# Growing Up In Ireland



## Murt10 (31 Jan 2007)

*Re: Sodastream: can you still buy them AND the gas refills?*

Wrong forum I know but you want nostalgia.

Growing up in Ireland in the good old times.

I'm talking about Hide and Seek in the park, The shop down the road, Hopscotch, Donkey, skipping, handstands, stuck in the mud, football with an old can, Dandy, Beano, Twinkle and Roly Poly, Hula Hoops, 

Jumping the stream, building a swing from a tyre and a piece of rope tied to a tree,(If you live in Dublin the lampost), building tree-houses, climbing up onto roofs. Tennis on the street, the smell of the sun and 
 fresh cut grass.

Hubba Bubba bubble gum and 2p Flogs, macaroon bars and woppas,3p Refreshers and wham bars, superhero chewing gum, golf ball chewing gums and liquorice 
whips, desperate dan and roy of the rovers, sherbit dips and Mr.Freezes, marathon bars and everlasting gobstoppers. An ice cream cone on a warm
summer night from the van that plays a tune chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe neopolitan

Wait ... Watching Saturday Morning cartoons ... short commercials, Battle of the Planets, Road Runner, He-Man, Swapshop, and Why Don't You?, Transformers, How do you do?, Bosco(SANDY), Forty-coats, the Littlest
Hobo and Lassie, Chucklevision, The Muppet Show, MacGyver, Scarecrow and Mrs King, Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven, or staying up
for >Knight Rider and Magnum PI.

When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere.

A million midget bites, sticky fingers and mud all over you, knee-pads on your jeans, Cops and Robbers, Rounders, tip the Can, Queenie-I-O, climbing trees, spin the bottle, building igloos out of snow banks, walking to school, no matter what the weather, running till you were out of
breath.Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt, Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights,Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles, Being tired from playing... Remember that?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon

Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.

And don't forget the Marietta sandwiches we'd make by buttering a cupla Marietta biscuits and stickin' them together. And that quare oul mixture made in a tall glass with HB ice cream and Taylor Keith Red Lemonade.

I'm not finished just yet...

Eating raw jelly, orange squash ice pops

Remember when .... There were two types of sneakers - girls and boys and Dunlop Green Flash and the only time you wore them at school, was for " P.E.", Gola football boots.

It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends, when nobody owned a pure bred dog, when 25p was decent pocket money, when you'd reach into a
muddy gutter for a penny, when nearly everyone's mum was at home when the kids got there, when it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents

When any parent could discipline any kid or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.

When being sent to the head's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of muggings, drugs, gangs,
etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! and some of us are still afraid of them!!!

Remember when....

Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo." Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"

"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly", the game of life and connect four, atari 2600's and commadore 64's.

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs. It was unbelievable that Red Rover wasn't an Olympic event...

Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a biro barrel pea shooter or an elastic band. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better,

Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable vitamins, Ice cream was considered a basic food group.

Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.. Abilities were discovered because of a "double dare" Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!!

Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life...

>I DOUBLE DARE YA!!! Bagsy it, no returns


----------



## Guest127 (31 Jan 2007)

playing marbles with frozen hands.(in dundalk anyway) a player could call out 'bar hole' which meant you couldnt skite your marble into the little hole. hopscotch. 
wading in water when the manholes were blocked.
sticking your finger and thumb into tar on the road on the way home from school.
being sent to the shop for 2 fags.
swopping comics - especially 64's
watching roy rogers in a neighbours house on a saturday evening.
listening to that great big thumping music on the radio before the sports results on a saturday at 5pm and helping you pop check for the magic 8 draws - which never materialised.
your parents putting money on the plate outside mass and take change back
the priest getting all the fancy biscuits.
climbing trees and falling off. 
whoever owned the ball got picking a team
matinees on a sunday afternoon
wet soggy tomatoes sandwiches at the beach (blackrock). sandwiches never tasted so good.
getting sore arms from sunburn.
getting 'shot' early in a cowboy game was the pits.
lighting fires in bedrooms as Christmas.
2d sliders. 6d if you were really flush.

happy days? yes and no
my This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language as jim royal might say.


----------



## Berlin (31 Jan 2007)

Go Carts made from old pram wheels with string.
Changing the channels on the telly by standing up and pushing the button v.hard.
Wearing your anorak by the hood only.
Luton Town in the First Division.
Secret Squirrel.

