Choc Ices, Tayto and Razza
Dublin Core
Title
Choc Ices, Tayto and Razza
Subject
Memories of returning to Cork from London on Holiday as a child (The 'rich boy' from London)
Description
Excerpt from an oral history interview where the narrator Michael O'Caalaghan reflects on his memories of returning to Cork on Holidays from London
Transcript
"London was a long way away at that stage. We used to ring, my mother, we'd ring home. Now my mother used to write letters to my grandfather. And he'd write back and the letters would come every week religiously from him. Maybe once a fortnight from my mother, not as quick. When things got a bit better then, we'd ring from a phone box to a phone box on the North side, to my aunt, via operators. We'd be shoving in two bob bits and all the rest of it. I can remember we'd ring on a Friday night. There could be a queue at the phone box, or there could be a queue at the phone box in Farranree. So they'd be waiting at both ends. You'd ring and someone else would pick up the phone. London was a long way away then. Can you remember the first time that you came back for the summer and your impressions of Cork then after having been in London. Yeah, I didn't want to go back to London. Cause we were playing with relations in the North side and relations in Ballyphehane. In London it was a rather built up area where we lived. So we came back here. And I'd be gone in the morning and dragged in late at night, having been out playing football, kick the can, which I'd never heard of, and all those things. So I used to be depressed going back to London. It was just outdoor, always sunny. Red lemonade, I'd never seen. White vinegar Id never seen. And Taytos. Razza was a phrase. My Grandad used to take me to the pub. I didn't realise he was getting it for nothing. You know, it was for half nothing that I'd be drinking Razza. Also when I used to come I was the rich person from England. Choc Ices, and my cousins still joke about Mick coming home with the Choc Ices. We'd go to the shop and I'd have money for Choc Ices, which they wouldn't have got. You know, we had some money but the lads here didn't have as much. And two other things, I'll bore you to tears. My aunts had televisions with slot machines in them. You'd put money in and that's how they paid the rental on the television. The television shops in town. They couldn't afford the rent on the telly, so there was a slot machine on the telly same as an ESB machine. So you'd be watching it, and the next minute the money would go and the telly would go. So someone would run looking for a shilling or two bob to put into it. You'd get an hour or two hours out of it. And the last one was they used to put blue plastic over the television trying to pretend it was colour. Honestly, I thought it was a wind up, but they did. But the slot machines for the television, I remember that now, just come back to me there. You might get an hour for a shilling or something. But in the middle of something it would go. I thought it was prehistoric. I'd colour telly in London at this stage. I thought it was totally prehistoric. And also two channels or one channel. But I loved it back here. I didn't want to go home. We came home for good in 74. Thank God. I was seventeen."
Transcript
"London was a long way away at that stage. We used to ring, my mother, we'd ring home. Now my mother used to write letters to my grandfather. And he'd write back and the letters would come every week religiously from him. Maybe once a fortnight from my mother, not as quick. When things got a bit better then, we'd ring from a phone box to a phone box on the North side, to my aunt, via operators. We'd be shoving in two bob bits and all the rest of it. I can remember we'd ring on a Friday night. There could be a queue at the phone box, or there could be a queue at the phone box in Farranree. So they'd be waiting at both ends. You'd ring and someone else would pick up the phone. London was a long way away then. Can you remember the first time that you came back for the summer and your impressions of Cork then after having been in London. Yeah, I didn't want to go back to London. Cause we were playing with relations in the North side and relations in Ballyphehane. In London it was a rather built up area where we lived. So we came back here. And I'd be gone in the morning and dragged in late at night, having been out playing football, kick the can, which I'd never heard of, and all those things. So I used to be depressed going back to London. It was just outdoor, always sunny. Red lemonade, I'd never seen. White vinegar Id never seen. And Taytos. Razza was a phrase. My Grandad used to take me to the pub. I didn't realise he was getting it for nothing. You know, it was for half nothing that I'd be drinking Razza. Also when I used to come I was the rich person from England. Choc Ices, and my cousins still joke about Mick coming home with the Choc Ices. We'd go to the shop and I'd have money for Choc Ices, which they wouldn't have got. You know, we had some money but the lads here didn't have as much. And two other things, I'll bore you to tears. My aunts had televisions with slot machines in them. You'd put money in and that's how they paid the rental on the television. The television shops in town. They couldn't afford the rent on the telly, so there was a slot machine on the telly same as an ESB machine. So you'd be watching it, and the next minute the money would go and the telly would go. So someone would run looking for a shilling or two bob to put into it. You'd get an hour or two hours out of it. And the last one was they used to put blue plastic over the television trying to pretend it was colour. Honestly, I thought it was a wind up, but they did. But the slot machines for the television, I remember that now, just come back to me there. You might get an hour for a shilling or something. But in the middle of something it would go. I thought it was prehistoric. I'd colour telly in London at this stage. I thought it was totally prehistoric. And also two channels or one channel. But I loved it back here. I didn't want to go home. We came home for good in 74. Thank God. I was seventeen."
Creator
Cork Folklore Project
Source
CFP_SR00436_o'callaghan_2011
Publisher
Cork Folklore Project
Date
06 April 2016
Contributor
(Interviewee)Michael O'Callaghan, (interviewer)Clíona O'Carroll
Rights
Copyright Cork Folklore Project
Format
.mp3
Language
English
Type
Audio
Identifier
CFP_SR00436_o'callaghan_2011
Citation
Cork Folklore Project, “Choc Ices, Tayto and Razza,” Cork Memory Map, accessed May 19, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/cmm/items/show/11.