National Heritage Week 2018 is now under way, and in addition to the extensive programme of talks and other events lined up for Kilcullen and surrounding towns, Woodbine Books has a window display of total 1950s/1960s nostalgia,
writes Brian Byrne.
All the items have been provided by Billy Redmond, and are just part of his extensive collection of memorabilia, which we get to see quite rarely.
The theme of National Heritage Week this year is about telling the stories from the past. There's a whole window of them here.
The Coronet Camera company was in existence since 1926 in the UK, beginning its popular camera series with the Ajax, made from cardboard. This Consul model was introduced in 1950 and was a much more stylish piece of equipment. It used 120 film. The company closed in 1967.
Enamelled buckets were coated steel and were a mainstay item in every home, eventually superseded by plastics for consumer and agricultural use. This one is unusual in that it is in two sections, and has a pair of stick-out handles to help while separating them. Up to the early 1960s, enamel buckets were used to soak cloth nappies, before the advent of disposables.
This Army bugle was finished in brass and copper and was typically used for military, scout and hunting. Billy's one still has the manual of military bugle signals with it.
I remember my mother using these butter paddles to make fancy butter blocks, rolls and balls, to serve with food in the
Hideout Grill in the 1950s. I became quite adept at it myself. Don't know if I could do it now.
The Singer electric portable sewing machine from the early 1960s was a mainstay in most homes, where women cut and sewed clothes before the arrival of cheap department store clothing. It was very skilful work, with the electric model a big advance on the treadle one used by my mother when I was a youngster.
The triple size cobbler's last is a vintage piece, made of cast iron. The sizes were only approximations for working on a wide range of repairs, when leather soles were common.
The cast-iron kettle is typical of items used for hundreds of years, though this version probably dates to Victorian times in its design. Cast iron, though very heavy, is still valued in cooking because it can withstand high temperatures.
This is a galvanised iron washboard, which was bought in Byrnes Hardware in the 1950s. As well as iron, the ridges could also be timber, or glass. An alternative use came in the late 1950s with the advent of the skiffle music groups, where they were part of the rhythm section, played with thimbles.
Ever Ready bicycle lamps like were used through the 1950s all the way to the 1970s (the only difference was the knob on the top got snazzier. They used a double-cell battery, and there's something in my head that they cost 2s/6d a time. Over the winter, cycling home in the dark from Newbridge College, we all shifted to dynamoes because the batteries had a half-life of very little light.
More cast-iron fire ware. The cauldron was very popular for houses where the kitchen fireplace had hangers where they could be suspended above the heat. My grandmother had a really big one and used to cook feed for her pigs in it in a disused cottage where the wall down to Moyola is now.
There just lots of other stuff to stop by and take a look at. Maybe you have your own family stories relating to some of the items. If you do, call in tell Dawn or whoever is working in the bookshop.
And if you see Billy in the street, tell them to him too ... and tell him thanks for the memories.
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