The masked face stood over my dread-filled body. Inhale through the left nostril, exhale from the right; they said to do, in a book I read once. So I did. Imagine having your feet massaged. Visualise soft hands gently kneading away your fear. I did that too. But I couldn’t relax my tremoring body. I dug my fingernails into the palms of my sweaty hands as his latex fingers came at me.
I cried inside as I imagined life without lemon drops and fudge. I tasted blood. I felt dizzy. Then it was all over. Another rotten tooth extracted!
Mrs Fulton’s and Francie McDonald’s; the two shops in Bailieborough that bring back fond memories for many grown-ups from that era.
I bet every town has a sweet shop they remember with fondness.
Mrs Fulton had her little shop about a five minute walk from town close to a couple of housing estates; Lake View and Drumbannon. We had to pass the shop on our way home from school. We didn’t have money to spend every day buy when we did it was a treat. It may have been 2p—or 5p if we were lucky. 10p was a very good day and it was likely given to you secretly by your Granny. In my case it was Uncle Johnny who sneaked the money into our hands when Auntie Ellen wasn’t watching. But I think she knew.
We could but a bag of ha’penny sweets with 5p. Or an ice-lolly with a bag of crisps. I remember buying crisps for 2p. We bought Black Jacks, Fruit Salads, Golfball chewing gums; two for a penny. Candy lipstick and whistles, penny bars, cola bottles, jelly babies, gobstoppers, milk teeth (my favourite).
Ice-cream cones weren’t affordable for a mother with five or six children (or more), but in Mrs Fulton’s you could buy a slice of ice-cream between two wafers. She’d cut it to whatever size the child could afford.
She was very kind and had great patience for us all down through the years. She knew every child’s name too. If a child among a group was the only one with no money, she’d give him something.
Francie McDonald was the very same with the troves of children that went into his shop. Francie had a glass-top counter where we could see the boxes of sweets on display. Even though he was almost completely blind, he knew exactly where every sweet was in the shop. The shelves behind him were stacked with jars and boxes of sweets too. It didn’t matter how long it took for you to decide what to buy with your 5p, he waited. “One cola bottle…one chewing gum…no two chewing gums…no just one…and a penny bar…annnnd…annnnd…another chewing gum.”
He never complained and never uttered a cross word to any child. Often he’d have to gather a pile of ha’pennies from his glass counter where a small child would reach up and drop their money on the counter.
Francie had every sweet that existed! Wonderful memories of him and Mrs Fulton!
🍬 🍬 🍬 🍬
Thank you Lucy for your drawing of Francie’s sweet shop.
Gloria McBreen 