Your 'Angelas Ashes' period..

robindch · 12-04-2015 02:30PM

Big Wex fan wrote: »

Not quite Angela's Ashes but native born & bread and grew up in the 80's in Ireland in a recession that makes this one look like a miner hiccup.

Grew up in rural Kerry in the 70's and listening to large numbers of people whine and moan about this mini-recession makes me wonder how they'd react if they were somehow magically transported back in time in their own country, just a few short years.

Did anybody see The Rocky Road to Dublin?

suicide_circus · 12-04-2015 02:40PM

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I suppose my own Angela’s Ashes “moment” was the entirety of the 1980s. We were by no means starving but I shudder now at the thought of my entire family being packed into a rusting jalopy of an Opel Kadett or being forced to suffer the indignity of buying “Yellow Pack” non-perishables from Quinnsworth. Or going on your holidays to Tramore in Waterford. That was the way it was.

Perhaps that explains why I have such a distaste for the nostalgia merchants you see online. Why look back to when we had to struggle financially and the measure of a man was how many pints of Harp he could drink in two hours? I would rather appreciate the 5 Series I have now than the deathtraps you saw in Ireland when I was a young fellow. “We were poor but we were happy” doesn’t quite cut it for AvB.

Luckily this traumatic period in your life hasn't left you with a massive chip on your shoulders for all to see.

Depraved · 12-04-2015 02:48PM

anewme wrote: »

Long one so bear with me.

Late 70's, I was eight. Dad worked (low wage) but gambled and/or drank the money. No food usually Tuesdays or Wednesdays( except goody). No phone. No car. No money. No holidays. dressed on the Frawleys clubs. Domestic violence in the home.

Couple of days before Christmas. Saturday morning. Mum and my sister had gone walking to the shops to get some food in over the Christmas. I was at home alone (8 years of age) and watching my favourite film ever (and still is). Willy Wonka (with Gene Wilder) when there was a knock on the door. Who could it be? We were always told not to open the door in case it was "the man" coming to get you!!!

I did not answer but he kept knocking. I looked out the window and saw a white van at the gate and a man at the door with a basket of stuff. once I saw the basket of stuff, my fears disintegrated and I flew to answer the door!

A lovely gentleman asked for my Mum and I said she's gone to the shop. Well can I leave something for you all? He did not have to ask twice. There was a food hamper, a box of toys and a card. (which I later found out contained a very welcome 20 pounds!)

There were toys galore for us two girls but pride of place was a huge yellow teddy bear (with a blue bow) for each of us! There was also a boy doll which fascinated us( look it has a mickey!!!!!, wow)

It turned out my Mum had written to a charity outlining her plight and that was their response. God bless those people.

It's over 35 years ago now, I've done well for myself and try to pay it back where I can, but thinking of that morning( I still remember it like it was yesterday) gets me right there!

I help a few charities here in the Philippines and a few days ago they got a large crate of donated supplies. Canned food and baby supplies mostly which is fantastic. But there was also an old smart phone with some games on it (no sim) & 2 movies. Well the family of 8 that got it thought that Christmas had come early. Grinning ear-to-ear for the day. You should have seen the 6 kids all huddled around the phone trying to figure out the English language games (they only speak Tagalog here).

Someone's old phone, probably sitting idle in a drawer for months will now provide entertainment for a whole family for months to come (and hopefully longer).

I never really appreciated donations to charities until I seen with my own eyes the good that they do. It's amazing!

harry Bailey esq · 12-04-2015 02:53PM

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

Quips about leaving on the immersion have been done to death at this stage. That American 'comedian' made his career out of regaling Irish audiences about the horrors of leaving it on.

Why Irish homes still have an immersion is another thing though. It's an awful way to heat water. In my apartment here in Germany we have hot water 'on tap' 24 hours a day. And lots of it. Not some tiny little cylinder that empties of hot water after a 5 minute shower.

What comedian? My ma still has one in her house she only uses it in the summer so she doesn't have to turn on the heating.That immersion was installed in the late 80s.Before that,to heat water in the tank we had/still have a fireplace in the kitchen that needed to be lit,regardless of how cold/warm it was outside,sharing baths with my little brother was the norm,great fun for us kiddies,F@*kin nightmare for my folks though,having to buy coal all through the summertime.When we got the immersion we thought it was the bees knees,and were lording it up over the neighbours at the time,well my dad was anyways.

edit: I forgot about that pr1ck,I don't find him particularly annoying,but my missus fancies the arse off him.Therefore he's a pr1ck.

