h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There were two air raid shelters built in our street ,in actual fact exactly 100 yards apart .
Just the ideal size for a football pitch. The outlines of the goals were painted on the ends of each shelter .
Many many great games were played on this make-shift football park.

Some park!!It was pure concrete ,but that did'nt bother us .
It was the first time we hadever had a marked off area to ourselves, and during these games all of the tenement windows were opened and the spectators hung over the window ledge to watch the matches ,all shouting encouragement or anything else they thought of to make the games more exciting.
For a great many people it was the only outdoor entertainment they ever got.Because , other than that ,there was only the cinema .
As for the shelters themselves, they were never used ,except maybe for courting couples or the odd homeless drunk.
You see,a rumour had spread all the way accross Glasgow that an air raid shelter in the heart of Glasgow had received a direct hit and that eveyone in the shelter had been killed .
So for this reason ,people were afraid to huddle into a brick shelter .
Some of the men had discovered that the tenements had foundations made simply of loose dirt and clay ,so they dug out all the dirt and we were left with fairly comfotable underground shelters .
Some women took to decorating these shelters and ended up making them like a little home from home .
Then after the war, they made great 'dens' for us still teenagers .
Tommy Mac