This is a gorgeous photo. So much could be said about it. The cute little sailor hats, the blanket that I remember so well and the way my mam spread it out on the car for the boys to sit on. That was our picnic blanket, our beach blanket, and our throw for the couch. We had it for years.
The blue caravan on the right is the one we stayed in. It didn’t belong to us. It was borrowed from a family friend. It was quite small, but big enough for seven of us…just like the car was!
The number plate on the car—a Ford Anglia—is a number I’ve always remembered. MZJ558. Before the Anglia, we had a Morris Minor. I don’t remember that one.
I wanted Frederick O’Malley—a character in my novel—to own an Anglia, but my Dad informed me that no one had Anglias in Bailieborough in the 50’s. He said the relative of the Anglia, the Ford Prefect, was more popular in that era. So I gave Frederick the Prefect Coupe Utility model, because he needs a spacious vehicle for his regular trips to Dublin—although it is more often used by his son John.
My novel spans over three decades, and in 1976 I gave Jim Fitzpatrick an old second-hand Anglia.
A 1922 Baby Austin also features in the early years of my book and it belongs to the closeted gay character, George. He bought it at an auction; a bargain at ninety pounds!
I’m very late contributing to this month’s picture prompt. I did start the prompt a few weeks ago but…..you know yourself. Life!
Write a story, a poem, a limerick inspired by the last picture on your camera roll, and join us here at Strange Bloggers Picture Prompt 2. Come and share your own story with us once you checked your camera roll.
The last picture in my camera roll was of this old style dresser taken in the Kerry Bog Village Museum, which we toured while visiting my uncle in Glenbeigh. Since I started writing my fictional novel I’ve become more interested than ever in Irish history. The Bog Village Museum gives an insight into the lives of people in the 18th Century, and this beautiful red dresser stood out for me because a similar one features in my story (insignificantly)…even though my story begins in 1956.
So I decided to share an excerpt of my story. Please let me know what you think! Thank you. 😉
Flossie looked the place up and down. A wave of childhood memories consumed her; the smell of baking and oranges filling her senses. Mrs Connolly always had a bowl of oranges on the table, believing that they encouraged conversation and happiness. It was a different house now. The net curtains were the same except they were grey and frayed, not snow white and pristine as they once were. The red paint peeled in patches on the dresser that was once filled with odd pieces of vibrant coloured pottery.
Flossie sipped at her tea, but she couldn’t face a sandwich. She took a Marietta instead. It would keep her hands busy. Everyone was talking about the deceased. The sombre atmosphere was fraught with speculation and disbelief. The wide-eyed busybodies were hungry for the latest gossip, whispering and watching, listening to everything that was being said. Some only there for the drink, others there out of genuine neighbourly concern.
John nudged Flossie with his elbow. ‘We should go on in.’
All the chairs in the mourning room were occupied, mostly with strangers—relations probably—and a few men whom she knew worked in Corries. Those men he worked with; Flossie wondered did they know what went on in this house. Did he ever tell any of them? Even one of them? No, of course he didn’t. That would’ve been a great laugh for them. She knew how they carried on, how they teased and ribbed each other. They were the last people Frank would tell about the mental torture he had to endure in his own home. The same house that was his home since the day he was born. His happy childhood home!
A gentle breeze from an open window flickered the tiny flames on the candles that surrounded the closed coffin. The smell of incense brought Flossie back to her father’s funeral, and she remembered gazing at him, laid out in his best suit, coins sitting on his closed eyelids, and Auntie Bridgey pulling her away. She thought it was the strangest thing; the coins.
She will touch the coffin and she will say a prayer. She was glad it was closed because she can pretend it’s merely an empty box. A big brown wooden box with nothing in it.Â
Why haven’t I posted since January? Because this novel has taken precedence over everything. The Gloria brain wants to do nothing else only write the book. The Tasheenga brain wants to be on here having fun and a laugh with her old buddies, and doing stuff on the internet like other normal people.
There’s no point in having a blog if you’re not connecting with other bloggers on the Facebook groups, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and others that I’ve had to completely abandon. The FB app has been disabled on the phone because it’s a distraction. It’s not as easy to waste time on FB if the only way in is via the laptop. But, social media is how we connect with other bloggers and writers, and we can’t let that go. Balance Gloria, balance.
The biggest thing that Glo and I have discovered about writing your first novel, is that it takes a very long time. Initially we were thinking two years maybe, but we didn’t realise how much time would be spent actually learning how to do it – properly. It has to be done right or not at all. At least we both agree on that much. And then there’s all the research.
