Post
by :FI:Falcon » Thu Feb 23, 2006 8:22 pm
Oh, I loved Limavady
and Belfast !!!
I was five to seven at the time so when I mean loved Belfast
I mean I loved all the nifty toy stores.
The scary Santa Clauses and the raw meat hanging in the meat shop windows I could do without.
My grandfather was one of the designers of the Dupont factory near there. He (Pa), my grandmother (Nana) and my mom (Mom) lived there for three years.
We had a nice little house in Limavady; garden, nice neighbors, adventure and intrigue aplenty. I constantly argued with the kid down the street ... "America won the war! ... No it didn't, Britian did!" We were too young to understand that we were on the same side.
One of best memories was exploring EVERYONE else's gardens, green houses and tool and potting sheds. Dawg, I miss that!
The scariest memories were crossing the Shannon River bridge. It was falling down. Instead of fixing the darn thing, the politicians simply placed a fifty-gallon drum every ten feet or so so you slowly had to maneuver around them in a serpentine pattern. That probably helped with the speed forces, but looking back, it probably increased the lateral forces on the poor old thing.
British troops sticking their machine guns through the flap of their trucks and pointing them at your strange American wide-track Pontiac and following you 'til you passed wasn't too fun either.
Sheep, Gypsies, rocks, cliffs, sea shore, hills and Bishop's Head mountain ... I could go on and on; a dream of a place.
Nana was first generation Irish/American and always had thousands of fairytails ready for me.
Oh, and fairies, Leprechauns and Irish ghosts DO exist. I found several.
When I moved back to Louisville, Kentucky everyone made fun of my new accent.
Stupid kids, I'd give anything to have it back.
<snif!>
Last edited by
:FI:Falcon on Thu Feb 23, 2006 9:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"He who warned, uh, the British that they weren't gonna be takin' away our arms, uh, by ringing those bells, and um, makin' sure as he's riding his horse through town to send those warning shots and bells that we were going to be sure and we were going to be free, and we were going to be armed."
- The history of Paul Revere's
midnight ride, by Sarah Palin.