I am 5 years old. We are playing in the back garden. I am wearing my first pair of brown lace-up shoes for school, just bought from Mrs. Sinclair in McIlroy’s shoe shop down town. We are playing cowboys and indians – dad’s garden bamboo sticks, split and with garden twine for the string. My new shoes are super, nice and tough leather, great for football – but my right foot feels funny, hot, itchy.
There is me and a few brothers, and Alan Donnelly, and neighbours Victor Sinclair from one side and Adrian McAleese from next door on the other side. We cut the bamboo in half to make arrows, and sharpen them with a knife. We add seagull feathers to help their flight. I fire off a few, and I run around collecting them but my foot feels really uncomfortable.
We do a few optimisations of the bows and arrows design and which type of seagull feather is best to use, but I have to stop and take off my shoe. Oh I see – I have walked on a drawing pin and its point is sticking up through the sole of my nice new shoes.
What bizarre things I remember.
And I have a memory of Alan getting an arrow in his eye. I ask but no-one else remembers this, and there is no knowledge of doctor or ambulance or hospital. Is this the real life, or is this just fantasy? I seem to be caught in a landslide with no escape from reality. Could he open his eyes and look up to the skies and see?
Our P7 school trip went to Ostend and I see from Janet McQ’s notes that we went to Dunkirk and Normandy. Did we see or discuss the Bayeux Tapestry, with King Harold with an arrow in his eye? Maybe my brain has mangled playing cowboys and indians and bows and arrows and the battle of Hastings stories together.
Still, that image of poor Alan with an arrow in his eye has lurked at the back of my mind all my life.
1960’s, and my big Belfast cousins Heather and Carol spend half their summer holidays at Portrush. Me, I’m just a poor boy, I need no sympathy – but I am not so qualified at story-telling of this era – but the photos in our album are just magical, and Heather’s memories…..
Heather: “That’s Carol on the dinghy, I don’t think I was ever on them. We did take the boat out to the Skerries a few times, I think a friend of your Dad’s took us. I loved it just the sound of the sea and birds such a feeling of freedom away from the rat race.
“There used to be a raft way out in the harbour which we would swim out to and dive off. There was also a diving board at the pier although I was never brave enough to dive from it. I think Jim and Kenny did though.
“Diving from the stone bins?? The diving board I’m thinking about came off the pier, so not nearly so high, but shows you what a wuss I was – and it took me all my time to build up courage to dive off the raft xx.
“My time in Portrush was so special. You and Ivan were just babies and on sunny days – and every day seemed to be sunny then – Aunty Maud would put you in the tans sad, the big old-fashioned buggy, which Carol and I took turns to push. We had Ivan by the hand and usually we went to the little beach at the Acadia or the wee beach at the harbour. I can still see your Mum sitting against the wall enjoying watching us horse around.”
Me, I am just a poor boy, though my story’s seldom told. “Did you think you were left home alone lol! Of course you were there, you were in the pram. Sometimes if Ivan was too tired to walk we put him in the pram and carried you, as you were smaller and lighter to carry.
“Ivan’s favourite chant was ‘Amerwantcrem’ – translation, ‘Ivan wants ice cream’ – he chanted that every time we went out. Tickled me no end!
“There were sandwiches, lemonade and biscuits which your Mum would pack into the bottom of the pram, and as a wee treat we were given money to buy ‘Tato’ crisps. There were only plain ones then, with a little blue bag of salt to sprinkle over them – crisps today don’t come close to those. We would then have swam and carried on playing, with you little ones in the sand, or taking you to the water’s edge to paddle. I think Aunt Maud enjoyed the rest.
“Not to mention the free passes to Barry’s where we spent many happy hours, and always a trip to the circus.
“I was just remembering when Daddy came for the day. We always went swimming no matter the weather – actually the rougher the waves the better we all loved it. We would come back to the house frozen to the core and shivering, and your Mum would greet us with cups of hot bovril xx.
