Growing up in Ireland....

climaxer

Just spotted this on another forum and thought a lot of people would like it. Cheered me up anyway. Nostalgia is great

Growing up in Ireland

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 i nto 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 and no magical changes

445279.ie

Ah - the memories.

I enjoyed that, thanks!

woosaysdan

oh my god its all soo true!!! it really put a smile on my face just reading it all

sanncoo

Thanks Climaxer!

That really brought back some memories....

Queenie-eye-oh, who has the ball! Is she big or is she small!

Makaveli

All pretty much true, except for kicking around an oil can instead of a football.
We could afford footballs.

mike65

Where's the sunny summer hollidays that went on forever? And the Sherbet dips! and 99s with a flake dammit? And being clever riding your bike no hands then crashing? Trying to leap across a stream and ending up sqeezing out your socks and carrying your shoes the rest of the way home...I remember those

Mike.

billy the squid

actually this i red before but it s still good

although i do remember limerick having quite a few lamp posts though.

Standard Toaster

Read it before too but still worth a look.

Naos

very good.. ahh the memories.

agree with u mike on those year long summer holidays, however sherbit dips were mentioned. And i never used to use football cards(?) to make my bike a motor bike, would use a plastic bottle or a squashed can. ahh yeh.

heres a few more actually to add: Itchy backs, peg guns, rounders on the green with a tennis racket, the bushes where ya used to do 'mad things' such as light a fire. ah yes.,.

billy the squid

do you remember sour sallies, mmmmm

mike65

Mear wrote:

rounders on the green with a tennis racket, the bushes where ya used to do 'mad things' such as light a fire. ah yes.,.

Surely you mean crockett? (or maybe I'm just posh ) as for "mad things" er yes I remember well....is that the Gardai calling to the house? :eek:

Mike.

Ruu_Old

its all true, so true memories. Especially the trying to ride the bike without holding the handlebars and ending up head over heels

pork99

In the mid-70s I think I remember the games we played in the school playground were seasonal - conkers in autumn, marbles in the spring (around Easter?).

Is it still like that? Or are primary school children nowadays too busy with their Gameboy Pokemon Ninja reptile nonsense to bother with such stuff?

irishgeo

round by us it used to football most of the time, but when wimbledon started it was tennis on the roads with ropes acroos the road to act as net, lines scraped on to the road etc. , When the tour de france was on its was bikes everywhere , time trials yellow jeserys you name it we had. Late summer after they hay was cut it would be cricket till all hours of the night coming home with legs red from diving on the hard grass.The days seemed to last for ever. GAA for some reason didnt really to feature at all.

The winter was usually spent on the comptuer with all night gaming sessions, until 3 or 4 in the morning with parents out looking for my friend who used to spend all hours back in my house playing soccer rivals and euroboss on my c64. Friday night was the time when the sweet van used to come and it was great. You spent your pocket money and pig out for the night. Times have changed for the better economy wise but what have we lost?

Skellington

sfukin brilliant climaxer...

but what bout forts made from sheets hung over chairs and tables... and the pain ya felt when, as ya waited for the tape deck on your C64 to load for about 350 slow, agonizing seconds only to have it sfuk up and stop at about 348... the blues brothers game was the worst for that, but worth it when ya finally got to play on your 5th load attempt...

hamster

Can we bring these back? Pretty please! The C64 emulators aren't enough... the whiff modern day reality is too strong! But we can indulge over christmas... at least most of us hopefully? Anyway... I remember watching the old spagetti westerns (Good,bad and the Ugly for eg.) again and again and I never got bored... amazing. I couldn't do that now - watch and forget is the motto these days... :rolleyes: I remember doing a lot of fishing and catching sprats (did I actually eat those things? :eek: ) I remember getting away with murder as a kid. These days you got to watch your every step.

Wham bars.... mmmmm! They would numb me now and chewing the stuff would pull my teeth out!

SantaHoe

I read all that nodding until I came across...

climaxer wrote:

Eating raw jelly

... then a big stupid grin appeared on my face.
"Who opened the packet of jelly?"
*looks at the ceiling*
"Are these teeth marks?!"
Same story with those little OXO cubes wrapped in foil... opening just the very corner and taking a nibble was another guilty pleasure
Strange though, now that I've got the money to go out and buy all the packets of jelly and oxo cubes I want... I just can't be arsed.
Life just breaks you, and you forget about the little things

Tha Gopher

re the 99s,I remember i asked me ma once when gettin one "are 99s 99p?" and she replied "no thank god"

Yid be hard pressed today to get one in a Dublin shopping centre for less than 1.50 euros(about £1.15)


And the winters of the early to mid 90s were alot snowier than these days. IIRC late 94 early 95 there was snow on the ground for weeks

Its odd to remember that back then ALL the cars were ancient. Garda cars were black or blue. There was nothin more excitin than seeing an emergency vechicle with its siren blaring flyin past ya.

Good times

Jonny Arson

I soooo wish I was a child again. Definitely your childhood are the best days of our lives. Does anyone remember the good old times when you would get your pocket money at weekends? Well just to piss alot of you off I still get an obscene amount of pocket money off my parents and I'm 18!!! What makes matters worse I don't work and I always blow all the cash. I'm such a lazy so and so I know.

pork99

Tha Gopher wrote:

And the winters of the early to mid 90s were alot snowier than these days. IIRC late 94 early 95 there was snow on the ground for weeks

First week of January 1982, I remember opening the front door and the snow was chest height - no exageration. We had to dig ourselves out.