Have to go and lie down now. Feel like a dinosaur.


----------



## ney001 (31 Jan 2007)

riding my brand new raleigh strika while wearing my snorkel jacket.  Patches on the sleeves of my school uniform, watching Dungeons and Dragons on a Saturday morning, followed by transformers.  Any cheekiness was met with the threat of the wooden spoon.  Catching bees in jam jars/catching tadpoles in jam jars - running of the house at nine in the morning in the summer and only coming back for dinner and even then your mother had to walk the streets looking for you.    oh yeah - water fights with the old tk bottles- dad outside with a fork putting holes into the lid of everyone's bottle - great times!


----------



## Betsy Og (31 Jan 2007)

covering a silage pit with wet sandbags (is it too late to sue for child abuse!!)

lying against a tram of hay drinking tea from a glass bottle (heaven)
going to the beach after a dusty day footing the turf or bringing it home.
the squelch of mud or peat between your toes
3-in, jumpers or coats for goalposts


----------



## gianni (31 Jan 2007)

listening to Aunty Poppie's Story time on Radio 1 every Saturday morning...


----------



## pat127 (31 Jan 2007)

Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be!



Radio/phone - Radio Eireann and lunch-time sponsored programmes, “If you want to sing, do sing an Irish song”. The Goons. P agus T, switchboard operators. 

Cinema – follier-uppers in the ‘Drummer’ on Saturday afternoons, the Theatre Royal (Tommy Dando, the Royalettes, Cecil Sheridan, Mickser Reed, Noel Purcell and all the gang), the ‘Maro ('where a cripple was carried in and kem out walkin'’, [non-PC I know but they hadn't invented the term then], the Metropole, the Capitol. 

Travel/Transport –steam trains, bus-conductors, the Howth tram, Army lorries when the buses were on strike. Travelling steerage in the Liverpool boat. Horse-drawn delivery carts. Gardai on point-duty at O’Connell Bridge. Thousands of bikes. Collinstown and the Aer Lingus DC3s. The Austin A35 and Cambridge, Ford Consul, Hillman Minx, Rover 90.  BSA, Norton, Triumph. Villiers, Matchless.

Entertainment – Cowboys and Indians, Rounders, Hoops. Snakes-n-Ladders, Ludo, Jigsaws, Cigarette cards. A pretend car made from an old orange-box and a pram-wheel.  A wind-up clockwork train-set. The old Dun Laoghaire baths. George Best when he first signed for Man United, the only time seeing Stanley Matthews, (playing in Old Trafford).  All-Ireland days at Jones’s Rd.  Locking up the bike to the railings round Nelson’s Pillar. The Crystal ballroom. The pack of 5 Woodbines. Sweet Afton, Afton Major, Capstan, Gold Leaf(?).  Pipes and pipe tobacco. Porter. A ‘ball of malt’. The Dublin Evening Mail. 

Food/drink – Gur-cake, Cleeve’s toffee, Lucky bags, loose sweets, loose milk. Coddle, loaves and turnovers, Denny’s sausages.

Clothes – short trousers, your first pair of long trousers.  Corduroy. Burton’s for the new suit, Brylcreem. Sleeveless, v-neck Fairisle pullovers.

Religion – Novenas, Benediction, the First Fridays, the Stations, Plenary Indulgences, Mortal and Venial Sins. 

Characters – ‘Hairy Lemon’, ‘Johnny 40-coats’, ‘Bang-Bang’, Lugs Branagan.

School - The ‘Christian’ Brothers, the leather, the ‘penny for the Black Babies’.


----------



## TarfHead (31 Jan 2007)

Collecting ice pop sticks lying on the road, especially those plastic interlocking ones.
Playing wall ball & kerbs.
Describing things favourably as either _rapid_, _gear_ or _meech.
_Living 3 miles from O'Connell Street yet having a local wood to play in.
Catching wasps in jam jars.
Being 10 years old buying firelighters in the Summer and the shopkeeper not even raising an eyebrow.
The butcher boy and his bike.
Spending 3 hours on a Friday helping the newspaperman collect monies owed, for nothing.
The excitement of seeing a red Marlin Communal Aerials van and sprinting the rest of the way home to see if we had the '_pipe telly_'..
Jumping off the bus before it halted at the stop.
Never seeing Deco Connolly's Da _not_ wearing a tie.