Ghost Buster · 12-04-2015 03:00PM

anewme wrote: »

Long one so bear with me.

Late 70's, I was eight. Dad worked (low wage) but gambled and/or drank the money. No food usually Tuesdays or Wednesdays( except goody). No phone. No car. No money. No holidays. dressed on the Frawleys clubs. Domestic violence in the home.

Couple of days before Christmas. Saturday morning. Mum and my sister had gone walking to the shops to get some food in over the Christmas. I was at home alone (8 years of age) and watching my favourite film ever (and still is). Willy Wonka (with Gene Wilder) when there was a knock on the door. Who could it be? We were al
ways told not to open the door in case it was "the man" coming to get you!!!

I did not answer but he kept knocking. I looked out the window and saw a white van at the gate and a man at the door with a basket of stuff. once I saw the basket of stuff, my fears disintegrated and I flew to answer the door!

A lovely gentleman asked for my Mum and I said she's gone to the shop. Well can I leave something for you all? He did not have to ask twice. There was a
ood hamper, a box of toys and a card. (which I later found out contained a very welcome 20 pounds!)

There were toys galore for us two girls but pride of place was a huge yellow teddy bear (with a blue bow) for each of us! There was also a boy doll which fascinated us( look it has a mickey!!!!!, wow)

It turned out my Mum had written to a charity outlining her plight and that was their response. God bless those people.

It's over 35 years ago now, I've done well for myself and try to pay it back where I can, but thinking of that morning( I still remember it like it was yesterday) gets me right there!

You only got it cos I was a good child and didnt answer the door.

Egginacup · 12-04-2015 03:12PM

LDN_Irish wrote: »

Not really that similar, but I was born in London to Irish mother and parents split up when I was young, I lived in an alright part of a quote sh1te area over there but my mother couldn't afford it on one wage. "Repatriated" and ended up homeless and got emergency housed off the council on a new development that nobody wanted to live on. Learnt about chungfellits and chungwans and how to blend in with the Irish proletariat after fighting every fooker in a 3 year age radius for being a Cockney KANT.

I've been a full time mad bastard ever since. Actually love the estate I was raised on now. I'm like one of those LA eses who thinks his ****ty barrio is the best place on Earth.

Mah niggah!

harry Bailey esq · 12-04-2015 03:32PM

Depraved wrote: »

I help a few charities here in the Philippines

That's a risky username for a chap living in the Philippines squire,do people ever get the wrong idea and think your activities out east aren't as benevolent and charitable as you claim? :pac:

Egginacup · 12-04-2015 03:53PM

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I suppose my own Angela’s Ashes “moment” was the entirety of the 1980s. We were by no means starving but I shudder now at the thought of my entire family being packed into a rusting jalopy of an Opel Kadett or being forced to suffer the indignity of buying “Yellow Pack” non-perishables from Quinnsworth. Or going on your holidays to Tramore in Waterford. That was the way it was.

Perhaps that explains why I have such a distaste for the nostalgia merchants you see online. Why look back to when we had to struggle financially and the measure of a man was how many pints of Harp he could drink in two hours? I would rather appreciate the 5 Series I have now than the deathtraps you saw in Ireland when I was a young fellow. “We were poor but we were happy” doesn’t quite cut it for AvB.

What a crock of made up piffle. I don't know any kid growing up in the 80s who was ashamed of buying Thrift or Yellow Pack food items. Did you somehow know that the stuff your parents and neighbours were buying was cheap crap that would attract the derision of others. Did you go to Gonzaga where your peers scoffed at your Yellow Pack crisps and sandwiches as they tucked into their caviar?

There was a running joke in my family, we used to refer to Thrift products as Soviet style brands. Shopping in Superquinn my mother would send me to get certain things. She'd say "run over and get 2 loaves of sliced bread and two half pounds of butter." I'd say "Shall I get 'state bread' and 'state butter'?" ...."Yep" she'd smirk "Get 'state bread' ". It's all good.

