Thirteen was unlucky for this Glasgow close

KENNY WATT, from Glasgow, has been researching his family history recently.

As part of his detective work into the life and times of his extended family he had been scouring newspaper archives in libraries.

As well as finding the articles he’s looking for personally he loves coming across quirky little tales that have nothing to do with his ancestors.

Recently he was looking at a copy of The Sunday Post from this coming week, November 17, which fell on a Sunday in 1946.

He spotted a letter in the Readers Letters page which tickled him.

So Kenny dropped us a line as he thought we’d like it – which we do!

It was written by someone called J.C. Phillips, also from Glasgow, and concerned a tenement in the city that he’d lived in 40 years earlier, so way back in 1906 – 13 Church Street.

A series of unfortunate events made the folk who lived in the stair concerned that 13 really was an unlucky number.

First of all a wee girl from the close was knocked down while crossing the street outside.

The cry went up that 13 was unlucky, but our correspondent told his superstitious mother that the same thing could have happened if they’d stayed at number 15.

However, it wasn’t long before the curse of 13 struck again . . .

Soon after a woman who lived upstairs from our letter writer died suddenly. Then another neighbour from the stair fell into the hold of a ship at the yard where he worked and spent some time in the infirmary.

Perhaps there was something in this “unlucky 13” thing after all. But young J.C. scoffed at the idea.

But Stair 13 still wasn’t finished with its unfortunate business.

A tradesman who lived there, a turner to trade, came home one day in a bad way. His machine had taken his finger off!

If Mr Phillips had any doubts about the curse of 13, he must have finally questioned them when a car swerved to avoid a collision . . . and ran him over!

He was injured and laid up for three weeks.

He reports in the letter that he’d walked past 13 Church Street in 1946 and wondered if the residents then had been any more fortunate, prompting him to write the letter.

Seventy years on we wonder how the current crop are getting on.

Hopefully they’re a lot luckier than the poor folk of 1906!