Munster Arcade Dummies
Dublin Core
Title
Munster Arcade Dummies
Subject
The Munster Arcade
Description
Fergal describes working in the Munster Arcade and tells a few stories about the place.
Transcript
"Before Penney's there was a very well known shop in Cork, Munster Arcade. It was a real old fashioned drapery and general merchandise store, right. And I went to work there in 1955. I started off then in the department called the haberdashery, and they sold kind of all things from needles to wool and various things like that. And then I went on to different departments. They had an antiquated lift, you know, with these iron gates and they actually had a lift boy bringing people up and down. A boy especially employed to do that. They also had an intriguing thing for the cash. You know, it is all cash registers today and what not, but in those days they had a thing called, it was a Lamson System, whereby when you paid money, the customer paid the money, the money and the docket, the docket was written out and it was put into a metal canister, and there was a pipe coming down inside the counter, over by the wall of the counter and the money was sent up to the cash desk and sent back again then with the change. It was a very slow system but that's the way it was. It was bought over by Penney's in 1978. My father, God rest him, told me a story that in the early days in the Arcade, well before my time now, or your time of course, they used to sleep in there. They had a dormitory, especially for fellas coming up from the country. And they'd great fun when fellas would come up from the country. One fella, pretending to be a doctor and he'd be examining and you know and all this. But there was one story told, that they used to go to bed at night. And it was almost like a boarding school. The supervisor would come along with a torch to make sure they were all in bed. Apparently one night one fella ducked out to a dance, and the authorities didn't know anything about it. They dressed up one of the dummies and put it into his bed in the dormitory. Your man came back from the dance, got into his bed and nothing was known about it. That was one of the funny stories I heard."
Transcript
"Before Penney's there was a very well known shop in Cork, Munster Arcade. It was a real old fashioned drapery and general merchandise store, right. And I went to work there in 1955. I started off then in the department called the haberdashery, and they sold kind of all things from needles to wool and various things like that. And then I went on to different departments. They had an antiquated lift, you know, with these iron gates and they actually had a lift boy bringing people up and down. A boy especially employed to do that. They also had an intriguing thing for the cash. You know, it is all cash registers today and what not, but in those days they had a thing called, it was a Lamson System, whereby when you paid money, the customer paid the money, the money and the docket, the docket was written out and it was put into a metal canister, and there was a pipe coming down inside the counter, over by the wall of the counter and the money was sent up to the cash desk and sent back again then with the change. It was a very slow system but that's the way it was. It was bought over by Penney's in 1978. My father, God rest him, told me a story that in the early days in the Arcade, well before my time now, or your time of course, they used to sleep in there. They had a dormitory, especially for fellas coming up from the country. And they'd great fun when fellas would come up from the country. One fella, pretending to be a doctor and he'd be examining and you know and all this. But there was one story told, that they used to go to bed at night. And it was almost like a boarding school. The supervisor would come along with a torch to make sure they were all in bed. Apparently one night one fella ducked out to a dance, and the authorities didn't know anything about it. They dressed up one of the dummies and put it into his bed in the dormitory. Your man came back from the dance, got into his bed and nothing was known about it. That was one of the funny stories I heard."
Creator
Cork Folklore Project
Source
Cork Folklore Project
CFP_SR00441_crowley_2011
CFP_SR00441_crowley_2011
Publisher
Cork Folklore Project
Date
6th of April 2016
Contributor
Fergal Crowley interviewee
Rights
Copyright Cork folkore Project
Format
Mp3
Language
English
Type
Audio
Identifier
CFP_SR00441_crowley_2011
Citation
Cork Folklore Project, “Munster Arcade Dummies,” Cork Memory Map, accessed June 3, 2024, https://corkfolklore.org/cmm/items/show/13.