Growing up in Clonmel part 2
By Noel Fanning
MORE MEMORIES FROM THE 50’S & 60’S IN CLONMEL
The ladies giving out bread & cocoa at lunchtime in the schools.
Queuing at Madigan’s Stationary Shop Parnell St. to buy school books.
The Monday afternoon novena for the schools in St. Peter & Paul’s church.
Breaking slab toffee on the window sills.
Messenger boys on their bikes
Feeding 2/= pieces into the slot televisions.
Digging out underground camps.
Waiting in anticipation for the Christmas Toys to appear in Brady’s & McCreery’s windows.
Toyland in Devlins. Ceili’s in the Parochial Hall. Hops in St. Mary’s Hall and Hillview.
Bottle type dynamo’s running against the tyre of your bike to light the lights.
The smell of Jeyes fluid. The smell on the street on fair days. Terrycloth nappies.
Using coats & jumpers as goals posts & moving them closer when no one was looking.
Rolling biro refills between your hands to make them last longer.
Girls getting friends to help them with their “Home Perm Kits”
Beehive hairstyles & ringlets made by wrapping hair in pieces of rags.
“The Blue Tones” & “The C-Clefs” playing at the hops organised by Sr. Stan.
The men coming to the house to collect the money from the gas meter.
Wooden crutches that went under your arm.
No dances during Lent.
The holy statue been passed from house to house and the neighbours coming in to say the rosary.
Green Shield Stamps. Tiger tokens. Irish Sweep Stakes tickets. Mini-bingo’s
Shooting pearl barley or rice through the barrel of a plastic biro.
Bus conductor’s selling and punching your ticket
The Non-Stop Draw. The Silver Circle. Pitch & Toss. Pongo.
Corduroy short trousers held up by braces. Knitted knee stockings. Belted gabardine coats.
The Corporation Rent man, & the Shilling A Week man coming to the door.
Playing Billiards, Snooker & Table Tennis or Boxing in the Boy’s Club.
Altar boys serving mass in Latin. The High Mass.
The big steel water troughs for horses around the town.
Telegram boys on their bikes. (Bringing good & bad news to the townsfolk)
Being woken by the fire siren in the dead of night and hearing the bell of the fire engine.
The money and receipts being sent along wires from the counter to the office in Lowry’s, Byrne’s.
Walking the full distance with the funerals to St.Patrick’s Cemetary.
Buying bags of coke for the fire in the Gas House & bringing it home on the bicycle.
The older lads bringing the dogs hunting for rabbits and shouting “Hula Hula the golf links”.
Carrying the heavy shopping for the ladies in the area.
Children’s Cowboy suits, Nurses uniforms & Doctor sets. Leather footballs with laces.
The MASS X-RAY vans coming to the schools.
Honda 50’s, Autocycles, Vespa & Lambretta Scooters.
The George Daniels travelling show coming to Bell’s field at the Mall.
The Medical Missionary Nuns in their grey habits going to early mass in St. Peter’s & Paul’s church.
Types of Sweets: Toffees 6 for a penny, Trigger Bars, Money Balls, Sailors Chews, Flash Bars, Slab Toffee, Lemon & Lime cubes, Blackjacks, Gob Stoppers, Honeycomb Bars. NuCrisps, Sherbets with a little lolly to dab into it, Sherbet in a cardboard roll that you sucked through a liquorice straw. Cream pies. Packets of Summer Drink. Urney Chocolate, Perri Crisps, Tex Bars, Marshmallow Mice. Coconut Bars. Charms, Spangles, Packets of 4 Marietta or Nice biscuits. Stick of Liquorice. Penny bubblegum. Spearmint Bars. 3d bar of Cadbury’s chocolate. Jelly Beans 6 a penny. Aniseed Balls. Billiards balls twelve a penny been sold in paper cones.
Filling Stations with petrol pumps at the side of the streets in the town: Jack O’Briens, Burke’s, Flynn’s, Prendergasts, King & Keating’s, Gerry Condon’s/Patsy Sullivan’s. Andy Dillon’s. The Princess Garage, Carrigan’s, Meagher’s.
(Noel Fanning Jan.2013)
