|
Post by jjcurran on Dec 2, 2010 0:52:59 GMT
Hello Johnny Kelly, I well remember the galvanised sleds we made. We favoured the hill down to the pitch and put course in McDonagh. As I recall it was just down the 'track' in front of Eason's shop. One of the Dillons from McDonagh had a fine tebogan made from wood by his Father. However as he was on his way back uphill a jagged galvanised sled with mabye six of us on it struck him in the leg and almost amputed him below the knee. His father is desperation broke up the wooden tebogan afterwards. Glad to say he made a full recovery.
Trish I remember my mam knitting jumbers for me and trying them on to find that my 'big mutton head' would not fit through the neck. This required ripping and re-doing the neck, much to the annoyance of my Mother. I also remember holding the wool until we hit on the idea of placing it around the backs of two chairs. The only thing I remember about the actual knitting is the phrase 'knit one purl one'. The best thing about holding the wool was listening to 'Opertunity Knocks' on Radio Luxemburg. Do you remember the 'fairisle pattern' it seems to have come back from the depths of my memory now? Regards JJ
|
|
|
Post by rose5mcdonaghtce on Dec 2, 2010 16:19:57 GMT
Hi All,
I remember the toboggan Paddy Dillon RIP made, it was painted blue and while, he also made a lovely rocking horse and a dresser for me, all painted blue and white (there must have been a sale in Maginns on blue and white paint).
There would be a gaggle of us hanging around the railings at No 3 to get a go on the rocking horse. Santie did'nt bring too many big presents like that.
Rose.
|
|
|
Post by johnnykelly on Dec 2, 2010 18:33:00 GMT
Re:DO YOU REMEMBER Hi jj and Rose the blue/white paint was probably borrowed from the College stores,the troboggons that we used were made by the good members in the Bord of Works and we borrowed the bars from the hospital railings to act as runners, was looking at tv3 news and seen bread boards trays rubber boats being used as sleighs,and the HSE demanding that people dont use this type of sleighs due to the high injury rate, good job h/s were not around in our day we would not have had any fun at all, did the Mcdonagh crowd ever slide in the frozen Marion Shrine in the winter, come on now o yes you did, bye for now Johnny
|
|
|
Post by johnnykelly on Dec 2, 2010 19:07:32 GMT
Re:do you remember do you remember the lovely Army DUVET that was spread across the foot of the bed in married quarters during the winter months, better then any insulation or hot water bottle, spoke to a former residen today, and she told me that Her Mam would fill up empty flaggon cider bottles with hot water and put them into the beds at night to warm them before the kids went to bed, another Mother would use a hot Iron on the sheets and then make the beds before the kids went into them, any other unusual ways of staying warm during the winter freeze as you lived in MQTRS, Bye for now Johnny
|
|
|
Post by kathyo on Dec 3, 2010 15:43:04 GMT
hi johnny my mam rip would put the shelfs from the range to warm the bed's up before we got into them. mind you with so many of us shareing bed's we kept each other warm. have a great weekend johnny kathyo
|
|
|
Post by rose5mcdonaghtce on Dec 3, 2010 17:04:12 GMT
Hi Johnny and All,
Can't say I remember sliding on the water in the Marion Shrine during the big freezes, but I do remember paddling in it in the summer months, and when my cousin came from London on holidays to stay with us in the Summer I used to tell her it was the park, she was very impressed.
Any bit of snow at all and I would, with all my McDonagh cronies head for the back of the priests house, my sleigh was the Ma's roasting tin, would be up and down the hill until eight or nine o clock at night, 63 was the best year ever, the snow started on Stephen's day and lasted until the end of January. Can remember the Da being worried about the foot long, three or four inch in diameter icicles hanging off the gutters. We used to throw basins of water on the slope outside Tyrells, much to Tommy's annoyance, we would have our own ice rink at the bottom of the block.
Have been wearing wellies for the last few days, keep the feet dry and have better grip on the footpaths, now lads not the old black ones, nice navy ones with pink flowers, if only I had them when I lived in McDonagh, I would have been the envy of all, the only fault with the wellies is they would freeze the feet off you, was saying so to Mon and saying I did'nt remember my feet being that cold as a kid in the winter in my wellies, she reminded that we always had a pair of the Da's grey Army issue socks on our feet.