----------



## PM1234 (31 Jan 2007)

Collecting ladybirds in matchboxes. 
Delivering the 'Messenger' to people on the way home from school. Enquiring to the 'elderly' if they needed anything from the shops - in order to get 10p - cringe when think the 'elderly' were probably not that old!!
'Freewheeling' on our bikes down a fairly steep hill.
Making up dance routines to Minipops. 
Trying to tape songs off the radio using a separate tape recorder and getting mad because the radio presenter spoke before the very end of the song.


----------



## PMU (31 Jan 2007)

Poverty – even in middle income families
  Having the sh*t beaten out of you by thick ignorant Christian Brothers (although it never happened to me as they always picked on the vulnerable ones whose families wouldn’t complain)
  Running the risk of having the sh*t beaten out of you by thick ignorant Christian Brothers as you weren’t a ‘True Gael’
  Coming home covered in cowsh*t after being forced to play Gaelic in the 15 Acres
  The BBC – the window on the world
  A lack of vegetables
  Getting your first feel in the Carlton during ‘The Dirty Dozen’ 
  Realising if you felt a brown scapular you were wasting your time trying to get her bra off.
  Girls from Maryfield (worth crossing the Liffey for – something about those stripey blazers)
  Getting violently sick in the jacks in Mulligans
  Listening to that little pr*ck Michael O’Hare every Sunday reporting from Croke Park (when he was finished you could turn over to Alan Freeman on the BBC for Picking the Pops)
  Seeing The Troggs, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Titch and Bob Dylan in the Adelphi (although not all at the same time)
  Getting violently sick in the jacks in O’Dwyer’s (I’ve never touched Time since).
  Thinking the Coffee Dock in the Intercontinental  was the height of sophistication
  Being the first person to get violently sick in the jacks in the students bar in UCD 
  Stella House
  Irish Dan
  Dr Strangely Strange
  The Others
  The Gnumphs
  [FONT=&quot]The boat to Liverpool[/FONT]


----------



## franmac (1 Feb 2007)

Jumping the stream, building a swing from a tyre and a piece of rope tied to a tree,(If you live in Dublin the lampost), building tree-houses, climbing up onto roofs.

Lived in Dublin and a local policeman known as Snakey who would be patrolling on his bike would cut the rope from the lampost and take it away. Ropes were hard to come by at that time but we were lucky enough to have a neighbour who worked in the Guinness Brewery and he would get us another one.

What about the Gigs that were made from small ball bearing wheels and wood...never made one so dont know the design but travelled on them and ruined many a skirt by getting caught in the wheels.

Relievio was another great game and catch a girl kiss a girl and Beds which was a type of hopscotch which was played with a tin filled with earth. The tin would have contained shoe or furniture polish when it was bought

THen the ball juggling games against a wall. One Two Three Oleary,Four Five Six Oleary etc

Another ball game using two balls against a wall was 

Plainy marmalade Plainy marmalade some of the nurses lost their purses plainy marmalade.
The next delivery of the balls changed with...
Over marmalade (the ball was thrown at a different angle ) and then under marmelade.

Do you remember the pink chewing gum that was sold in the chemist for 2d. 
Taylor Keith Ciderette or Raspberry with HB Icecream was gorgeous and were only sampled on special occasions like Christmas which was magic then or weddings or wakes.

Does anyone remember the "Grusy" Have'nt a clue how to spell it but it was a tradition in Dublin when a bride was leaving her family home to go to the church to get married her father would throw a handful of change/money into the crowd of neighbours who were there to see her off

Catching bees /wasps we thought we were experts ..thats a bumbler and thats a Red bomber and that one is a Suggie and then to the berries we were spot on as we were told what not to eat


----------



## Newby (1 Feb 2007)

Listening to my 40GB iPod while surfing the net looking for friends. Fiddling with the exhaust on the back of the motorised scooter so that it makes an even louder noise. Ignoring everyone on the bus to work as i play on the PSP. Seeing a green field somewhere... once....

I'm with you guys... 20+ years ago was much better!


----------



## Marie M (1 Feb 2007)

My Kids still play beds, drink Lemonade, collect insects, have grushys, eat jam, play hopscotch, kerbs, water fights, have a mongeral.... etc etc etc, am I stuck in the 70's?????  ( Watch "Life on Mars" BBC4 Tues 10.00pm for great nostalgia)


----------



## auto320 (1 Feb 2007)

Rusty cars, buying part-worn tyres, no jobs, clothes from american parcels, pretty much compulsory church attendance, any shoes you liked as long as they were made by one company, emigrate as soon as you were old enough, bad roads.

