Catherine Crawford compared the leisure activities of her grandparents and parents   My grandparents were all born in the 1920s. All my granddad wanted to do as a boy was run around, play football and climb trees. He gathered chestnuts, put a hole in them with a horse shoe nail, put a bit of string through to play doggie (corkers) with. One boy would hold his chestnut up by its string and the other boy would try and hit it with his chestnut. Each boy took turns until a chestnut was broken. When my granddad got enough money he went to the picture house in Ballyclare. It was opposite where the BP filling station is today. His favourite films were cowboys with Gene Autry and Tom Mix. He walked all the way from Doagh. He sat at the very front seats as they were the cheapest but at the end of the film his neck was sore. When the film was over he went straight to the fish and chip shop owned by Mr Smith and got a chip at the cost of two old pennies. My granddad worked to get money to go to the pictures. He would gather up old jam jars and take them to the grocers to be sent to Millers Jam factory. He got a half penny for each one. The picture house was owned by Mr Logan and was managed by a man called Leo. If a film broke down my granddad and his friends would stamp their feet and Mr Logan would shout "Leo, the lights!" so he could see who was making all the noise. When my granddad was a boy he had a crystal set. It had no speakers but had a set of earphones. With his other two brothers my granddad said there was a lot of arguments to see whose turn it was next. What they did if the crystal set was working very well was to put the earphones in a crock bowl and that allowed all three brothers to listen at the same time. Their favourite programme was Dick Barton special agent, who was a detective who solved lots of crimes. My granddad had to take the battery or accumulator to Ballyclare once a week to get it charged - "the sound was great for the first three days but after that it was hard to listen to"  My granny said that when she was a little girl the autumn and winter evenings were spent mostly sitting around the fire with neighbours dropping in to talk about what had happened recently. At harvest time the thresher came into the district and the engine driver stayed in a large van until all the farmers corn was safely put into the barn. The farmers grouped together and helped each other whilst this was being done. This was called "neighbouring". The wives cooked large meals and there was a happy time around the heavy laden tables. One time my granny remembers talking until midnight and when the door was opened the snow fell into the hall and the visitors had to dig a path to get out.  In the spring and summer my granny played out of doors, skipping in the playground and playing little house in the corner. They would set out old pieces of coloured delph and brush the floor with a small bush. Rounders was a game my granny loved and the picking of the sides was very exciting as everyone wanted to be on the best team. She loved hop scotch.  My other granny lived in Islandmagee. My great grandfather was a carpenter as well as a small farmer. He made my granny and her brother lots of toys out of wood. My gran's dolls were soft, like rag dolls. She had one doll with a soft body and a china face. My great granny and her aunts who lived nearby were greatseamstresses who made clothes for my granny and clothes for her dolly. In the house along the lane lived a family called Jackson who had a piano,which my gran would often go over to play as there was no piano in her house. My mum was born in 1959. Most of Mum's neighbours had children around the same age. One of the neighbours was a painter and decorator and he used to get old wallpaper books. My mum and her friends would spend many hours making clothes for cut out cardboard dolls. Mum liked the brightest, floweriest wallpaper for her dolls' clothes. Mum loved skipping and German jumps. If there were no friends available for German jumps she put the elastic round the bin at one end and a heavy chair at the other and played on her own. Sometimes mum would put a tennis ball down the leg of a cut off pair of tights, stand up against a wall and smack the ball from side to side . When there were lots of friends they played "One, two, three, red lights" which is a bit like "What time is it Mr Wolf?". Mum loved dressing up especially in high heels. She played house or school with her friends out in the garden or in the garage. She loved her doll and pram. Sometimes her cat would climb into her pram for a sleep. She loved to wheel her cat around. It was much better than a doll but he usually woke up and jumped out. In the summer she played Baker's Shop. They made mud pie buns and pulled the heads off all the nemesias in the garden to decorate them. Mum had a black and white TV at home. She loved Captain Pugwash and Bill and Ben. She remembers the assassination of President Kennedy and the first moon walk being on TV. Mum got Playhour comic every week and then Bunty or Mandy when she was older. Mum loved to read especially, Enid Blyton books. She used to imagine there really were pixies at the bottom of the bed. There was no car at home until mum was eight so they went everywhere by bus. The number 3 red bus took them into town along the Antrim road. They always tried to get the front seat upstairs. The first time my mum went to the pictures was to see "Sound of Music " at the Capital Picture House on the Antrim Road. One time they went to the circus in the Grove Theatre. She went to the Grove swimming baths every Wednesday. No bus went along the Shore road so they walked down Alexandra Park Avenue. After the swim they went up to the cafe where they got a jammy dodger for a penny and a packet of beef crisps for three pence. Sometimes they got a lift with a neighbour who had a green Austin Cambridge. The kids rattled around the back like peas in a biscuit barrel without a seat belt in the entire car. When mum met dad they went to lots of concerts together. She says the best one was Bruce Springsteen in Dublin around 1984.   Another Story Return to Competition