My boyhood home 8 Windsor Tce Banbridge Shaky Video!

I'm back on my old street Windsor Terrace Banbridge, just a short walk out the Castlewellan Road. I played, raced, cycled, rollerskated, slid on the ice, threw snowballs with mates, all down this street over 50 years ago. Where have the years gone?
At the time I thought it was large house now I realize how small it was. Our family of 5 lived in this 2 bedroom house. A third bedroom had been converted into a bathroom. It was one of the first houses in the street to have one fitted.
I studied for my GCEs and A levels in the small back bedroom night after night. The front room was kept for special occasions like Christmas or important visitors, when the kitchen table would be carried in and laden with food. We lived in the kitchen which was really the family room and ate in a small scullery which was really the kitchen. We had a coal burning oven in the kitchen to heat the place. We has a few small elecric heaters in some of the rooms but that was it as regards heat. We were in the middle of a terrace so you could often feel the heat of the next door neighbour's fire coming through the wall. I lives here from 1953 to around 1970 when I left for Stranmillis College in Belfast. I only came home now and again for short periods after this. The house was sold some time in the 1970s when my sister married. It was a happy home and I enjoyed my 'endless' days there.

[@gregbruns8442]

Wow! It's really cool to see where you grew up. You still had your Nighthawk when you visited in 2015. I can see you kicking around in that back alley by your garage. That is some tight living and quite foreign to me. It is always a neat experience to see where people grow up. I'd have wanted to knock on the door of number 8 just to see who is in these days. I bet that visit brought back a lot of memories. Thanks for sharing this, Tom! I really enjoyed the visit.

[@TomMcClean]

I haven't watched this wee video for some time Greg. I've made a lot of videos about growing up in Banbridge and walkrounds, old schools etc Just punch in Banbridge into KZbin and my name should come up a lot when you scroll down through the videos listed. The place has changed remarkably since I left. I used to know all the shops and their owners and anyone I met walking up the main street I recognised or knew by name. Now it's like walking along looking for ghosts. There was a lot more community/helping each other and neighbours out back then. this has been lost a lot! Sadly! That back alley was out playground. You knew everyone in the whole terrace of houses and the ones across the street! 'I weep like a child for the past' DHLawrence. I can still see my dad walking towards the back corner wheeling the bike before he cycled the 3 miles to teach in his primary school. We always watched before he turned the corner and he always waved. That's 56 years ago. All gone. He never got to see me doing well. I was a very mischievous, disobedient wee boy before he died. He called me the 'black sheep' of the family. He was a good man but le left getting marreid far too late. He was 48 when he had me and he couldn't cope with a very active child and teach at the same time! Oh dear!

[@gregbruns8442]

@@TomMcClean I hear you, Tom. I'm a bit of a black sheep myself. It isn't a bad thing. It just means you are unique, and you are. I'm sure your father would be very proud of you if he were to have seen you through your life. And who can say he didn't see you from the great beyond. I'm sorry his life ended the way it did. I hope you have realized by now that it was not the fault of a mischievous young boy, but rather just something that happened. That's a tough card to play and I'm sorry you were dealt it. I'm glad your old home is still standing and you are at least able to drop by physically. I think it is important to touch base with the past. I'm very lucky to be able to go back home to where I grew up and have my Dad and Mom still be there. Most people don't have that luxury, especially at my age! Still, it is not the same because I'm not the same and neither is anyone else. Time marches on. The coming years are bound to bring some hard change to my family and the farm. My life is in Cedar Falls now, with Anna. And I am so happy to have this.

[@TomMcClean]

Ah Greg it was all part of life. You certainly missed a father's love, guidance and help over the years big time, but we got a great deal of help from my hard working mum, community, friends, church folks, teachers and the like. There were others you met who were a lot worse off than me. Dad's death was a bucket of cold water thrown over me, a wake up call. It meant facing the cold reality that I needed to stop larking around and knuckle down to some hard work....and I did. It was sink or swim time and I knew that there were no rich relatives coming behind me to bail me out. You did it 'cause no one else was going to do it for you. You got on with it. I never slacked off study until I gained my degree and my teaching job at Newtownbreda High School. Time does indeed march on apace now. You've got to make your own way. Take responsibility for your own actions. It is wonderful to have your folks still with you. What happry family gatherings. Cherished time round the table with a cuppa. What fonts of wisdom and knowledge. I'm sure you worry about them as they get older. That's what happens.

[@Paul.in.Ireland]

So many memories for you Tom, I can only Imagine your feelings as you stroll down past your old neighbourhood but I can sense your emotions as you remember your happy childhood, great video mate.

[@TomMcClean]

As Chris Rea sings 'All gone ain't nothin for me here now' from his track 'It's all gone'. I hadn't been back there for years and years and do you know, it's just like yesterday. The 'ole memories come flooding back really clear. Again as Clifford T Ward sings 'Time the magician played a few old tricks on me.' Thanks for sharing.

[@dawnhigham2508]

This is a nice video to see! I grew up in no.6 windsor terrace until I was six and we moved to the ballymoney hill! It was great growing up here in the early 90s and knowing all my neighbours, something that doesn't happen too often now. Mr and Mrs Jones were still living there when I was a child and they were so nice, I never left their house without a visit to the sweetie jar! There was also a lovely lady who lived in no.12 who I think was called Lil or Lily.

[@TomMcClean]

+Dawn Higham I think that that would have been Mrs Barnett. Her husband worked as a postman and was called Sammy but he was probably dead at that time. Maureen McConville who was a teacher would have likely have been still living at number 5 I think. Apart from that all the neighbours i knew were probably dead or moved on. Some of the Burnetts in the big house with it's own driveway at the bottom of Windsor Tce, should still be around in Banbridge, Naomi ran a successful bakery up at the top of the town on the left. Ballymoney Hill. Yes I knew it well. Mackies lived right at the top of the hill and Bailey girls that I went to Primary school about half way down. I knocked about with Andrew and Michael Preston. Michael ran Downshire Camping at the top of the town. Then there was Quintin Boyce who still runs and Estate agents on the right past Houstons. (Is it called Shooters? not sure. ) I have a stack of other Banbridge videos up on KZbin. My dad who died in 1964 was the headmaster of Ballydown PS. It is lovely to hear your recollections. All my Banbridge days are long gone. I left when I was 17 in 1970 for Belfast and Stranmillis Teacher Training College and never returned. Am living down at Gilnahirk E Belfast now. 'I weep like a child for the past'. DH Lawrence! Thanks ever so much for calling in.