Today I had an early morning run out to the foundry of Arthur McLuckies in Ayrshire. They have generously offered to provide drain covers so that the Elders taking part in the Masalamix project can recreate the marbles game of “Stankie” that they used to play in the streets of their youth. We can’t have the over 80’s sitting in the gutter, so I am recreating an indoor table version…. I will be learning the detail of the rules from the Elders groups next week.
Author Archive
Stankie !!
Masalamix 4
Todays elders mostly originated from Pakistan or the Punjab. One man remembered that when he was 10 years old in Pakistan, he used to buy 3rd class cinema tickets (which were the seats closest to the screen) there were no buses in his town and only 4 people owned cars…so it was a long walk to see a movie.
Others reminisced about their childhood job of looking after the family buffalo, milking and bringing them grass.
The ladies group demonstrated Pumbeeri – spinning jacks and Kotla Chhapaki – which involves energetic spinning of the ball over the head
This lady didn’t say much, but got very involved in remembering cats cradle
Masalamix 3
I am really enjoying working with elders group. Today we were reminiscing about the places people lived when they were 10 yrs old. This question caused much wracking of brains and protestations of “that was 76 years ago! … I can’t remember that”. But with a little bit of inspiration and perspiration the memories started to come back.
There were some great stories – particularly when they were asked to recall a smell from that time. ‘Soup cooking on the stove’ ‘fruit dumplings boiling’ ‘the fishmongers next door to our house and the fishy wooden crates outside’ ‘ we lived in a pend with carthorses stabled in it, people collected the dung’. ‘I hated the smell of the old underground – dank and frightening, I never used it’ . Joan couldn’t quite seem to tell me what the smell was – it smells a bit better now apparently, although she still doesn’t use it.
Winifred told me a lovely memory of watching the gaslighter lighting the street lamps and gradually zigzagging the light up the hill. She said she used to dampen her eyelashes with her spit and squint so that the dampness made little halos around the line of lamps.. This is just the spirit I hoped to catch in the Masalamix.. the games that don’t require expensive toys.
These pictures show the postcards they made to send back to their childhood self.
Gallus Masalamix 2
I was at the Muslim Elderly Day Care Centre today which is based at the Central Mosque. Initially the men had trouble remembering the rules of their childhood games, but once they had stones and marbles in their hands, the memories came back. It was great to see the smiles on their faces as they remembered things they hadn’t thought of for many years.
At the end one gentleman asked me ” Where did you get your marbles from? ” I said that I had borrowed them from my husband, who was obviously quite a good player as it is a fine collection. “Is your husband Indian? ” he asked, surprised. No, I said.. they played marbles in Scotland too… ” Really!”… The thought had not occurred to him. The special flicking technique is pure Indian I expect… I will be asking the Scottish men how they play.
Ada-kada-ada-kada.. from the Punjab.
The Gallus Masalamix begins
Great fun today with the irrepressible ladies and gentlemen of Oran Street elderly day care centre. Reminiscing about their childhood games and pastimes. Remembering the rules of Peever and Beds, Kick Doors Run Fast, Moshy, and playing Shops with bits of crockery (if the broken cup or plate had a gold rim it was called a Sovereign), though they said they never saw a sovereign coin in real life.. it was a lot of money – more than a pound..! Their eyes went wide at the thought of such a large sum.
Police medal winners
The Acknowledgment Booth is on tour at Govan Police Station, I will be visiting all 5 shifts and asking officers what they deserve a medal for?
Of the 12 who took part in this shift – 10 nominated their colleagues and 2 nominated their spouse.
Some of the comments so far:
“The qualities I believe I have are the one’s I look for in others” ” Is this a test? All these qualities seem to be police qualities” ” I enjoyed the distraction” “My wife and I are very different in many ways, but we do have the same core qualities” “Made me appreciate Big Bruce more” (a colleague). “Many different people in the force with lots of similar, yet special qualities” Having nominated himself for being good at ‘hugs’ one officer proceeded to demonstrate this on his colleague.
This is part of my artists residency at the Scottish Police – it is a pilot project funded by Creative Scotland
Alex Salmond take 2
I was booked for a job filming Alex Salmond this week. It happens to be one year exactly since I met with him at Holyrood to talk about The Gallus Games.
After he had finished the interview, we were standing around and I said “actually we have met before ..” he remembered, but I thought I would help him out with the detail:
” I came to see you about my project The Gallus Games..” He said that he had found the project interesting and asked how it had gone. I told him that it had gone well and he said that he had thought it would be popular. Then I told him that I was taking the Acknowledgment Booth part of the project into GP surgeries, so that doctors could give medals to their patients. He looked thoughtful and said ” You have my card, please send me some more information”.
I had some Booth forms and medals with me (I had awarded Mr Salmond a prototype medal at our last meeting) so I made a quick note and gave them to his assistant – I thought I would strike while the iron is hot.. he has quite a lot on his plate this week.!
First GP surgery
We did two sessions at Partick Surgery testing the Acknowledgment Booth. Working in partnership with Dr Nadeem Bhatti, we asked the patients in the waiting room to nominate someone in their life, and also say what they themselves deserve a medal for? Dr Bhatti awarded the medals. We wanted to see if the booth would work in a GP setting. Pilot GP sessions have been generously by NHS Glasgow City CHP – NW Sector.
After some resistance to the idea that they might deserve a medal, people enjoyed themselves. Lots of smiles as they left the surgery. Everybody who was approached wanted to take part, except for a couple of people who felt too unwell. Our presence in the small waiting area did encourage people to engage with each other more – waiting rooms are places where people know they have time to fill and they were generally happy for the diversion. Some people had language or reading barriers, so assistance was important.
Volunteer Miche assisting a patient in the waiting area.
A boy called JJ asked if he could nominate someone. He wanted to nominate Dr Bhatti for a medal, who had helped him with various illnesses. As JJ was just accompanying his mum on this occasion, we knocked on Dr Bhatti’s door between patients so that JJ could award the medal.
The qualities he chose to acknowledge Dr Bhatti for were: Caring, Fun, Compassion, Empathy, Helpfulness, Kindness and Patience.
In fact Dr Bhatti was nominated by a patient at both sessions!
This is what he said after the first session:
dr bhatti from kathyfriend on Vimeo.
FOR MORE DETAIL ABOUT THE BOOTH : Background research and booth concept
Custom House Quay Medal Winners
Our session down by the Clyde searching for Gallus people in Glasgow and asking them what they contribute in life. Some real gems here, I particularly liked the brother and sister who despite the slight sarcasm obviously loved each other very much.
What I enjoyed was meeting people for the first time and seeing some of them in a totally different light after a short conversation about their life . Inspirational….
Tramway Hidden Garden
We took the acknowledgment booth to the Hidden Gardens at Tramway to celebrate Mandela Day. We were celebrating volunteering and asking people what qualities they contribute.