I remember not only young Edna Hamilton and her brother, who had rickets, not only their father, Jamesie, but also their grandmother, Mary, who was seventy nine or eighty when the war started. I remember my dad telling me, before I was ten, that the old lady was eighty three. They lived directly opposite 'The Lane', as we called Bullick's Court
I just thought I'd write that, so that any of their descendants may know there's an old man alive in England who remembers them. Not very exciting, but, I can't cook, I don't know much about washing clothes or hanging them out in the frost, and I wasn't even any use at football.

Ah, but I haven't told you what I AM good at.
Goodnight!

Nice one Dabs, she asked for that.!!!!!


Pat

AND I've never said I have any money. But I DO claim to have a good sense of humour!

I have wisdom as well as knowledge.
I know that a tomato is a fruit - that's knowledge - I also know not to put it in a fruit salad - that's wisdom.

Humour? I want to write on those resolutions next door, that I have resolved to stay below a hundred and forty pounds, wringing wet, with my overcoat on.

Dabs,

That's all we need, a sense of humour, life is too short for anything else, it's a lifesaver.

"Laugh & the World laughs with you
Cry & you cry alone." Too true.

Pat

"Humour is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law?"

Dabbler,I lived in Chapel Hill during the War,but frequented Bullicks Court to see my favourite aunt Annie Mc grogan married to Robbie Mcgrogan,whose sister was Annie Whitby also a resident there.I remember Jimmy Whitby returning from the War with souveniers of his service in WWII.He had a Black and Red Nazi Banner from Nuremberg.Which somehow finished up as Surplices for the Altar-boys at St.Patricks,Cloth was unobtainable in 1945,so anything was welcome.I suppose the Surplices are still there?Alomg with the Many inscriptions of the altar-boys over the years on the inside doors of the altar-boys closet.Theres a story there!......Frank

Sorry, it's the red wine at this time of night,I said Surplices and meant Soutanes in red and black....Frank

Frank. You're one up on me. I never heard of soutanes. Thought they were surplices.
McGrogan is an extremely faint memory, trying to surface, but I remember very well the Whitbys, who had the misfortune of living next door to me for a time, up on The Green, at the top of The Lane. I think that I once wrote here that Patsy first showed me how to box. He also lent me many comics, with names often mentioned here - Rover, Wizard, Hotspur; and laughed at me, as I tried to run like Wilson, or bowl a cricket ball like some idol in those magazines, one who held the ball in a certain way that caused it to spin.

Dabbler,those comics were my introduction to reading.I didn't much care for the Picture comics,Beano,Dandy,Filmfun etc.But the Wizard,Adventure,Hotspur,Champion were my favourites.Alf Tupper'Tough of the track'whose diet was Fish&Chips Wilson 'Super Athlete',Rockfist Rogan RAF.The Cricketer you mention,was despised by his Father who was a famous Batsman 'Slasher'or' Slogger',but was redeemed in his fathers eyes when started to take a lot of wickets with his 'leg spinners'.Just like Shane Warne..Dont recall any Irish Heroes in them at all!The Scots and Welsh were sort of respectable but not the Irish.Things havent changed much in 60 years.Do the names Billy and Alan Cree ring a bell from the Linenhall St. times.....31C.here today.....Frank

Frank, There was also a Cree family who lived beside Dowling's shop on the longstone. One of the sons "Jimmy" was as far as I know the first Lisburn man lost in the 2nd world war. He was in the navy and serving on HMS Courageous the aircraft carrier which was sunk by a UBoat off the south west coast of Ireland just two weeks after the war started,altogether over five hundred men lost on her. "Lest we forget". Mauri

Yes, I knew all the Crees who lived off Linenhall Street. No Jimmys among them.
The dad, after whom Billy was named, served in the 8th Army, under Montgomery.
I liked all the old comics, starting with Film Fun and Radio Fun, and progressing to those with more writing.

Dabbler, The Jimmy Cree I referred to was from the Cree family on the Longstone not Linenhall Street. Mauri

I sometimes look on a website and forum, local to where I now live. Every area, and almost every street mentioned, seems to bring out the locals to greet each other from all over the planet, saying how they knew old so-and-so who lived at number 64, 12, or whatever, and how they used to pinch apples near there. I've lived in this area for well over thirty years, but it's not the same as growing up in a town, so I rarely, very rarely, enter a comment. Still nice to read, as people meet up, online, after many, many years.

Hear,Hear! Dabbler you have me mentioning some names for the first time in 50 years,poor but proud people that I am pleased to have known.....Frank

And a great job you do, Frank!

Lisa
I regret to say that someone on the forum recently reported the death of Frank. I hope I am wrong. By the way, I have very early, very vague memories of your mother-in-law's mother. I think we may have moved into her house when she left Bullicks Court.
Joe

I remember Edna Hamilton and her brother John, he was'nt a very well lad all hem years ago. their dad worked in the bus station on the Dublin road.
what about John Lundy the coal man,Tommy English, Billie Coulter, Dick Orr and the shirt factory.
Leo.

Was Edna Hamilton any relation to Margaret Hamilton. who attended Convent School, Lisburn. I think she lived around Antrim Street. James Lundy, John Lundy's father, was my granny's first cousin. Work that out if you can.

Leo,

The Lundy's were related to us, my grandmother & John's father were first cousins. We always got our coal from them & their father had a chat with my Grannie about old times, while the boys whittled a few bags on the side while he had tea inside.

They are all dead now R.I.P.. I remember being at the house in Linenhall St. with my Mother, when the Father died, Marcia & Kathleen were there, the daughters, also John & Sam.

So long ago, it is nice to remember decent people. Pat