Featured photo: Christmas Memories from 1976
By Dave Bradley
Christmas is just a few days away and Santa is coming to my house this year with piles of presents for my little granddaughter.
Even though I am a child of the 70s not too much has changed over the years except for the amount of toys that the big man manages to squeeze down the chimney.
Every year I like to cast my mind back to the typical Christmases I enjoyed as a child, well the ones I can remember anyhow.
The clearest memories I have were the years I worked with my dad on Christmas Eve.
His name was Tom Bradley and he owned a pet shop in Cork. I worked with him each Saturday or on days off from school when I was a youngfella.
I would be sent off with some string to gather empty shoe boxes from some of the long since closed shoe shops on the North Main Street These were used to put the budgies and canaries in for the trip from the shop to their new home. That, and cleaning out the cages were my main jobs, not as glamorous as some might have thought.
Christmas was the busiest time of the year and Christmas Eve the busiest day. It was even busier than the eighth of December, the feast of the Immaculate Conception when traditionally families came ‘up from the country’ to do their Christmas shopping.
Most people had already paid in advance for birds, cages, fish, bowls and tanks, rabbits, hamsters and guinea pigs and they arrived all day to collect them. There were always a few panic buyers too grabbing a few last minute gifts.
My dad never sold puppies, he felt they were too big a responsibility for an impulse buy and didn’t like seeing them in cages. The rest of the animals didn’t bother him though as he said they were bred in captivity. He was always kind and gentle with the animals that he owned and sold.
The day was so busy it used to fly in but before we headed home we always had a few discreet deliveries to make, often good for a few tips for me.
Last stop before home was to call to the local shop to pick up a supply of John Player Special, enough to get mum n dad through the holidays when the shops were closed. No checking for ID in those days, I used have to run in and make sure the change was right or I’d be sent back again, oh the shame.
There was always a welcoming committee when we got home. My mum, sister and brother would be dying for us to get back so they could get started on the sweets (Roses), the biscuits (USA or Afternoon Tea) and a mineral, a choice from the crate of big glass bottles of Coke, Fanta, Tanora (a Cork Favourite) and the one bottle of Cidona for dad.
The tradition of the family waiting till we got home before they started on the goodies kept me going during the day and it was years later when I was chatting to mum about it that she revealed that they could never wait but were sworn to silence to keep me happy.
God it was a real treat to have a handful of sweets a pile of biscuits and as many glasses of the mineral (fizzy drink) of choice as we wanted. They really were simpler times and I’d say my mum had to save half the year for it in the days before credit unions and credit cards.
I’d say it was watching RTE one on the telly cause that was the only station we had, till about nine o’clock and then off to bed.
We would lie there chatting till the sleigh bells rang outside. When I was in the know I realised it was my mum ringing the bell, wonder what the neighbours thought? Then it was off to sleep to get ready for the early start with the stockings at the end of the bed to kick start Christmas morning.
I can’t remember what presents we got but the happy memories will do.
