Just thinking this morning of the wee park in Hilden. Passed it the other evening and it reminded me of a skeleton. The remains of the seats were still there, where they had always been, but broken and discarded. Those same seats where we mothers would have sat and watched as our children played after school. The seats were filled with mothers and grandmothers, watching their children play safely. It was a social gathering, we would chat, knit, have a laugh, admire the new babies. There was a park-keeper, who was respected, and who kept an eye on everything and everyone.

Thinking back further to my own childhood, I remembered rushing down to the park after school. When I got near the park there was a wall where I used to let my fingers trail along, knowing that I was near my favourite place. First stop was the swings, the ones on the Low Road side. Usually the Hilden children played on the other swings but that was just because they were handy. My favourite were the "burlies". There was always a queue. We all knew to bring along a cardigan or coat to sit on as the rope would get quite sore after sitting for a while. We would take turns to have a "fairylander" and if you don't know what this is, you haven't been to the wee park. It was exhilarating, the wind in your hair and the warm breeze, you were flying.

After that there were the sweetheart see-saws, the sand-pit, the spider's web and another one which I can't remember. Then, of course, the aerial. You had to climb up steep steps (as they seemed) and hold on to the aerial, then you were whizzed along until you were safely caught by the teacher at the other end.

There was a water fountain. I always thought the two steps up to it were very high, but when I was down recently they were nothing at all. Of course, there's no water now but the fountain is still there.

There was also a baby swing, just beside the sand-pit. I was very young and my late brother Malachy was pushing me on the swing. Jimmy Hughes came over and said that I was too big for that swing. My brother replied that I still wasn't at school. I started school at aged 4. I remember the two slabstones under the swing and I also remember the creaking noise it made when swinging. The two slabs are still there.

So much to remember, so much to regret. The wee park is exactly the same, everything still in place, just needs someone to come and refurbish it. It shouldn't cost that much. Children are still children and don't know what they are missing. So many hundreds and thousands of tiny feet running over that park. Sad to see it lying there empty.

Hi Ann,

Past the Hilden Park yesterday, sad to see it so desolated looking, I said to sweetie, why don't they fix it, his reply was, so that they can wreck it again, what's the point, a caretaker would take awful abuse now a day.
Many a time I was in the park, with Low Road/Hilden friends, you will know many of them without mentioning names.

Is it a sign of the times!

Katie

Ann, that bit about running your fingers along the wall - SO evocative of childhood - good writing!

Hi Katie and Ann .

The other week my wife and i were taking some photos down Low Road way , and it was my intention to take a few photos of the wee park and the hall on the other side of the road were i used to go to the socials , and have lemonade and buns . Now gone , and appartments on the site . The wee park was a real shock to the system , a shambles , and barren land , so sad .Also the row of houses on the right hand side down to the old entrance gate to Barbours mill gone .
A well this is progress , time marches on .
Take care .
Tommy

Hi Thomas,

Glad to hear from you, yes Hilden has changed, I knew
quite a lot of people from the Hilden area, many a time
I was in the EMB Hall. Sad to see all the changes, and may I say not always for the better.
I was speaking to a Low Road person last week and she said it is not the same, she was born and reared there,
and still lives there.

Katie

Hi all, I forgot to say that on rainy days we all went over to the EMB Hall. There was a teacher there also to look after us. Just cannot remember her name. We played games, ludo, painting and various things. There was a concert every Christmas. Whenever I hear "The Holly and the Ivy" it reminds me of the EMB Hall. Happy times, unforgettable.

Ann
The Teacher's name in the EMB was Pansy McMaster, Pat Toman was park ranger after Jimmy Hughes, then my Granda Tommy Watters. You forgot to mention the allotments , strictly divided , left girls, right boys. No funny business in those days.
Donald

Yes, Donald I sort of remember the allotments, but were they looked after by the the Hilden schoolchildren? Kind of nature study.

I know at the Convent we had allotments too.

I forgot to mention the big rocking horse too and the tennis players with a net and everything. They were the big girls, Patsy Sheridan and Ann Freeman to name two. How was so much fitted into such a small space. ALSO, when my children were at Hilden school, the annual races were held there too.

Just proves small is better.

Ann
I cannot remember the rocking horse. Pat Sheridan and Ann Freeman yes, Pat's sister Pam who also looks in here I think took over the EMB from Pansy McMaster but I,m not 100%. Do you remember Colonel and Mrs Smyth coming every year to the sports day and also to the boys club Christmas celebration? We had to sing " When Johnny comes marching home again" for him. I knew your brother Malchy from then. There was a youth leader Ronnie something or other also, cannot remember his surname, very strict chap.
Donald

OK OK

I'll come clean.