Rose.
|
|
|
Post by rose5mcdonaghtce on Dec 3, 2010 17:47:32 GMT
Hi All,
When getting up yesterday morning noticed the elastic had gone in the bottom of my PJ's, ripped the seam and saw the most pathetic piece of material with a few strings of elastic running through it, what has happened to KNICKER ELASTIC all sewing box's in all the QTRS had a few rolls of different width knicker elastic, am sure Mrs Mc RIP must have had reams of the stuff. It was used for the garters to keep our knee socks up, in the cuffs we had to wear for cookery in Domesic Science, for the ends of the strings on our idiot mittens, why was it called Knicker Elastic, don't ever remember Mam repairing knickers, hated going into Kennedys to buy it,always just asked for elastic and either Miss Brady or Kennedy would say at the top of their voices its knicker elastic you want then.
Rose.
|
|
|
Post by johnnykelly on Dec 3, 2010 18:58:06 GMT
Re:do you remember Hi all one winter when we built up the slide ajacent to the top block a near tragedy occured when the 1st lad to run and fly along the slide was suddenly upended and as one smart alec was heard to quip look up its aerlingus as suddenly the lad came to a sudden stop that resulted in him being rushed to Hospital with a fractured scull, what happened was that a concerened mother had put salt half way down the slide to stop us from flying down like madmen,and was afraid someone would get hurt,!!!!!!!!? bye for now Johnny
|
|
|
Post by afcmoore on Dec 4, 2010 2:12:01 GMT
Hi Rose. Well were i come from a good wist of straw in the wellies would keep the feet nice and warm. Cheers. ;D Ant.
|
|
|
Post by johnnykelly on Dec 4, 2010 17:34:55 GMT
Re:do you remember Hi af and Rose as wellas the Das grey army socks newspapers were always stuffed inside the wellies to keep the feet warm in the snow, Johnny
|
|
|
Post by jjcurran on Dec 5, 2010 1:05:55 GMT
Hi all, Having stimulated your memories re the Christmas parties, I thought I’d go again and mention the storm which knocked down trees around the camp circa 1957. Word went out that residents could have any fallen tree for firewood. My father, (John Curran) and Bill O’Brien set about acquiring some of this windfall. However most of the fallen trees were of the evergreen variety which do not burn very well, but we discovered a fine birch tree near the Dentist clinic (close to the target shed) which did not fall fully. My father and Bill decided to ‘encourage’ it to fall with the aid of a Cross-cut. This was strictly verboten, so I, at the age of about ten was the lookout. I remember my father’s words , “Bill we’ll get our ticket for this”. ( I imagine the statute of limitations has run out by now). If any of you had the experience of using a cross-cut saw you will appreciate the difficulty involved. After using it , I am certain your arms would have extended by at least 6 inches. (Excuse me, I should say 150mm). The tree was cut into suitable lengths and transported to McDonagh via the hand cart used normally to carry the Vickers Machine Gun and then cut using a Bushman saw over several nights to sizes suitable for the range. I can still feel the shivers of cold on that night I spent keeping a lookout for the Red-Caps. Fond memories. Regards JJ
|
|
|
Post by kathyo on Dec 5, 2010 10:56:12 GMT
hi jj my name is kathleen obrien my father rip was bill obrien i remember the choping of the trees it was a very dark night and we were all playing out skiping around my dad while he sawed and choped away.i remember my mam rip filling a pram with log's telling me to take them to a woman who had a large family she was delighted thank you jj for the very happy memories all the best kathyo
|
|
|
Post by rose5mcdonaghtce on Dec 5, 2010 17:54:40 GMT
Hi Johnny,
The Da's army issue gloves you know the ones the black leather with the fastener at the wrist, all the kids looked like they had shovels instead of hands, the big gloves, very hard to roll snow balls when your fingers barely went beyond the palm area. When we went sleighing the Ma used to make us wear the Da's groundsheets over our coats, kept the coats dry and you did'nt get a bad slide down on it either.
Rose.
|
|
|
Post by jjcurran on Dec 7, 2010 0:16:25 GMT
Hi Kathleen JJ here. I remember your Dad RIP well. There is a message from an Eileen seeking photographs of your dad on the site. I was recently making calandars for my family and came across three photos of your Dad at an motor cycle race outing with my Dad (John Curran RIP). I e-mailed the photos to Matt McNamara for uploading to the site so watch out for them. Your Dad and mine used to spend some time in the hobby room in McDonagh Bks making childrens cots amoung other things. It always amazes me how our parents long ago could find the time to do all the things they did, like sowing a plot, going to the bog to cut and save turf, fishing etc . There must have been more than 24 hours in each day. Regards JJ
|
|
|
Post by kathyo on Dec 7, 2010 8:01:19 GMT
hi jj thank you for getting back to me and thank you for sending the phote's to matt can't wait to see them we were very luckey to have such wonderful dad's all the best jj kathyo
|
|