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I was born in 1948 in Antrim House cliftonville
road, and was then taken to our home at the corner
of Eglington street and old lodge road. There
I grew up until my teens, when the area was demolished,
to make way for new housing.
We lived facing Kellys pub, and did not need
TV as the constant nightly goings on were a great
source of entertainment for us as we took up
our seats at the parlour window to watch the
fun ..fists fights, ladies of the evening doing
their trade, the 'respectable' neighbours slipping
in the side door for a little bottle, carried
home up their coat!
At the corner of Campbell street Saturday night
was like a carnival, as the little mission hall
brought out the 'forms' and the organ, where
on a summer eveing there must have been easily
two hundred peopled assembled at the corner to
hear the preacher and sing hymns.
I remember so well each shop, the length of
the road, The Bluebird grocery store, Chapmans
shoe mender, Ureys drapery shop, Davie Mairs,
with his collection of old boxes behind the counter
in which he kept rice, salt, sugar ect. Miss
Dick the confectioner, Masies chip shop..a chip
was 6d..about 2p in to-days money. Mrs Marks
bakery, Lillies Hardware..Stewarts the Butcher,
and Mr Lillies wife who ran the drapery shop,
next door to Lawlors grocery, and Holywoods sweet
shop, who also sold cooked liver and cows elder,
a strange combination by to-days standards. Mary
Mills little shop was a great place, like an
alladans cave you could literaly buy 2oz of tea,
2oz of butter, a quarter pt of milk, one banna,
one small bap, one rasher of bacon.....anything
you asked for, Mary and her husband, readily
supplied it and cheerfully, this was a great
asset to the people of the area, who not only
were poor but would have had to wait for money
to come, so all that could be afforde!
d for a few pence were the small items on offer.
All summer long we played on the pavements,
very little traffic to bother us, and the daily
passing of the little man from Mcteir street
with his handcard full of coalbrick, was of great
intrest enough for us to stop our game of hop
scotch untill he passed, taking with him the
wifts of smoke and smell of the hand card contents.
Likewise the Herring man or as we called him
the Hern man! always regular with his horse and
cart, to which we presented a tin plate for a
shillings worth of Herns!
This was an area where the people where poor,
and yet possed a great richness in their heart,
there always was a happy easing going atmosphere
on the road. How sad that all this had to disappear
to make way for what! places where.......'characters'
no long exist but are now all residents of an
instititution, or home, shops where one rasher
of bacon cannot be purchased, summer evenings
not given to community gatherings, but spent
in front of TV.
It could be argued that things are now better,
but yet the warmth and richness are non-existent
in our modern society, back then no one was lonely
or isolated...compare this with to day which
would I rather have? The answer is clear.
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