I miss the good old days.


----------



## Vanilla (1 Feb 2007)

auto320 said:


> pretty much compulsory church .


 
Only pretty much? There was no get out clause in our house. Being sick wasn't an option. Also applied to school. 

Compulsory tin whistle, accordian and bodhran lessons ( I kid you not)on a Saturday morning and having to cycle three miles there and three miles home again when we hadnt a note in our heads and left the teacher in permanent despair. National school: Choice for boys- either football or irish dancing. Choice for girls- either irish dancing or sewing/knitting. And me with two left feet and ten thumbs.

Half-penny sweets. Gobstoppers. Ham sandwiches and red lemonade in the hay field. Water and stickyback fights. Memories of permanently sunny summer days, even though it must have rained. Out all day long from early morning and collapsing in bed once the sun went down.

Picking potatoes, and apples and vegetables and stones...feeding the calves, and bringing the cows in for milking and fixing the fences twice a day. 

No such thing as pocket money. No money at all. Always the threat of the bank.

Mom and Dad always around. Loads of siblings to fight with and loads of friends. Happy days.


----------



## Newby (1 Feb 2007)

The less you have, the less it takes to make you happy. Rose tinted glasses maybe but I wouldn't swap Ireland when i grew up to growing up in Ireland now.


----------



## Guest127 (2 Feb 2007)

and neither would I. But neither would my kids. all relative I suppose. many many years ago my son ( maybe after seeing a black and white film on telly) asked me when everything turned to colour. he genuinely though that everything in the 'old days' was black and white.


----------



## Newby (2 Feb 2007)

cuchulainn said:


> and neither would I. But neither would my kids. all relative I suppose. many many years ago my son ( maybe after seeing a black and white film on telly) asked me when everything turned to colour. he genuinely though that everything in the 'old days' was black and white.


 
In fairness I used to ask my ould fella that too... I genuinely thought he got married in black and white


----------



## Marie M (3 Feb 2007)

"Dublin Games"


----------



## pnh (3 Feb 2007)

Good thread for those of a certain age.Just a few I can think of:
Coming home for lunch from school to hear The Kennedys of Castleross and 
Hospitals Requests.
Making your own Bow and Arrows-finding wire to make a weight for the arrow.
Making a phone type thing with two tin cans and a very long piece of string.
Anyone remember Plain Tayto with a little bag of salt in the bag.
Never ending games of football on a summers evening that started around 6pm with about 20 a side and ended around 11pm with about four left


----------



## Murt10 (3 Feb 2007)

Your dinner being kept warm on a plate covered by another plate on a pot of boiling water. The gravy gone hard and the taste of the whole dinner yuk. Thank God for microwaves.

I also remember hearing way back then that american people had remote controls for changing the station on the TV and thinking that they must be the laziest people on earth. That was until 15 years later when my own remote control broke down and I nearly had a nervous breakdown. 

There was only one type of spagetti/pasta and that came in a tin. Garlic was something disgusting that continental Italian & French people stank of. What were they thinking of to eat something to make them smell like that.

There was only one type of red wine aand it was very sophisticated - The French adore P'iat Dor and Blue Nun or Black Tower if you wanted white.

Tapeing Top of the Pops off the TV and someone daring to speak in the room when you were trying to so it. 

Also came across the Jackie annual in Borders over the Christmas and aalso another annual of the Claire and Cathy problem pages. Were we innocent or what? In hindsight problems seem much smaller and less serious then but at the time they were a matter of life and death 


Murt


----------



## franmac (3 Feb 2007)

Marie M

Thanks for that brilliant site.


----------



## auto320 (4 Feb 2007)

Buying a small cardboard tub of icecream, where the cardboard lid doubled as the scoop for eating it. "Scoop" got soggy half way through. Can't remember when separate spoons came in, but they were a major advance in the technology.


----------



## gailey (4 Feb 2007)

*Re: Sodastream: can you still buy them AND the gas refills?*



Murt10 said:


> when nearly everyone's mum was at home when the kids got there,


Makes me want to give up work. I blame the playstation. there was nothing wrong with atari. I remember it all and I do believe we have had a better childhood than our children are having now.


----------