I was a member of the "Maypole Team" who wove very complex and pretty patterns on the whirly pole.


Was it not Margaret Freeman?

I too remember the concerts etc, in the EMB.
I was never lucky enough to go to Col Smyth's garden party at Newcastle.

I also remember the bloke you refer too Donald. A right royal son of an illegitimate Irish dyer.

Malachy Lavery was too nice for you mob of recacitrants and you took advantage of him.

Do you remember the seats in the hall that turned into tables?
I never saw them anywhere else in all my travels.

LR

Hi all,
Getting a peek now & again (on the duke) I loved the big Dolls House in the E.M.B. it was a dream for us then, it opened in the front & had upstairs & downstairs with all the furnishings etc. What about the Sunday School too & the Prizegiving days?, we used to wait for our chums to come out after the prizes were given out to them. Books, games & boxes of chocolates. Then we all went inside for the party I remember the hymn to finish (now we sing it in Chapel) "Softly & Tenderly Jesus is calling" I always loved it & intend to have it played at my funeral Mass..Cheerful Charlie" Lovely memories...Pat

Donald, LR, Katie, Thomas, Pat and all, Not replying in any particular order but LR, you are right, it WAS Margaret Freeman - well, she was older than me. Got half of right. I recall that ginny fella who used to paint the maypole, remember him? Never could get a girl, could he?

I remember walking along the perimeter of the sandpit, falling down, hitting my chin and chipping my bottom tooth.

Yes, Donald, I remember Pamela Sheridan looking after the wee park. I can't be sure, and I hope she doesn't mind me telling this, especially if the figure is wrong, but I think she earned about £10 a month then, maybe it was £20, not much anyway. What she didn't know, though, until she was of pension age, was that Barbour's paid her insurance stamp for her. She got a nice surprise at that.

Donald, talking about the wee park. Hope you don't mind me mentioning this.

One summer afternoon I was sitting beside your late Aunt Kathleen on one of the seats. I cannot remember the year exactly but I would have had at least one child in a pram, maybe 2. We were sitting chatting and your Aunt Kathleen, who was a great friend of my late Aunt Annie, was telling me that she had lost her hair after chemotherapy. She was wearing a very real looking wig.

Laughingly, she said that when she went to see Mr Roddy in the LVH, he commented on her hair growth. She said she told him "Oh, I awoke one morning and it was like this". Just as well she could keep being positive.

She died young. I remember your aunt Nellie too and another younger sister who emigrated. Is she still alive and what was her name. I just vaguely remember her.

Dabbler, I'm flattered by your comments. You said little but what you did say was praise indeed coming from you. Thank you. Appreciated.

Ann
That with Kathleen must have been 1967 / 68 as she took ill then and died in 1969. Margaret Freeman is correct, she had a brother Billy who ran about with Jim Shields also from Glenmore Row and Ned Blakley also lived there.

Ann
Shelia was the other Aunt, was talking to her this week, she lost her husband last year. Her grandson is a very famous baseball or American football player in America, she still works in a bank..
Donald

Nite,
Guest gone to bed so looking in again.

Billy Freeman was my first boyfriend. He was still at school about 14, in Mr. Woodends class. He used to write poetry & send notes to me with my brothers. One day Mr. Woodend caught him writing & read out the note in class. He was in the Boy's Brigade & used to blow the bugle outside my granny's house to let me know he was outside. Innocent fun in those days. Never kissed even, just talked & he wrote the notes. Happy days. We stayed friends for years, on speaking terms, smiling when we met, remembering.
Sadly Billy died young too.

Donald, your aunt Sheila was a lovely girl, a little older than me, I remember when she went to America. She used to go with a boyfriend from Lambeg before that who became a famous footballer in England. Sadly again ,we had to part from some of our boyfriends because of religion. The parents ruled then, we had to do as we were told. Tell Sheila I was asking for her, if she remembers me.
Pat

Nice wee story about your first boyfriend, Pat. Thanks for sharing it with us. Goodnight.

Donald, do you know, just after I had posted to you I remembered the name - Sheila. Imagine she is still working, good for her. She wouldn't remember me at all.

Lowroader Yes you are correct, Malachy was a great lad, very understanding and forgiving. I remember in the 50s in the EMB stealing a fountain pen from the many he had in his blazer breast pocket. Your brother Joe caught me writing with it in Hilden school and told him. He confronted me in the boys club , remonstrated and allowed me to keep it.
Ann
Please forgive me as Malachy did
Donald

Donald, yes that was Malachy, fair and forgiving. You knew my late brother Joseph as well? He used to think he looked like Elvis, had the upswept hair and all.

I must confess to stealing a book in primary school. I never publicly admitted this before. I think I was in 4th class and there were these red story books for sale, probably 1p or something like that. Anyway, I had no money, but the girl on the bench in front of me had bought the book and had set it down beside her, on the bench.

