Alistair Bell asked Mr. Jim Armstrong some questions about Fun and Games in Ballyclare when he was young in the late 1940s and early 1950s.   Mr. Jim Armstrong grew up in Millvale. He played football on the Ballynure Road because there weren't many cars about then. The boys used five gallon oil drums as goal posts. He supported Ballyclare Comrades, the team everyone supported because in those days he never heard much about the English teams. Only the highlights of very important matches, like the F.A. cup, were shown on T.V. When he was a boy, Jim played a game called 'Kick the Tin'. He doesn't know why it was called this because he never actually kicked the tin. A tin was put in the middle of the road. One person had to guard it. The others all hid and then they had to try to come back to the tin and lift it, without being caught. The guard was hunting for the boys and at the same time guarding the tin.  He played another game with about twenty boys. They were divided into two teams. One team went as far away as they could and hid. The others tried to find them. They could have gone as far as Ballynure and the game might have taken all day. Sometimes he and his friends played a trick on someone. They covered a shoe box with brown paper and tied it up with string. They put black thread on it and set the box on the footpath. Then the boys climbed over the wall and held the long black thread. When someone went past and looked at the parcel, they tugged on the thread and the parcel moved.  Jim and his friends went fishing for spricks in the Sixmile. Sometimes they put a worm on the end of a long rush and fished with it. Some boys went swimming in the Sixmile when they found a spot deep enough. In winter they slid up and down the Mill Road on the ice. In the evenings they played Ludo or Draughts and made models out of bits of wood. Every boy had a gun and holster and caps if they could afford them. At school Jim played 'Tig' and 'Two Man Hunt'.  There weren't many books when Jim was a boy but he does remember reading Biggles. Every Christmas he got a new Annual, either the Beano or the Dandy. He read comics like Rover, Wizard, Lion, Tiger, Hotspur, Adventure and Champion. The Dandy came out on a Monday and cost 2d. The Beano came out on a Wednesday and cost 2d. He used to swap comics with his friends. He liked to read the "funnies" out of the American newspapers which they got from the soldiers who were still here after the war. These were cartoons of Tarzan, Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy. Tarzan was a real hero - he could do anything. Jim would pretend to be him. Jim remembers the Rio Cinema, which used to be where the entrance to Avondale Drive is now. It was a very big cinema. The front stalls had wooden seats. On a Saturday, he and his friends were given 7d to go to 'the pictures ' The back stalls cost 7d, but they went to the front stalls which cost 3d. With the 4d change they bought a chip in "Chippy Smith's" which was next door. Then the New Rio cinema was built on the Ballynure Road, where the Police Station is now and for a while there were two cinemas in the town. Soon afterwards the old one closed down as no one wanted to go there any more. The New Rio was also a big cinema, but it didn't have as big a balcony as The Rio. At night it cost 7d for the front stalls, 1/6d. for the back stalls and 2/= for the balcony. He was never on the balcony unless an adult took him! The first house was at 6pm and the second at 8.30pm. He had to queue for a ticket and it was always very dark inside. It seemed a very modern cinema compared with the old one. The height and width of the screen could be adjusted and there was continuous showing of films. The film changed four times a week. Jim said it was a real 'state of the art' cinema. The New Rio had a stage where they held Talent Shows, which nobody ever seemed to win! Tom Raymond was the compere. Best of all, Jim thought, were the Hypnotist shows, when Edwin Heath hypnotised local people and it was a great laugh if you knew someone! On Boxing night Jim always went to Belfast to see a Pantomime. He went to the Regent Cinema in Belfast and remembers queuing for one and a half hours and then being turned away because they could take no more people. Some of the characters he remembers in films are Johnny McBrown, the good cowboy who never got shot, Lash Larue, Prince Beerah the motorcycle champion, The Bowry Boys and old Mother Riley. In the late '40s the radio or wireless was the main form of entertainment in the home. Children's Hour was on at five o'clock each day. There were plays and serials on it, Toy Town, Larry the Lamb and Mr. Grouser who was very cross. The McCooeys were on every Saturday at 6.40pm. He listened to Dick Barton, Special Agent and he liked Tommy Handley, the comedian. The first BBC T.V. programme around 1951 was "Muffin the Mule". He didn't have a television then, so he went to a neighbour's house to watch it on a 12" black and white set. Her house was crammed with people watching the first TV programme. He remembers the Coronation on TV. It lasted the whole day. It was then shown in the cinema in colour. He watched the Grove Family, which was a bit like Coronation Street. He doesn't think there were many programmes just for children. Jim said the singers in those days sang songs that you could understand. Bill Haley and the Comets, a rock ''n'' roll band, was one of his favourites. He listened to Bing Crosby, Vera Lynn, Helen Shapiro, Winifred Atwell, Ruby Murray, Eddie Calvert on the trumpet, and Ann Zeagler and Webster Booth, a duo who sang and played the piano. He belonged to the Church Lads' Brigade which met in the Church of Ireland. Later the Boys' Brigade started in the Presbyterian and some boys moved over to it. They had a vaulting horse, parallel bars and a football team and they went to camp in the summer. There were three dances on a Saturday. One was held in the Abbey Hall in Abercorn Drive, where the Linfield Club is now. There were usually fights at this one. One was held in the High School but you had to be a pupil to go to that one. There was one in the Town Hall and it had a good sprung floor for dancing. A typical Saturday evening for Jim was to go to the first house of 'the pictures' in the Rio , come out of there at 8.30 in time to go to the Town Hall concert, which got out at 11p.m. Then he and his friends headed to Bertie Kennedy's chip shop at the bottom of the town, or perhaps to Stevenson's for a pork pie. Then they went on to the Abbey Hall where the people were getting out of the dance and waiting for their buses. Jim and his friends watched any fights that took place and then went home before midnight. Sunday was a very quiet day when Jim wasn't allowed to do anything except go for a walk. After Church, the boys got their lunch, changed out of their good clothes, and went for a walk along the Back Walks. Their walk took about three hours. A big day out every year was on the first Saturday in June, when the Church of Ireland Sunday School went on their trip to Portrush on the train. They bought sweets, went to the Strand, and if they had enough money, went to Barry's amusements. Jim went to Islandmagee one Wednesday in the year. He took the boat from Larne to get there. He also remembers excursions to Bundoran and to Warrenpoint, then over to Omeath in the ferry. These were the main outings as there were few cars.   Another Story Return to Competition