Ah, the sweet memories of boyhood—playing kerb ball and muck ball and getting your first color TV.
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I was born in 1967 so I don’t remember a huge amount I guess until the early 70s. I was the eldest of three and the only boy so it was up to me to mind my sisters. I can’t say how it affected me growing up in a house with no brothers as I don’t know what it’s like to have a brother, so it’s not something I can say I missed.
The thing I remember most was the summer holidays when we were off school and practically lived on the street and on the green.
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However growing up in Dublin Ireland in the 70s where I lived was very pleasurable and exciting. I lived in a housing estate on the Northside of Dublin and most of the people living there were the same age as my parents and had kids the same age as ourselves more or less. So there were lots of pals nearby. We didn’t have a care in the world for the most part. It was a very different time growing up to now as the only entertainment available to us was outside on the playing field or in a local club of some sort which was great because it meant we had to get out as there was no point locking ourselves in our room because at that time we only had one black and white TV in the house with nothing worthwhile watching on it.
I do remember the day our first color television arrived and the man set it up. There were still only two channels and he put on one which was showing horse racing. Horse racing!! We were fascinated by the color of the horses and the jockey’s clothes but the thing I remember most was the green colour of the racetrack which is kind of weird as there was grass everywhere where I lived and I was always on it.
The thing I remember most was the summer holidays when we were off school and practically lived on the street and on the green playing football, hide and seek and marbles. We had a game called kerbs which involved a soccer ball and a player on each side of the road and we threw or kicked the ball to one another, the aim being to get the ball to bounce back across the road to you off the kerbside on the opposite side. There was a huge range of rules and points available for grabs from getting it all the way back to you without it bouncing on the road to tossing it over a passing car and off the kerb on the other side.( this usually didn’t go down too well with the driver of the car).
The last time I was in Dublin I got an opportunity to drive down that original street and, well it all came back to me and it doesn’t look like it has changed too much yet..
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We played tennis over the garden walls and had regular muck fights. This involved forming garden soil into balls and firing them at one another. It was harmless enough unless you really had a bone to pick with someone and concealed a stone inside one. I don’t think our mothers saw it as harmless though when we came in looking like a street urchin from Oliver Twist with muck up to our eyeballs.
During the summer holidays also there were street leagues organized in soccer or Gaelic football and lasted about a month with games every night. We never knew if we were playing soccer or Gaelic football until we got to the pitch but it always seemed to be sunny and we didn’t care anyway.
Winters were different of course. My father had an old VW beetle at the time which didn’t like the cold mornings at all and all the kids used to gather outside in the mornings to help push it down the road to start it so he could get to work. There was a good chance the road would be icy too so not only were we trying to push a heavy car but stay on our feet also. Snowball fights ensued then of course and sliding up and down on the street, only coming back inside when our hands had gone an alarming shade of purple.
As time moved on I got involved in music and joined a local band making new friends and finding new interests and we moved to another part of the city when I was 12 years old. I know live in another part of the country altogether but the last time I was in Dublin I got an opportunity to drive down that original street and, well it all came back to me and it doesn’t look like it has changed too much yet.
So I think my childhood was pretty enjoyable. I didn’t have lots of chores to do but I had some and made sure to do them. I grew up responsible and aware of not hurting people (except for the odd stone in a muck ball) and the community on that street in Dublin helped in no small way in that.
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Photo: GettyImages