ANGELINE KING
  • Books
  • Blog
  • Writing
  • About
  • Books
  • Blog
  • Writing
  • About
"...stories birling ..."

82 Waterloo Road

14/9/2015

4 Comments

 
Nan & Dan
You peek your upturned nose through the letterbox, inhale the smothering scent of wee buns, and holler, ‘Naaaan!’

You wait.

The birds are pecking at the bird box, the drizzle is dripping from the roses and the concrete steps shimmer like marble.
​
You see a face at the window with hollow cheeks. It’s not quite your Aunt Nan, but she opens the door, puts her teeth back in, smiles and you feel rich.

It’s Tuesday. The twin tubs are swivelling their hips — one for washing, one for rinsing. The buns are ready and Nan lifts them onto a cooling rack. She has eyes on the back of her head.

​Tut tut and a tap on the hand. 
​

She’s getting coal from the yard and she’s out of sight. You open the fridge and gulp milk from the carton. You spit and squirm. Butter Milk. You’ll never make that mistake twice. 

You turn on the tap, duck your head under and swoosh the sourness away. Your eyes creep up over the window to check. She’s bent over the coal bunker, white bloomers skirting an inch below her flowery dress. You steal your way to the cupboard and find the sweet tin. The dolly mixtures melt on your tongue and the brandy balls hidden in your socks tickle your ankles. She smiles and you know that she knows. And she points to the buns that are cool enough to eat, and you’re rich. 

It’s dry and there’s a rush to the garden, a skinny green back garden that will soon have Long Johns swaying in the breeze. And there’s Dan — his fingers hooked into his trouser braces — sitting on two piles of breeze block, bridged with a wooden plank. You need to pee so you bound over the backs to the outdoor loo in the yard and you feel rich when you pull that long, heavy chain.

The tape recorder is under the cabinet with the porcelain shoe. It’s Mary Nelson from down the road. Her voice is sparkling, brown lemonade. It fizzes up and floats through the Waterloo Road like pride. Nan sings along. Can you hear it? Larlarlar? 

She’s talking about the old days. ‘Says she to me,’ she says to me, as the phone rings. Then she’s the Queen. ‘Hellow, Nan Hewitt speaking.’ She’s leaning on the cabinet with the porcelain shoe and she’s looking in the mirror, fixing a curl with a comb. The call is done and she’s Nan again. ‘Says I to her,’ she says to me.

Dan Dan, he’s the funny wee man. He has a box with a clarinet and a box with a fiddle. What’ll it be? Fiddly dee. There goes the bow against the strings. The best fiddler in Ulster, says Nan. You can hear him on the radio, Dan Dan the funny wee man. You’re rich when the fiddle makes your feet go fiddly dee.

Squares of thick, corned beef sandwiches sit upright on the bottom tier. The cake stand with its red roses and gold-trimmed edges 
is perched at the centre of the room. It’s crowned with butterfly buns and surrounded by old ladies with smiles like summer. 

It is summer and the fire is roaring and their faces are all peach and pretty. Mrs Small, Mrs Perry, Mrs Wharry. They don’t have first names — only June who's there to set the hair. The setting lotion is pink and it smells of perfumed paint and it clings to the present and it clings to the past.

‘Isn’t thon a quare cup o tay?’ says Nan.
‘Och aye,’ says Mrs Perry.
​
You smile from your stomach to your lips when you know that you’ve made a quare cup o tay.

You wonder if they knew on the Waterloo Road. Did they know that they were rich?

Angeline King's latest novel, Dusty Bluebells, was inspired by the Waterloo Road.

Angeline is also the author of
 A Belfast Tale and Snugville Street.

4 Comments
karen campbell
27/10/2016 23:05:36

My granny lived in 46 upper Waterloo road and we lived in no 22

Reply
Angeline King
31/10/2016 11:34:26

Good to hear from you, Karen! I've got a bit of work to do now....a whole novel to write in a year:) Better get cracking!

Reply
Carol McClurg
28/1/2017 00:12:59

Nan and Dan were my husbands Aunt and Uncle lovely couple we lost touch some time in the late seventies when his Mother moved to New Zealand he would love to hear from any family members.
Carol

Reply
Sandra Daniel ( nee Hewitt)
13/7/2017 20:46:38

Nan &Dan where allways there for me, our Jim& meta, Nan had a real warm laugh, and Dan kept telling me I would go blind with all the eye shadow I would put on, He was right , my house is full of reading glasses , now driving glasses!!! Old age could be playing a part of it now!!!loved them Dearly !R.I.P. NAN& Dan xx

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Prose

    Scene from Snugville Street
    ​The Wedding Wisp 

    82 Waterloo Road
    Ballysnod
    The Teacher Voice
    ​The Children of Latharna
    The Band Stick

    The Bully up the Brae

    History & folklore

    Language Blog I
    Language Blog II
    Language Blog III
    Language Blog IV
    ​The linguist behind Ulster Scots.
    ​Kailyard & Dusty Bluebells
    Jean Park of Ballygally 
    Fiddles and Melodeons
    Martha Taylor's diary
    Jean McCullagh at 104
    Ballymena & the McConnells
    Arms in Irish Dancing
    Catholics & Protestants in Irish dancing

    Essays

    Irish Times:
    Irish Dancing: The Festival Story
    ​The Protestant in Irish Fiction.
    ​The Protestant in Irish fiction II
    ​Ulster-Scots in Irish Fiction
    ​An author in Wonderland


    Belfast Telegraph:
    Irish Dancing
    ​

    ​Miscellaneous
    The Kailyard
    Dancing in Victorian Ulster

    Learning the Irish Language.
    John Hewitt Summer School

    Book reviews

    Shuggie Bain
    Wigtown Ploughman

    Jo Zebedee
    Lesley Allen & Helen Nicholl
    ​
    Orla McAlinden
    Du Maurier
    Anne Doughty

    Archives

    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    July 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015


    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly