Here is another gem. These are my mother's (Dinah's) memories of Ireland, traveling to Australia, and of her childhood there.
They are just fragments, but I present them here in the hope that they will grow.
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(Dated: 7 Jan. 2004)
"As for Ireland, I am more Irish than the Irish, as they say, for I have retained all the brogue and the memories are only good. Yes, I remember Ireland.
It was very green, misty, always gently raining, damp and sparkling sunny after the rain, all in the same day. The sea was fierce and battering at the coastline. The emerald color was very real, not unlike Ohio . . . for it seems that there is moisture here all the time and everything is green. But we did not have the extreme Summer that they have here [in Ohio]. They have northern lights, and very long Summer nights---like the Sun will go down about 11:00 at night or 10:00 anyway---for they are much further north, I think.
There were mountains and forest---real ones that you could get lost in and every sound was shut out by the canopy overhead. Nothing was flat and I mean nothing! But where I lived has all been bombed out now. However, I still remember our 'tract home' (Housing Trust, government built, like most homes in Britain) two story house and sleeping upstairs and 'Father Christmas' ringing the bell downstairs and us having to 'Go to sleep!' (My mum and dad calling upstairs.) . . .
I remember the huge shipyard in Belfast and I remember getting on the ship to leave Ireland and my grandmother . . . Lizzie screaming for us not to go and leave her as we left the shore. For us children it was an adventure; I don't think we realized we would never see them again.
I remember her [Lizzie's] narrow house and as you entered the front door there was a room to the left and the stairs to the right hand, and as you passed the stairs, you went down a narrow hall to the scullery (kitchen) at the back of the house and on out to the little walled-in back yard and out the back yard into a lane. We played in the street a lot in those days, so I remember sitting on the sidewalk with all my friends and taking turns on a scooter or a bike (I am not sure which it was).
Yes, I remember smells and the feel of fabric; the smell of my grandmother and the feel of her cardigan on my cheek. Isn't that a funny thing to remember. Or the feel of the big bows my mother put in my hair because I had curly, unruly hair that she always tied in a bow. I remember The Mount, a big house they had turned into apartments for the missionaries at the top and the chapel and classrooms below with the baptism font built there too, and that is where your grandmother was baptized and where I first attended Primary. I remember rolling eggs down a very green, high hill on a branch picnic with all the Belfast people around; we were near a castle or some kind of large, stone building. I am sure your grandmother [Granny Smylie] would know better than me where we were. I remember taking the train to the coast to visit another family in the church for the day.
Fish and fish markets were an intricate part of our life, for fish was very plentiful in the North Sea then, so the sea is missed very much in my life---all my life listening to it on dark days or peaceful days. But that part you will not understand until you have spent some days near the sea. Ireland is surrounded by sea. Even in Australia my dad went fishing and my mum made 'Tommy Rough' (whatever king of fish that is) into 'North Sea Herrings'---those stinky things that you have seen me eat, but not quite the same. A good imitation.
Then there was being at sea for six weeks crossing to Australia. . . . But food is what I can remember well: boiled everything, sausage, ground beef, stew meat, vegetables, all of it. We eat so different in our home in the US and also different in my own home in Australia growing up, for I had lots of neighbors from across the world and they all taught my mother different ethnic foods. But Granny [Lizzie] cooked differently and so did your grandmother [Granny Smylie] when we lived in Ireland. I was 7 when we left and I was baptized in Australia, and that is another book."
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Stories from Granny 4
(Dated: 26 Sept. 03)
"Today I think I will take you to meet your Great-Great-Great Grandfather as I knew him, heard of him, and some of the personal interaction I had with him. He is called Edward McKinny and came from a wee four cottage village in the coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The village was called Bony-Before and is a little way outside Cerrickfergus and Cerrickfergus is where my mother and father's (family) families originally came from.
My mother's name is Elizabeth Latimor Johnson and she was born in Cerrickfergus in a large terrace house opposite the Castle. Cerrickfergus is where King William, Prince of Orange landed and went on to fight and win the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 which enabled Protestants to live in Ireland in defiance of the Church of Rome. . . .
Granda McKinny married Jane Parker and at some time later left Cerrick and came to live in Mervue Street. His whole family must have come with him and his wife because they were all part of my life by the time my memory registers family and time.
I didn't meet my great grand mother nor have I seen any photos of either of them, but stories were told when we got together which was often. The one story of Granny McKinny isn't very kind to her memory was always told.
She was a born-again Christian and didn't allow dancing or singing as they were a sin. Drinking of strong drink was out and when movie pictures come along it was out too. Except Granda loved the movies and when talkies came along, he decided to hear Al Jolson sing 'Mammy' and he slipped away to see the show.
Somehow Granny found out and when Granda came out, she ran at him and started hitting him with her handbag, and when the strap broke, she started in with her umbrella. He waited a minute and then picked her up and carried her home. I passed the Cinema often and thought of the pair of them all those years ago.
They had a family of three girls and two boys."
"Today I think I will take you to meet your Great-Great-Great Grandfather as I knew him, heard of him, and some of the personal interaction I had with him. He is called Edward McKinny and came from a wee four cottage village in the coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The village was called Bony-Before and is a little way outside Cerrickfergus and Cerrickfergus is where my mother and father's (family) families originally came from.
My mother's name is Elizabeth Latimor Johnson and she was born in Cerrickfergus in a large terrace house opposite the Castle. Cerrickfergus is where King William, Prince of Orange landed and went on to fight and win the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 which enabled Protestants to live in Ireland in defiance of the Church of Rome. . . .
Granda McKinny married Jane Parker and at some time later left Cerrick and came to live in Mervue Street. His whole family must have come with him and his wife because they were all part of my life by the time my memory registers family and time.
I didn't meet my great grand mother nor have I seen any photos of either of them, but stories were told when we got together which was often. The one story of Granny McKinny isn't very kind to her memory was always told.
She was a born-again Christian and didn't allow dancing or singing as they were a sin. Drinking of strong drink was out and when movie pictures come along it was out too. Except Granda loved the movies and when talkies came along, he decided to hear Al Jolson sing 'Mammy' and he slipped away to see the show.
Somehow Granny found out and when Granda came out, she ran at him and started hitting him with her handbag, and when the strap broke, she started in with her umbrella. He waited a minute and then picked her up and carried her home. I passed the Cinema often and thought of the pair of them all those years ago.
They had a family of three girls and two boys."
Stories from Granny 3
(Dated: 5 Feb 04)
"I was born into the depression years which started in 1929 and ended with the declaration of War in 1939. These ten years were hard on adults although I can only say this in hindsight as I had a most delightful childhood. . . .
Granda McKinny went to sea at some time in his early life and his wife went with him. She expected to deliver a baby in San Francisco, but as the birth didn't come off he had a mesh wire cot made and a box for baby clothes. The cot hung on two upright ends---with a brass ring on the cot that hung on two knobs on the uprights. This cot swung with the waves and movement of the sea.
Many years later I would use this cot for the first five of my children. Your mother [Dinah] was first put to sleep by the swinging of this cot. I brought the box to Australia. . . . I asked about the cot when I paid a visit to Belfast in 1976, but it couldn't be traced. . . .
I will try to tell you some of Granda's stories as he grew older. When Chris was born, he asked to see her as she was his first G-G-Grandchild and we spent the day together---he walked me half way home pushing her pram. My regret is I didn't take a snapshot of that golden day for it was the last time I saw him."
Granda McKinny went to sea at some time in his early life and his wife went with him. She expected to deliver a baby in San Francisco, but as the birth didn't come off he had a mesh wire cot made and a box for baby clothes. The cot hung on two upright ends---with a brass ring on the cot that hung on two knobs on the uprights. This cot swung with the waves and movement of the sea.
Many years later I would use this cot for the first five of my children. Your mother [Dinah] was first put to sleep by the swinging of this cot. I brought the box to Australia. . . . I asked about the cot when I paid a visit to Belfast in 1976, but it couldn't be traced. . . .
I will try to tell you some of Granda's stories as he grew older. When Chris was born, he asked to see her as she was his first G-G-Grandchild and we spent the day together---he walked me half way home pushing her pram. My regret is I didn't take a snapshot of that golden day for it was the last time I saw him."
Stories from Granny 2
(Dated: 16 Jan. 04)
"This is a little of the story of how the missionaries found us.
David (Granda) was a bus driver and worked spreads---this meant he worked early morning to 10:00 AM and evening from 2-10 PM. We had just moved into our first home and made friends with a family across the street called Alfred and Ray Nickels. Each morning Ray and I had a cigarette and coffee brake and it was a morning in March when I watched two young men talking to Ray. When they left and we were having our brake I asked who they were and she told me they were 'those Mormon fellows.' We laughed when I quipped that they had two wives and Ray thought we were clever when she told them to come back in the evening and talk to her husband.
The next day she told me they had called and it was interesting what they had to say. David had just come in from early morning spread when they knocked our door. It was late March 1951 and I had a new baby about a month before. Thinking to turn them away gently, after they had talked to David for about ten minutes, I said I must bath the baby to which one of them said he hadn't seen a baby bathed for ages and we invited them in. And just like that our lives changed for ever."
"This is a little of the story of how the missionaries found us.
David (Granda) was a bus driver and worked spreads---this meant he worked early morning to 10:00 AM and evening from 2-10 PM. We had just moved into our first home and made friends with a family across the street called Alfred and Ray Nickels. Each morning Ray and I had a cigarette and coffee brake and it was a morning in March when I watched two young men talking to Ray. When they left and we were having our brake I asked who they were and she told me they were 'those Mormon fellows.' We laughed when I quipped that they had two wives and Ray thought we were clever when she told them to come back in the evening and talk to her husband.