At Trinity, I went shopping with a well-heeled young lady from Killiney to get mixers for a booze party. We pooled our cash and bought gallons of "state orange juice" and "state cola" for the vodka instead of coming back with one or two paltry cartons of the branded stuff. Great party and wound up in the cot with this jolly hockey-sticks flower.

I still buy "state milk" and other such items today. Could be the reason why I live in comfort myself.

galah · 12-04-2015 08:55PM

The scary thing is that my children now grow up with a lot fewer mod cons than i did back in 70ies Germany. Here, we dont have "always on heat and hot water", we have to pay for doctors visits and everything related, and it looks like my kids wont grow up with a functioning public transport system or free university education...

At least in 20 years time they'll have stories of woe and poverty to tell

eviltwin · 12-04-2015 08:59PM

Having no home to speak of for 6 months and getting by on the kindness of friends. Tough times.

myshirt · 12-04-2015 09:27PM

Height of the recent recession. Was down to my last 20 grand. Had to cut back the foreign holidays to two a year. Gave up the skiing. Traded in my turtle neck jumper.

Hard looking back. Was pushed to the pin of my collar.

saabsaab · 12-04-2015 09:29PM

Not quite Angela's Ashes but I spent a year in Dublin 4 in the mid eighties as an apprentice on a scheme on very little cash. Around 65 a week.. Just an existence really. The tiny Victorian bedsit was awful but all I could afford - no toilet or bathroom, was a shared ancient one down the corridor. Window rattled and let the wind in, one gas ring for cooking and an old cracked sink beside it, bed (really a broken up pile one made with old newspapers in piles and planks of wood and an ancient remains of a mattress on top) beside that. No room to swing a cat, if I had a cat. One chair and a rickety old table. I spend as little time as possible there..Walked a lot in my free time around the city to keep warm. Work was boring but at least it was warm and you got to talk to people.

myshirt · 12-04-2015 09:31PM

What happened the cat?

Gran Hermano · 12-04-2015 09:33PM

myshirt wrote: »

What happened the cat?

I believe it remains unswung.
Poor redundant cat.

saabsaab · 12-04-2015 09:39PM

Had to eat the cat!

FluffyAngel · 12-04-2015 10:02PM

saabsaab · 12-04-2015 10:05PM

Fluffy Angel, love that sketch..

Cork boy 55 · 12-04-2015 10:21PM

In the summer of seventy six ... I've seen the time I had to drink water from a filthy hoofprint - and I was damm glad to get it!

Depraved · 12-04-2015 11:52PM

harry Bailey esq wrote: »

That's a risky username for a chap living in the Philippines squire,do people ever get the wrong idea and think your activities out east aren't as benevolent and charitable as you claim? :pac:

My boards username is not related to my charity work.
And it's just a username. It's unique, and tongue-in-cheek, but not a reflection of who I am.

Why don't you come visit and volunteer for 2 weeks and you can judge for yourself

Galwayguy35 · 13-04-2015 12:59AM

galljga1 wrote: »

This sh1t is still the reality for a lot of families today.

Not really, growing up in the 1970s/80s was definitely harder.

Most houses in my area had no central heating, the houses were damp and very few people had a car.

Anyone that was lucky enough to have a job was taxed a lot higher than today and welfare for those with no jobs was worth nothing.

JupiterKid · 13-04-2015 01:06AM

Growing up in the 80s I was comfortably off but my parents would remind my sisters and myself that we were fortunate and that many many families weren't - the 80s were dire economically - truly dire. That decade makes the recent "recession" seem like nothing.

Bangers galore on the roads - clapped out Ford escorts and the like. And the roads themselves were little better than goat tracks. The state of Dublin City centre - run down and derelict with vacant lots everywhere. The quays were a complete joke. Everyone over 18 looking miserable and wearing blue jeans and brown imitation leather jackets. But great music...

Food and clothing was definitely much more expensive back in the 80s compared to today. No Lidl or Aldi back then. My mam would always grumble about the cost of the weekly grocery shop in Quinnsworth and school books, uniforms etc. Everyone saved up tokens from the supermarkets to get special offers. Hand me down clothing was commonplace and I got a lot of clothes from the neighbours' older kids.

