Did anyone ever play with two pieces of blue slate,3 or 4" long x 2" wide and try and make music out of them. I remember as a kid doing this, but for the life of me I can't do it now, mind you I haven't used slate, it's just not available in Canada. I will be back home again in May, maybe then I can get some slate and try all over again.

No Beano you got me mate.

beano
never heard of that one?
we used to sit round a fire here outside in winter and try to make music on gum leaves the adults that is the kids were all in doors watching videos?
don't remember gum leaves in lisburn either
but good luck and lets know of your progress

tom

I recall the slate instruments you mention. You held them between your fingers and shook them. They were called "clappers". If slate was not available a couple of flat bones worked just as well.Another toy I remember was two bolts threaded into a common nut with match heads packed between. You would throw it into the air and when it landed it usually created a good bang. Forerunner of the pipe bomb, I guess.

Slate was an alternative to large spoons which were played that way. Who remembers "Spoons" McCarthy playing on TV in the sixties? I remember a chap called Ned Close, stationmaster at Hilden Halt playing a mouth organ into a cup to create an echo effect
Donald

That's another nice one Beano. Never thought of the slates in nearly sixty years, but clearly remember 'playing' them.

Hi Billy (Beano)
What about a comb with tissue paper , also Jaw's harp . I remember spoon player's in Mackies , also using the bones . Regard's to toy's , Perries , window breaker's , hoop and cleat , large button , cord threaded through , instant spinner . Anyone blow ciggies on window sills. This Exiles is a mine of information , it should be filed away in a vessel , and buried for the future. HA HA .

All good health looking forward to May.

Tommy

Many thanks Jim for reminder that we used to use "Bones"if we didn't have the slate, also the fact that they were called "clappers". I had completely forgotten about the "bolts"........great.

Donald,
Spoons were completely different from "Clappers", to be honest I think it takes more skill to play the spoons.

Beano

Blowing ciggies on the window sill of Moores shop in Warren Park was a fashion at one time. I remember Bertie Boal, lived down the street, as a bit of a champion. He could flip a stack about half an inch high at the first blow. I know, I lost quite a few to him. On the bones or slates (Bangor blue, of course), very much a part of Irish traditional music scene in the rhtyhm section, they tend to use rib bones from a small calf. I have a set and you can beat out a jig or a reel with a bit of practice.
Sean

Just for the record, Bangor blue slates came from Bangor in England
Donald

Sorry to correct on but it is Wales.

I stand corrected ,
Donald

I had a wee juke at Hilden Mill not so long ago and had the good fortune to view the listed buildings and the now waste area where the houses once stood. It brought back so many memories. The " Alma Mater " is still standing ( how long ? ) but it was depressing to view the Netting department from the Lagan tow path. Who remembers the ("Knocker Ups ? )
Lowroader, I viewed the site where the Dyehouse once stood, where your father spent his working life, the name of a fellow worker came to mind Bob McIlroy from Down Villas, the row of houses above Lockview ( such a posh name for such hovels )

Donald,
I remember Mr McIlroy from his visits to our house to see my daddy.
I too spent some time in and around Hilden last summer and I must say it was very depressing.
Unfortunately I did not get into the school but, like yourself walked along the towpath.
I just hope that some developement takes place fairly quickly as that would surely secure the future of the school.
As I write this, memories come flooding back of a childhood spent with friends to whom I am still indebted for their help throughout my life.
One musical memory is of Paddy Rowan taking a music class in the cookery room and a bunch of tone deaf idiots trying to sing a descant to The Minstrel Boy.
I am still tone deaf but could knock out "I can wash my daddie's shirt" on the piano in the EMB.

I remember Pasdy Rowan as well. His son Peter was in my class, his party piece was a poem " If all the seas were one sea"!. I remember Paddy wrestling on the floor with some of the elder Mallon boys as they wouldn,t let him use the cane on them.

Hi Donald .

