THE SUMMER OF 1957 was a scorcher in Ireland. That's what I heard from Tony and Kitty Woodhouse as they recalled their honeymoon journey from Dublin to County Kerry just after they got married. My family in Pennsylvania was labouring through a typical humid summer season too. I enjoy flicking through wedding albums from family members as much as the Woodhouses did in the Parknasilla video (above). In the Big Smoke, working horses pulled milk drays every morning through South County Dublin through the 1950s. The roundsmen raced from house to house, arms laden with milk bottles, while the horses ambled steadily forwards. When they were replaced by electric vans, deliveries slowed down, as the vans could not keep up as the horses had done. Nor did they know which houses to stop at. And on the radio, Little Walter played Juke.
I'm thinking about all these things as my mom and aunt are well into their 80s, with fewer than 30 minutes of digital audio memories between them.
Previously on Irish Typepad: "Melting Ice Cream Memories," August 20, 2003.