“Me and Carol were both dying about you and Ivan. (David: I find that happens about me, all the time lol.) How would I describe it? Well the ’60s was a difficult time, teenage years, family stuff, with happy interludes, but on the face if it it was probably the best era to approach teenage years, as it was before the troubles, and women were not as downtrodden as in previous decades. Not to forget how pop music escalated with the best groups ever and of course the flower power was in the ’60s. Nothing describes it better than the ‘Swinging ’60s.’
Music? oh do tell more! “Well, what can I say!? I remember your Dad trying to demonstrate his version of the twist, he said just to pretend you were drying yourself with a towel!
“Funny the things which come into your head.
“It was an explosion of music with the Beatles, Stones, Cilla, Gerry and the Pacemakers (so sad to hear he died), Lulu – the list is endless. Every teenager carried big ghetto blasters on their shoulders listening to music everywhere they went, and portable radios.
“Radio Caroline, the pirate radio station was brilliant. I remember trying to get a signal in the car when we went for runs – Dad hated it and was forever turning it off. ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ was on in the cinema in Portrush and the boys and I tricked Daddy into taking us and he had to sit through it. Talk about sweet revenge, it was magic xx.
“Happy days with lovely memories. I will always be indebted to your Mum and Dad they enhanced our childhood so much at the time xx.”
And Trish Gray (Patricia Lee, her of the L’Atelier photo studio srite-up), writes:
“Our fun, in the 1960’s came from the sandhills, the beach, the Blue Pool, the harbour and the golf course. Once my Dad had decided we were safe in the water, and were sensible enough to be let loose on the town, my brother Martin and I, were given a key on a string to put round our necks, and off we went, turning up home for meals, sandy, dirty and often wet! Many Saturday mornings in the Northern Counties pool and often afternoons in one of the church halls playing Badminton. CSSM sessions in the summer. In the harbour there was a raft, diving boards and a chute, not to forget the Teas and Ices. Jimmy Stewart, one of my Dad’s friends on the Lifeboat allowed us to use his rowing boat in the harbour! In the Blue Pool, there was changing huts, diving boards and a chute. Mrs Frizzell was still running diving displays…. My first job was helping her with the deckchairs on the West Strand.”
David: Well, we left Alan Donnelly after the first section with an arrow in his eye. Later as teenagers we played badminton together at the Kelly Hall but then university, and Alan to the navy, and we totally lost contact. But a few days ago, his name popped up, liking one of my blogs and I wondered – is that Alan with the arrow? I ask around, but someone tells me that they thought he had died – was it a Russian bot masquerading as him? Or someone else with a similar name? But after a few days searching, yesterday I make contact directly with the persona masquerading as Alan Donnelly.
“Er, hallo. Er, Alan Donnelly? Er, Alan Donnelly, as in my primary school classmate Gloria’s brother? We used to play footie and cricket and bows and arrows and things in back garden of croc-na-mac? All my life I have had a bad dream of that Alan Donnelly getting hit in the eye by a bamboo arrow.”
“All of the information is correct lol.”
Alan said, “I think it was Aidey McAleese from next-door – he fired, I caught it just above the right eye.”
Like, where there ambulances and things?
“No not really, a sticking plaster from one of the big people. lol”
So there you go.
One of the Great Unsolved Mysteries of the Twentieth Century has now been solved.
A bit shocking to think that those little events – a drawing pin in my shoe, an arrow in a friend’s eye – a million years ago but the memory is still at the back of my mind.
The 1960s & 70s
the Belfast Telegraph: Portrush and the sizzling ’70s – news through the decade
Portrush floods – August 1960 – the big floods around Dhu Varren
Portrush, 1960s – the Swinging Sixties! – news through the decade
Portrush, 1960s – On the beach! – my toddler years, bliss!
The index of my blogs is here: Portrush Tales – by David Martin – Index & links