Things were definitely harder back then.

My own really lean period was when I was on my J1 and between jobs. Down to my last 15 dollars and living on tinned refried beans for a fortnight - cheque sent to pay the phone bill bounced and the prospect of the electricity being cut off. Taught me how to be thrifty!

kowloon · 13-04-2015 01:08AM

super_furry wrote: »

The house I grew up in had no central heating, if you wanted hot water you had to light the fire in the kitchen and wait. On cold mornings you'd wake up with the condensation on the inside of the bedroom windows frozen.

I once lived in a similar situation, used to keep a glass of water beside the bed. It froze over once. Otherwise I live an easy life.

Wompa1 · 13-04-2015 05:49AM

My dad was working in a factory in Mayo, he lost his job. My dad couldn't find a new job, eventually We had to move to where his parents lived, it was still a very small village at the time and my parents didn't have much money. We had to rent a small cottage for about 2 years, it was really isolated, there was no proper road to the cottage. You'd turn off from a main road into a field with a muddy track. The cottage was about a mile in from the road. There was nothing but fields around which were still being used for farming.

The cottage was disgusting. It was so damp and cold, we all got really sick. All of us kids got ring worm because I guess the animals would just roam around the place, touching everything. We had a huge problem with rats. Got a cat to take care of the rats and he was a f'kin a-hole. My mother was from NYC...I feel really sorry that she had to go through that. Particularly in Ireland back in the 80's and early 90's

When we moved over, we all lived with my grandparents, at the back of their shop. You couldn't fit two people in there comfortably and we were fitting 9. My mother said the only McDonalds was in Dublin, the tv channels didn't come on until the afternoon and a lot of people were still using out houses.

Youngblood.III · 15-04-2015 11:28AM

Last night, I had to stitch up a hole in the arse of my Jeans, can't afford another pair ATM.

Youngblood.III · 15-04-2015 11:32AM

Also back in college days, so skint....I actually was going to look in the bin outside Supermacs one night I was that hungry.

OldNotWIse · 15-04-2015 11:42AM

Nothing major. I remember a "clothes line" ie twine that went from one end of the kitchen to the other. Bath time when pots of hot water were brought up and dumped over your head. Being sent to school with jam sandwiches. We'd no central heating in our house when I was a baby and mam had to hang an IR lamp over the cot. No carpet either for the first year or two. Thankfully parents worked their backsides off so it wasn't like that forever. Still, imagine the hysterics now if someone dared to keep a child in a house with no central heating and gave them jam sandwiches :rolleyes: My Dad grew up in Mount Pleasant tenements, but they were "posh" because they had their own toilet

:D

Oh and remember selling my blood twice using someone else's student card when the college were buying samples for testing - although that was likely to fund the drinking session later :P

valoren · 15-04-2015 11:43AM

The father was on the scratcher in the early 90's and drank his wages when he did get work.

Made my Confirmation and made about £300. Will always remember feeling like a millionaire with my stack of Daniel O'Connell's.

So I'm getting dressed to go to town to buy some stuff. Football jersey's and soccer gear more than likely.

My father came into the room and said "Would you give me a loan of £20 until next week?"

I knew exactly what it was for.

£20 was the equivalent to about 8 pints back in the early 90's, a handy session.

I lied and simply said "My mam has it, she's giving me some later on"

He said with indignation "Allright that's grand so!"

That sh1t leaves scars.

Youngblood.III · 15-04-2015 11:45AM

valoren wrote: »

The father was on the scratcher in the early 90's and drank his wages when he did get work.

Made my Confirmation and made about £300. Will always remember feeling like a millionaire with my stack of Daniel O'Connell's.

So I'm getting dressed to go to town to buy some stuff. Football jersey's and soccer gear more than likely.

My father came into the room and said "Would you give me a loan of £20 until next week?"

I knew exactly what it was for.

£20 was the equivalent to about 8 pints back in the early 90's, a handy session.

I lied and simply said "My mam has it, she's giving me some later on"

He said with indignation "Allright that's grand so!"

That sh1t leaves scars.

I never even seen any of my Communion money £40, mother said she'd mind it....ya, she did alright :-(

Your 'Angelas Ashes' period..

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