I loved reading, still do, lifted the book and put it in my schoolbag. I was never found out although could easily have been. Whether the girl never missed it or didn't tell I don't know. She didn't know it was me of course and I can't remember who she was either. It shows how a tiny guilty act like that still stays. I still remember that red book as if it were yesterday. ]

Ann
I think I mentioned it here before, Joe and I shared a desk in Hilden school. Mr Woodende was preparing us for the 11+ I think, or was it in Mrs Woodende,s class? Joe must have been born around 1944 as I was. Do you remember her ? She sat up on the desk at the front of the class, displaying her bloomers. In summer the Woodendes cycled to school sometimes. Terence Rickard who was also in our class used to ask leave to go to the outside toilet and would borrow one of their bikes and go for a spin around Hilden sometimes for hours. Johnny Lynn was the caretaker then. When I first attended Hilden school there were no gates or railings, they had been removed and melted down to help the war effort. Sometime in the early fifties they were replaced.
Donald

Ann / Pat
To avoid future confusion are you sisters? Where does Katie come into this ?
Donald

Ann,

Tut,Tut, I always knew you had a dark secret, and that poor girl still looking for her 1p book, did'nt think u had it in u girl. Was it u who lifted my golden pencil?


Tell Rachel, sorry for insulting her about the film,
"Dirty Dancing", I have already given my hand a slap,
That' the story of my life, I never get it right.

I hope Rachel enjoys her lunch/dinner with the hairdresser.

Katie

Katie, forgot to say, when talking about the girl sticking her pencil into my apple. I remembered later it was actually a clip which she slid out from her dirty looking hair. YUK!!

Donald, yes, Pat and I are sisters. Katie went to school with me, so that's the connection.

Terence Rickard was an awful wee devil wasn't he? Don't know how I remember that but I do. Where did he go to and I wonder is he still alive.

Hubby and I were out for lunch today and ran into Ned (Eddie) Dornan. He used to chum with Joseph. He knew of course about Joe's death. His brother Dermott died some years ago too, from a heart attack.

He had a daughter married yesterday. Just thought I'd tell you that. A wee snippet that I might otherwise forget.

Ann
I remember Ned Dornan, he was younger than myself , he must be about 60 now. His father Dermot sen. owned the hairdressers in Bap Row. He used to help his father clearing up etc. Dermot junior was a little bit older. Didn't they live in Garvey Terrace, near the Magee family?
Terence Rickard was a very intelligent boy, just too much nonsense in his head as most of us then.

Donald, yes I remember Dermott Dornan's Barber Shop in East Down View. (I never knew that it was called Bap Row. I wonder why?). I mean, I wonder why it was called Bap Row? I remember Kitty (his daughter) bringing down his lunch every day - he never even got out for a break.

Everyone in the Low Road and Hilden went to have their hair cut there. When our Joseph was very young, my mother took him over to Dornan's to have his hair cut. He said to Dermott "Could you cut my hair curly"?

Another wee incident about Joseph. Again, he was very young (must have been) but I remember this actually happening. He had been at the pictures watching Batman & Robin or Superman, something like that. Anyway, after he came home, he stood on the settee, jumped off and announced "I can fly a wee bit".

Getting back to Garvey Terrace, yes The Dornan's lived there, next door was a girl called Edna something. She had a brother, can't remember their names. Then there were the Milnes. Pearl Sharkey lived in the end house. I still see Pearl around the town. She looks a bit eccentric now, wears a raincoat all the time but is still able to get about and knows everybody. I think she lives on her own now in the same house I'm sure she has a lot of memories She had a son called Colin, you may remember him.

Ann,
that was until Eddie Lougue opened up his hairdressers in Bridge St and the Bee Bop and DA hair styles came into fashion. Patsy Dornan from Hilden worked for Eddie then and they were the cult hairdressers in Lisburn. I got my ass kicked by my dad for getting a Bee Bop. Another hairdresser was John Hughes from Hilden whose shop was beside the Robin,s Nest.

Ann,
I think East Down View may have been called Bap Row on account of Rickards shop selling fresh Baps at one time, their currant bracks were another speciality, the baps were dusted with white feathery flour & were featherlight. I can taste them & a slice of brack with thick butter r jam now. Again there used to b a lot of bread vans in E.D.View, Ormo, Hughes Inglis Kennedy, all selling baps, they were top of the list then, like buying a loaf now.

Lovely sunny warm day here for a change. How's it with the rest of you?
Pat while the sun shines.

Donald, just remembered Pearl Sharkey's son was called Colin Morgan. (nothing funny, just that we called people by their maiden names then). He went to St Malachy's College.