In My Family History There's...
A Volunteer, who during the Irish War of Independence, dressed up as a woman and proceeded to 'befriend' the Black-and-Tan on guard duty at the local railway station. At the opportune moment, he/she produced a chloroformed handkerchief and... mission accomplished... took the key to the shed where arms were stored.
A nine-year-old girl who fell from a swing on a second-story porch. She lived for an hour and a half before dying in hospital from a fractured skull.
A shop-boy who, in 1932, sold "the first wireless that was ever bought in Timahoe"
A father of eight who abandoned his wife and family and disappeared, allegedly to the silver mines of Montana.
A young women whose emigrant's suitcase included eggs for her uncle in America. The fighting cock that eventually hatched gave rise to this riddle: "He was born in America, reared in America, fought in America and died in America but his parents never left Ireland. Who is he?"
A teenager whose first car was a "fawn-coloured 1927 Ford 14.9 Saloon with timber panels on the inside and petrol cans strapped to the outside."
A child who lost a finger in a turnip pulper in Ratheniska.
A nursing nun who fell in love and ran away with a young TB patient.
A farmer who sued a cattle dealer over the sale of a cow. He was assured by the dealer that it was a perfectly healthy animal but when he brought it home it became sick and died in two days. He claimed that the cow had pneumonia and was drugged on the day of the sale. The judge agreed and awarded the farmer £31 1s, 11d.
The organiser of the Robert Emmets, the first Gaelic Football team in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
An emigrant who stole a sack of corn at a threshing dance and sold it to the local malthouse to buy his passage to America.
A young man who won a smoking competition. He smoked two ounces of tobacco in the fastest time.
A nine-year-old girl who fell from a swing on a second-story porch. She lived for an hour and a half before dying in hospital from a fractured skull.
A shop-boy who, in 1932, sold "the first wireless that was ever bought in Timahoe"
A father of eight who abandoned his wife and family and disappeared, allegedly to the silver mines of Montana.
A young women whose emigrant's suitcase included eggs for her uncle in America. The fighting cock that eventually hatched gave rise to this riddle: "He was born in America, reared in America, fought in America and died in America but his parents never left Ireland. Who is he?"
A teenager whose first car was a "fawn-coloured 1927 Ford 14.9 Saloon with timber panels on the inside and petrol cans strapped to the outside."
A child who lost a finger in a turnip pulper in Ratheniska.
A nursing nun who fell in love and ran away with a young TB patient.
A farmer who sued a cattle dealer over the sale of a cow. He was assured by the dealer that it was a perfectly healthy animal but when he brought it home it became sick and died in two days. He claimed that the cow had pneumonia and was drugged on the day of the sale. The judge agreed and awarded the farmer £31 1s, 11d.
The organiser of the Robert Emmets, the first Gaelic Football team in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
An emigrant who stole a sack of corn at a threshing dance and sold it to the local malthouse to buy his passage to America.
A young man who won a smoking competition. He smoked two ounces of tobacco in the fastest time.
posted by Superannuated Man at 3:04 pm
1 Comments:
Assembe more such snippets and you have something of further potential again . . . Rather beautiful some of these in so far as they evoke what sounds like a more varied time than our own when everything seems very homogenous . . .
More Dylan scholarship also please, or at least commentary on the recent work:you're good at that as well. Ever listen to Jesse Winchester, the first and eponymous album? You would have to get it off the net but I bet you would find it muy simpathico. Bobby Charles is also in the overall bag of good contemporary US songwriters. You may be familiar with these artists already . . . I would not be surprised.
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