Hi all
I remember, as a boy, people older than I talking about gaining entrance to the Picture House with a jampot!!!! Can anyone confirm this? I personlich never experienced this and find it hard to believe. I seem to remember reading that this story came about while jampots once had a twopence deposit upon them and the children were given an empty jampot which could be returned to a shop nearby and the twopence used to gain entrance. Anybody throw any light on this?

Dabbler Wilkommen zuruck!
Donald

Donald
The jamjar thing is just tearing at the edge of my memory. I remember that a Mrs Moore, who had a son named Ramsey, and sold toffee apples at the corner of Linenhall Street and Hill Street in the forties, accepted jam jars as payment. She once put on a show, with her children performing, in her back garden, and the price to attend was negotiable, pennies or jars. Vielen Dank! Or something like that. I liked the personlich.
I think we have many old acquaintances in common, perhaps even more than my old workmate Beano.
Joe

Dabbler / Joe
Been here too long, starting to write and think German = personlich ,time to start acting as the Salmon does ( going home to die )but spawning ( in my case fertilising ) before that. How did your family reunion go?
I worked in the Island mill 1968 as a turner , it was owned by F G Wilson Engineering and produced folding Forklifts then.
Do you remember in Stewarts a fountain in the yard where the workers used to fill bottles with water to quensch their thirst?

Still waiting to go, Donald . Wife none too keen, as much baggage, but we’re going. I shall shed a few tears, andhave a few laughs. Looking forward to it.
No, I cannot remember the fountain, but I’m pretty sure, since you mentioned Minnie English, long dead, so I’m told, that there are others we both knew.
Joe

Dabbler
Have a good one and tak a good luk roun when yi git there. A walk down Memory Lane is good for the soul. I , when I visit the "aul country " love to play the game, standing in Market Square, thinking about the generation before and guessing if, " that cud be ****+s offspring".
A visit to family graves at Hillhall and Lisburn always bring the Epith to mind " Remember lad as you pass by, where you are now, there once was I "
Donald

I also heard that story about getting into the picture house with a jamjar. I never knew anyone who did it. The lowest price I remember is 5d to get into the pit. Then you went to the gents and tried to sneak into the better seats(9d), until you got caught by old Sticky(?)or was it (Fergie) Dornan and were forcibly ejected. The balcony seats went for about 1s6d, I think.

Robbie
Sticky was the Manager, Fergie Dornan ran the Petrol Station on the Dublin Rd.
Donald

I have to confess to being of an age where entrance to the "Pit" at the picture house was by the jamjar method, in fact I was part of a crowd from the Low Road who regularly on a Saturday night went to the pictures using this payment method. It should be remembered that glass bottles (Except milk bottles for some reason) were quite the accepted currency.
Billy Morrow's shop was a favourite place to exchange and the real jewels were lemonade bottles from C&C or McLennans ( I am beginning to feel old again ).

donald
your right in your names.
fergie dornan was the owner of the petrol station on dublin road opposite the old markets.
i worked for him for a few years with neville mc mullen mentioned before in our reminsciences
also worked with a mechanic called jimmy watson who had a 500 cc ajs motorcycle who lived on ballinahinch road near legacurry. they altered the road kerbs where the ballinahinch road turns off from the county down road cant remember the name on the way to duffs furniture factory and poor jimmys foot rest hit the new kerb and he fell off the bike and died. a sad time for us all.

incidently jimmys brother was manager of the picture house presently under discussion i think his name was larry and lived just down the road from us in spruce street
good luck to all tom mccabe

this happened all about 1956/1957/

Donald, we used to play that game about parentage when I lived there! :-)

Sometimes I remember, days or weeks after reading contributors’ memories here, that, yes, yes, of course it was!

Donald,If my memory serves me right i think Victor Dornan was manager, Sticky Sloan was chef commisoner,ther was also a girl in the stalls,she collected the tickets called Peggy ? sorry i cant get the surname also I remember another man used to collect the tickets his name was Harry Duggan and this wasent yesterday. hope this is of some help Good Luck

Hi Ted,

Other men involved in the Picture house were Joe Chambers, an imposing big man who took no nonsense,also Sammy Crothers and Billy Hodgins who both worked in the pit.

Beano

Hi Beano, just to get away from jampots for a while, it was before my time thou i heard my parents talk of it but i wonder do you remember the first night they showed Calamity Jane they rushed the door that night at the stalls enterance it was bedlam Sticky didnt stand a chance,and that was a sereious breach of the peace then.Thanks for the information Beano Good Luck Ted
PS Iwonder what year that was?