The next day she told me they had called and it was interesting what they had to say. David had just come in from early morning spread when they knocked our door. It was late March 1951 and I had a new baby about a month before. Thinking to turn them away gently, after they had talked to David for about ten minutes, I said I must bath the baby to which one of them said he hadn't seen a baby bathed for ages and we invited them in. And just like that our lives changed for ever."
Stories from Granny 1
A few years ago, I asked Granny Smylie to send me stories from her life. She wrote me a couple of letters that I treasure. Since I don't believe the stories she sent me are known generally, I thought I would share them here with the whole family.
I've tried to make a faithful transcription, while only making minor corrections to punctuation and grammar.
I've tried to make a faithful transcription, while only making minor corrections to punctuation and grammar.
-----------------------------------
(Dated: 21 Oct. 03)
"I was born in my Grandmother and father Johnson's home in ____ (UK). We never used the UK until we came to Australia. We eventually moved a little way up the street to ____ and there my two younger sisters were born, Mary (Molly) and Margaret. I already had a brother James. My father worked as a baker on the other side of the City and as there had been riots and a curfew, he had to carry a pass for the night work. One night someone hit him over the head and relieved him of his pass so we moved across town much nearer to his work. . . .
We were there for a few years when a builder started to build a row of new houses. My mother met the builder in the local shop and asked if she could have one of these houses and he promptly said yes---this must have been about 1935---so we moved into ____ . We rented this house until mid 1965, a few months after my mother's death in Dec. 1964.
I had such a happy childhood that even the war couldn't spoil it. And school for me was a dream of good friends and good teachers. I often wonder what happened to all the other girls and boys especially from the school.
My special memories are hard to pick. I could walk past the bakery where my Dad worked and shout 'Andy' and he would come to the loft and give me a wave. One day I was asked to take a pair of Wellington boots (rain boots) home to someone who had left them behind but I joined in a skip rope and left them on a window sill. Well of course someone pinched then and my Dad had to pay for them which put me in the dog house with no pocket money for a very long time.
When I was 12 years old, war was declared which caused an upheaval in our home. My Dad joined the Queen's Irish Rifles and my mother went to work in munitions and we hired a housekeeper---a 19 year old girl from Dublin, Bridget Murphy. When I first heard her speak, I thought she was singing in the Irish. But she soon had us all speaking with 'the tongue.' She stayed with us for two or three years and then married a Belfast lad. She had an Irish country wedding and I was her flower girl. The wedding went on for four days and only finished when the drink ran out. In Ireland, burying the dead was the same. One time my Dad went to a 'wake' to pay his 'respects' and didn't come home for nearly a week.
The day of my 14th b/day my mother took me into the City and took me into a Gents Tailoring Shop where I found out I would be apprenticed to making suits and 'finishing' waist coats. I had started another phase of my life and I loved my mother for knowing me so well. For I loved sewing---especially hand sewing---and was able to get work any where in the world."
We were there for a few years when a builder started to build a row of new houses. My mother met the builder in the local shop and asked if she could have one of these houses and he promptly said yes---this must have been about 1935---so we moved into ____ . We rented this house until mid 1965, a few months after my mother's death in Dec. 1964.
I had such a happy childhood that even the war couldn't spoil it. And school for me was a dream of good friends and good teachers. I often wonder what happened to all the other girls and boys especially from the school.
My special memories are hard to pick. I could walk past the bakery where my Dad worked and shout 'Andy' and he would come to the loft and give me a wave. One day I was asked to take a pair of Wellington boots (rain boots) home to someone who had left them behind but I joined in a skip rope and left them on a window sill. Well of course someone pinched then and my Dad had to pay for them which put me in the dog house with no pocket money for a very long time.
When I was 12 years old, war was declared which caused an upheaval in our home. My Dad joined the Queen's Irish Rifles and my mother went to work in munitions and we hired a housekeeper---a 19 year old girl from Dublin, Bridget Murphy. When I first heard her speak, I thought she was singing in the Irish. But she soon had us all speaking with 'the tongue.' She stayed with us for two or three years and then married a Belfast lad. She had an Irish country wedding and I was her flower girl. The wedding went on for four days and only finished when the drink ran out. In Ireland, burying the dead was the same. One time my Dad went to a 'wake' to pay his 'respects' and didn't come home for nearly a week.
The day of my 14th b/day my mother took me into the City and took me into a Gents Tailoring Shop where I found out I would be apprenticed to making suits and 'finishing' waist coats. I had started another phase of my life and I loved my mother for knowing me so well. For I loved sewing---especially hand sewing---and was able to get work any where in the world."
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