Lisburn Exiles Forum

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The Lisburn Exiles Forum is dedicated to the memory of James Goddard Collins (The Boss) who single-handedly built LISBURN.COM (with a lot of help from many contributors) from 1996 to 29th November 2012. This website was his passion and helping people with a common interest in the City of Lisburn around the world is his lasting legacy.


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where's Dabbler?

Does anyone know where Dabbler is?

Re: where's Dabbler?

Still no sign of Dabbler then...has anyone spotted him anywhere...perhaps in disguise????

Re: Re: where's Dabbler?

Now I'm getting worried Dabbler.....where are you???

Re: where's Dabbler?

Thanks for the concern. Still ‘looking in’, like I’ve done for a few years.
For the next few days, I’ll be engrossed in my job as ‘grandad’; mostly, I suspect, playing football with an adoring, and adored, six year old boy, and getting to know an eighteen month old girl. Haven’t seen them for three months.
All comments, news, opinions about Lisburn, and ‘Lisburnians’, will be read and appreciated.
xx

Re: Re: where's Dabbler?

Thanks Dabbler for showing up. Maureen still wears her tap shoes in the house and her kitchen floor was getting worn out with worry .a six year old boy can keep you busy for a while,the wife can always look after the younger one,allthe best Ken.

Re: where's Dabbler?

Took the family to the station this morning, to get the train back home. May sound a bit soppy, but the wee boy has been the brightest spot of my retirement. I never could play football, but he’s teaching me. Missing him already.
The parents were here, but, and I’ve heard it’s the same with most grandparents, they didn’t get a look in. The six year old thinks I’m a mixture of Norman Wisdom and Superman, but knows that, when I’m too tired to play, Nanny will force more energy out of me.
Just read the Hillsborough stuff. I used to be able to do the cryptic clue crossword puzzles. I find it a bit like that, and I’m out of practice.
We have no holidays booked yet, so I’ll probably check in daily, to see if you are still communicating, pseudonyms and all, or if you have all given up.

Re: Re: where's Dabbler?

Hi Dabbler,

Nothing soppy about your feelings for your grandson, I can relate to that so easy. As you read in a previous entry, we had our youngest grandson(12) over "Home" with us, and he thinks I can do anything, bless his heart. It helps a lot when I can buy the "99s" and fish & chips in the paper, he just loves that. He has just completed a course with an NHL goalie and hopes that will improve his game. By the way NHL.is the equivalent in Ice Hockey as the Premiership is in football. Time will tell if it helps or not.

Beano

Re: where's Dabbler?

.Thanks, folks. Enjoyed all the comments that I read today.
M&S are great for food, but even they cannot match the old soda and potato farls baked on a griddle. Looking back, it may not have been so hygienic, but boy, did they taste good.
I was delighted to hear that some of you enjoyed trips back, despite big changes, and fish and chip smells, (nothing new there).
I used to enjoy watching the dancers, but in my day it was at the Orange Hall, The Legion, or sometimes The Wee (Hibernian) Hall. There were fights at all of them, some very unpleasant, some as entertaining as the dancing, if you were into that sort of thing. I remember one mother of a tall skinny lad telling a huge chap to go and get her son out of the Wee Hall before he wrecked the place. I may have told that one previously. The memory still brings a smile to my face.

Re: where's Dabbler?

When I was a boy living in Hilden sometime we climbed up on the "windy stools" to watch, very intertaining. I think I mentioned this somewhere else and seem to remember old Scout Kingsberry tap dancing and the McMasters doing "Leaders off", do the names ring a bell to any ? Dabbler there were also dances in St Josephs hall in Chapel Hill, but no jiving was allowed, did you go there ?
Donald

Re: where's Dabbler?

I’m not sure where you sat on the ‘windy ledges’, Donald. At the Wee Hall, Linenhall Street, during the war, I climbed unto the ‘windy ledges’ and peered through wire mesh and glass at those inside waltzing, foxtrotting, and jitterbugging. I could (badly) hum the tunes to you. Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey kinda stuff. In later years, Chris Barber sounded good to me.

Curiously enough, despite many connections, I did not go to any of the dances at St. Joseph’s Hall.

At the moment of typing, I’ve been called to give someone a lift. I’ll look in later.

Re: where's Dabbler?

Dabbler
Sorry, I was talking about the dining rooms in Mill St Hilden about 50 years ago, they put on dances a couple of times a year for the workers . It was the highlight of many people,s lives and also the only opportunity for some mill workers to let their hair down. My aunt Shelia told me where the Hilden Brewery now is was once Hilden House, dances and socials were held there and only people with connections were invited to attend the dances held there
Donald

Re: where's Dabbler?

Approaching seventy, despite tremendously good health and an incredible level of fitness, (must have been all that buttermilk and soda bread in my formative years), nevertheless I sometimes think it must be close to my allotted time on Earth. It was with increased optimism therefore that I read that Stanley Orr is still alive and kicking. I knew him only slightly, but know that he was an ex-boxer who ran a boxing club somewhere around Longstone Street in the mid fifties, and would then have been in his thirties. The grandson; sorry, I’ve already forgotten if it was Mr Mc Cleary or Mr Inglestone; must also be related to the many Orrs and Spences on his grandfather’s side. Again, I did not know any of them well, but it was a small town.

Re: Re: where's Dabbler?

You mentioned Stanley Orr Dabbler and of course that took me back to the Top-Hat dance hall. Happy Days...Well they were for me anyway..many happy Saturday nights ....We saw a lot of big names there as well as all the showbands.The Move..the who..the Equals Tiny Tim and his Ukelele?????...The foundations...... The showbands were of course Dicky Rock and the MIama, Big Tom and the Mainliners,Brian Coll and the Plattermen, and hundreds more. As I said Happy Days!!