Would you please enlighten me what was or were is the Alma Mater . Do you know were the Box Making was , as my mother worked there and i used to hear her speak of it . And it now when she is gone , that we all take interest's in these thing's of day's gone by .

All the best .
Tommy

Tommy
Alma mater is a term used by pupils or students to describe the place where they were educated.In my case Hilden school.It also transletes as a, mild gentle,benign mother. (got this from Collins Encyclopedia )
The box making was a department in Hilden mill which as it,s name suggests produced together with the printing dept. display cartons to pack the finshed product in. I remember one Sunday morning about 55 years ago coming home from church and Hilden village was cut off as the box making store had caught fire. It was situated in the top yard and afterwards was used to store coal for the boilers, the boxmaking dept being " outsourced " to a firm from the Governor Rd Belfast, who delivered the finshed ware. Another name comes to mind here, Bobby Gorman, who also worked in the dept, a dapper little gent always well dressed and friendly (My gran always said he even polished the instep of his shoes ). Great Uncle Barney Watters from Barrack St worked also there until it shut down and was then transferred to the furnishing store ,a dept which stored and distributed the necessary articles every production place needs, light bulbs, knives, etc for everyday use, not furniture and curtains as it,s name suggests. Where the boxmaking dept exactly was situated in the mill I don,t know, maybe Fraser Wilson can help here.
Donald

I notice mention of Bobby Gorman - is this the same guy that used to have a very good voice. If so, my father, Sam Martin, used to chum with him. I remember the week before we left Lisburn, my Aunt Minnie had a party for us leaving and Bobby Gorman was there. He and I sang together - the song was one of Harry Belafonte's.

I certainly do remember playing the spoons and also using the comb with paper in it to play music.

The Bobby Gorman mentioned here lived on the Lowroad, I never heard of him singing, maybe some of the old Lowroaders know more.
Donald

The "dapper" Bobby Gorman was no singer. He worked in the mill and dressed very smartly.
His brother Jackie was the boxing coach mentioned in earlier posts about Mr Thomson. They lived in the fourth house past Leamington heading for Hilden down Grand Street
The only other Bobby Gorman I knew was one of a family which included Harry, Freddie (played for Linfield) and Edmund (Ned, the pigeon man). Bobby may, like a lot of people then, have become a bit of a singer with a few bevvies downed. I never heard him sing.

Hi Donald .

Many thank's for the information , I remember my mum speaking about Bobby Gorman , i think he was her boss , and she seemed to enjoy working for him . I s Barney Watters , Dessie's dad .

Best wishes .

Tommy

Hi Low Roader,

Bobby Gorman, brother of Freddy,Harry and Ned and married to Lily was a very good singer. He and Lily lived for about five years at No.9 Mercer St. I lived in No.17 and I heard Bobby sing at a few parties. Incidentally his apprentice at Carson & Robinson's was Sam Matier, a nephew of Bob Matier who was a director of Mackies for many years. Sam is a neighbour of mine here in Canada and has just turned 84. How our lives intertwine.

Beano

No, Barney and Cassie Watters had no children, they both worked and were for the time "affluent", being able to afford to spend the "twelfth" week in a hotel in Omeath and held court there when their relations came for a day trip on the 12th or 13th July on the train and boat. By the way who remembers a train station in Omeath?. I remember once or twice arriving there direct by train.
Donald

Hi Donald .

I remember going with my mother and father in a 1937 Morris 8 to Omeath . Done the tour of the wee shops, my mother loved the oyster's , and got my dad hooked on them too, my taste was the Mc Cowan's toffee bar's . Then we had a ride on the Jaunting Car to Calvary and back down to the harbour to take the open boat back to Warrenpoint , were we had parked the car . Halfway over we were watching for the custom 's man in the white cap , hoping he would not take our pound of sugar. Other times we used to go across Narrow Water by boat to purchase sweet's and the odd bag of sugar . By the way the sweet's were eaten by the time we reached Lisburn . We lived dangerously.

All the best .

Tommy