Used it as an excuse to take a week off school. Got in even deeper sh!t over that

sanncoo

irishgeo wrote:

round by us it used to football most of the time, but when wimbledon started it was tennis on the roads with ropes acroos the road to act as net, lines scraped on to the road etc. , When the tour de france was on its was bikes everywhere , time trials yellow jeserys you name it we had. Late summer after they hay was cut it would be cricket till all hours of the night coming home with legs red from diving on the hard grass.The days seemed to last for ever. GAA for some reason didnt really to feature at all.

Times have changed for the better economy wise but what have we lost?

It was the same on our road....Football most of the time, cycling for the tour de france, tennis for wimbeldon with the ropes or the line drawn on the road. Filling old washing up bottles with water to 'write' stuff on the road, rounders with a tennis racket!!! We had a hill/slope up to one of the cul de sac's and we would race down it on rollerskates, bikes (not holding the handlebars) and dodge the few cars that were around in those times......


Tents made from rugs held onto railings with Pegs or using the rug tassles (not a good idea).....little 'shops' at each house selling the tat that you didn't want anymore for pennies and tuppence and then going to your friends 'shop' with your earnings and buying all her tat......

Innocent days, fun days......is it lost forever to gameboys and ps2's?

S

Megatron

pork99 wrote:

First week of January 1982, I remember opening the front door and the snow was chest height - no exageration. We had to dig ourselves out.

Used it as an excuse to take a week off school. Got in even deeper sh!t over that

I remember that winter .
Was great fun, we had to take up the ice in the drive way as it was a fairly steep downhill type . the ice that we collected we then built into a little fort
and had a great "War" with everyone, untill ofc the little brother wanted a go and all of us out, so we did what older kids do, let him get him, then bashed the walls down so we buired him .

Battle of the planets roxor'd, as did Mask, Thundercats, transformers, BOD, Playschool ....

ahh the memories

nlgbbbblth

pork99 wrote:

First week of January 1982, I remember opening the front door and the snow was chest height - no exageration. We had to dig ourselves out.

Used it as an excuse to take a week off school. Got in even deeper sh!t over that

yes; the big freeze of Jan 1982 - great memories. Massive snowdrifts, time off school. Throwing snowballs at cars etc.

Lost our cat though. Presumably froze to death somewhere.

FatherTed

nlgbbbblth wrote:

yes; the big freeze of Jan 1982 - great memories. Massive snowdrifts, time off school. Throwing snowballs at cars etc.

Lost our cat though. Presumably froze to death somewhere.

I dunno if it was that big snow fall but it was around that time I was wrongly accused of firing a snowball with a stone in it at one of my teachers at secondary school.

Anyone else pretending to be Bjorn Borg during Wimbledon? And Kevin Keegan?
Anyone remember Wagon Wheels, Bulls Eyes and Peggys Legs?

Also from television - Benny Hill. My dad let me watch it the odd occasion when my mum wasnt paying attention. I remember once in 5th class a few of us were talking about the Benny Hill we saw the night before while we were supposed to be doing our sums and I let out a whistle (you know like when you see a good lookin' bird). My teacher pulled me outside by the ear and gave me a few whallops from the ruler on my hand. Thankfully my parents didnt find out.

shelly04

climbing trees (cause of me nearly living in a+e) spin the bottle (first kiss,) Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt (oh yeah!), Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights (sleep overs), Spinning around(still do it with my neice....classic ), getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles,
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon(esp in school!)
Eating raw jelly(over indulging on orange jelly turned me off the colour )

when 25p was decent pocket money, (huh?????????? what the hell did ya get for that)


Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo."(or ip dip dog.. ya get the pic) It was unbelievable that Red rover wasn't an Olympic event...(omg i loved that)

meant being caught with a biro barrel pea shooter or an elastic band. (remember being told once to collect my elastic band at the office at 3:30 after getting caught flicking at geog teacher.)Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better,(and it worked ) Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.(still is) Abilities were discovered because of a "double dare"(yep nobodys talentless and it nominated you to be an honoury member of being 'one of the lads') Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors (still true)

tSubh Dearg

Is it just me or were summers sunnier and winters snowier when you were small?? I (prehaps wrongly) remember there being snow EVERY winter till I was about 13 or so...damn climate change.

I still remember the day my pocket money got increased from about 30p to the huge sum of 50p! In exchange for this I had to do the washing up and hoovering and I felt it was a fair exchange. Those were the days

hamster

I remember one Christmas.... santa brought me "Big Track" from what was MB games in Waterfiord. A tracked buggy with a calculator pad where you give it a series of instructions to go forward a multiple no. of steps and turn and so on. It has a blue flasher too. It probably lasted a few years..

byte

Excellent post, Climaxer. That surely brings back the memories. I fondly remember the TK Lemonade and Ice Cream concoctions!

I also remember sticking ice lolly sticks at the back wheel to make the "engine noise" and sticking my foot onto the top of the back wheel to act as brakes. Used to destroy shoes with a big groove in the middle after a while!

Ah and attempt to build "huts" but never being really successful at it!

Moriarty

.. coming into massive money like £3 or £4 and spending it all on penny sweets.

god i was sick as a dog for days

gogo

I hate to quote a damn Robbie Williams Song, But the rain was always warm when i was young.

You could get half-penny sweets too, i remember swapping my brother a half-penny for a penny (so i could get that all important extra-sweet), he roared the shop down when he discovered he'd been conned, and got us both sweets for free.

Swarfboy

Kerbs & football tennis..