Growing up © Tony Fallon 91617.

Growing up © Tony Fallon 91617.

When we grew up in Ireland just after the big war
We had two bicycles in the house but we didn’t have a car
We went to mass each Sunday in a pony and trap
In the winter you’d have a shawl thrown across your lap
We’d use Jim Menton’s ass and cart for other transportation
Like picking up bag stuff at Knockcroghery railroad station
If there was a bus in Rahara we’d have used it in a flash
But the bus fare might have left my mother very short of cash

My father was a builder who built tanks and sheds
Often when he got home at night we were in our beds
Sometimes he’d be working for the Murray’s that was near
Other times he’d have to cycle all the way to Cornaseer
I remember cycling that far with him in my teenage years
On a big man’s bicycle that didn’t have three gears.
I helped him with the plastering and I helped with the dash
On those Saturday nights, I don’t remember ever getting cash.

My mother grew many vegetables in our bit of Irish Soil
We didn’t have electricity our lamp used paraffin oil
My father got fed up with the paraffin and he got Calor Gas
And hooked up a light on the ceiling that really was first class
I could now read all my books so easily with this extra lighting
And I didn’t hurt my eyes so much when I’d be sitting writing
One day the globe fell off and shattered with a crash
My mother said there will be no light and that will cost us cash

We went to Dugra bog to cut the turf which is also called peat
It doesn’t matter what you call it in winter it gave heat.
The traveling and work was hard at night you’d be whacked
It took almost three months until you had it finally stacked
When turf was saved it was not home you still had to worry
That it would rain on it before you got Eamon Beattie’s lorry
My mother would start to worry if she saw a lightning flash
She couldn’t buy back-up tuft she had no extra cash.

Then in the early fifties, my father bought a baby Ford
He bought it from his brother it was all he could afford
My mother who was religious said “we’ll have to go to Knock”
My brothers got new pants and my sister a brand new frock
I had saved up a few shillings I pigged out on sugar stick
Then right there on the holy ground I got really sick
My Mother wouldn’t buy souvenirs she said they were trash
You couldn’t fool my mother when it came to spending cash