and kind of you to say.
Have you started another book yet?
When I was talking about signing I had the idea that I could mail you some blank sheets to stick in. Not quite as good but a possibility.
That would be lovely thank you so much, do you want my email address and I can send the address, let me know what you want to do. Have not purchased one Christmas card yet let alone anything else, this will be the first gift. Is it “Rhyme and Reason”, the one with most most beautiful poem to a Wife I have ever read, that is meant sincerely, lucky Lady.
Yep – email me at opher@hotmail.co.uk.
Not quite sure which poem you mean? I’ll have a look and see if I can spot it. Was the one with ‘You must have crawled out of a swamp – you are such a lump’?
No it was not, it was about the Lady in your life and the love and devotion you have – so touching so beautiful. I will email you.
I can see I’m going to have to work on this humour side of things!
I was lucky enough to have been brought up in the Barloch area of Milngavie – pronounced Mill Guy – to be found after driving through the larger town of Bearsden. It’s 7 miles north west from central Glasgow, 3 miles outside the city boundary and a different planet from all the huge sprawling Glasgow council owned housing schemes, none of which are north west. This is where the “bought hooses” were for the “snobs”. The back of our house looked onto the manicured steep grass banks of the reservoir, that provided endless hours of fun sledging down in winter. You could get to terrific speeds and at the bottom would hit a small grassy rising lip and be hurdled free fall into the air and land in a heap. Just one minute walk from our house on the left side were the gates to the aforementioned reservoir estate and on the right, the start of the moors and woods. We knew every nook and cranny of these woods. If you walked one and a half miles as the crow flies all the way through the woods you’d reach the single track road leading to Balmore, where the Incredible String Band had their cottage for a few years. We used to see them with all their troupe in Milngavie, a posse of multi-coloured clothes and all the hippy accoutrements. I never realised at the time just how bloody lucky my brother and I were to be able to call this “home”. We could never thank our parents enough. Once my younger brother was old enough to go to secondary school, my mother decided to go back to work part-time. She was an elocution teacher for BBC Scotland – TV & Radio. She had a woman come into clean twice a week and she lived on the other side of town where some council houses were. I could barely understand a single word this woman ever said. My younger brother would do brilliant imitations of her at the dinner table with me egging him on, much to the chagrin of pater and mater. No, we didn’t have anything like a “McDevit” family in our area!
I would hope not Andrew. If you wrote like the McDevits spoke I wouldn’t be able to read it.
That embankment sounds brilliant! I had a railway embankment at the back of our house but we weren’t allowed on it!
I loved the Incredibles. That must have been fun!
All sounds very idyllic! I think we were both fortunate with our parents and life possibilities!
If you google earth for Craigmaddie Reservoir, Milngavie, Glasgow there should be some photos – or the website for Mugdock Country Park, Milngavie. Other less fortunate Glaswegians go there for a day out in the countryside!
I’ll check it out when I get a minute.
During my younger days as a hotel management trainee, I spent most of these 4 & 1/2 years around England, mostly in London. Once I was sent to Stratford-upon-Avon which was all very nice but as dull as watching paint dry. I was doing a stint in the accounts and control department. The guy who ran this tin pot empire was Mr Middle England personified. He was a complete arse and spent as much time as he could slagging off Glasgow and all persons connected with it and anything Scottish. I’d reply with lists of the best footballers playing in the then division one – he was an Aston Villa nut – well I did say he was an arse – and other lists of inventions created in Scotland.
This would shut him up for 10 minutes or so. A few years later after I had left that company, I bumped into him in Edinburgh in an hotel where I was to do a short term project and he was full time working there. Here was an opportunity. I drove him westbound to Glasgow and around the “badlands”, starting off at some of the better areas and gradually proceeding into the outer no-go areas, telling him that we were getting close to where I came from. The expression of horror on this jerks face was priceless. I skirted off onto the motorway and double backed – he was oblivious to any direction taken. We eventually landed in Milngavie and I could sense his confusion. We drove around for a btt and at last stopped the car outside my folks house. He was nothing short of speechless. I asked him if he had anymore to say about “everybody who comes from Glasgow”.
He said he felt such an arsehole etc and I told him it’s alright as I knew he was anyway. I took him for a good bevvy in the bar on the edge of the moors and he spent the night at the folks house. Never again did he utter such shite in front of me. I’ve never seen him since.
I hate arseholes like that. My Grandfather came from Scotland but had largely lost his accent. It is amazing when you travel the world and witness the impact the scottish have had. I think they had a hand in most of the big engineering projects.
I prefer the politics and ethos of Scotland – it’s the climate that puts me off. Africa seems nice!
I think the west side is a bit warmer than the east. I’ve always found Edinburgh colder in winter than Glasgow.
I worked in Nairobi, Kenya during the year 1996. It’s on the equator so every day is more less the same temperature.
The only place I’ve ever been where I’ve been held up at a cash-point by 2 women with Stanley knives pressed into my sides. Cost me £100. Life is cheap there.
It’s the Gulf stream isn’t it.
Life is cheap in a lot of places. It makes you realise.
We have so much to be grateful for.
And in tandem my dad’s dad was a Londoner, through and through! I sadly never got to meet him.
I too love the Incredible’s – the BBC 6 broadcast their live at Golders Green 17 May `74 show recently and very good it is too. I copied it live as broadcast onto dvd-audio for posterity – well mine at least!
I missed that! Never knew it was on. But I did go to their reunion at the Bloomsbury Theatre and also caught them in Beverley with Clive back with them. He’s sadly dead now but a really nice guy.
Yes, we talked of that a few weeks back. Wasn’t the `97 London show at the Royal Festival?
I also have a great interview both Robin and Mike did on BBC Scotland at that time with some live songs from the Glasgow show – I was at that one, too.
If I had your snail I’d be only too happy to copy them up for you. Email me it direct.
Here’s my email – opher@hotmail.co.uk
We talked about exchanging a few live shows.