I remember being a youngfella and being a little embarrassed that I was only one of a small number of kids in my class who had never been abroad. I had always heard about the other kids going to far-flung places like Spain and France. Some were even lucky enough to go to the USA. To me Spain could have been in Australia, and like any other 80’s kid, America was the land of TV. If you had something that was from America, no matter what it was, it was cool. I’m thinking back at these things because at the moment I’m sitting in Donegal looking out at St. John’s Point and I’m thinking, wow, “next stop really is America”.
I look back at myself as a kid and realise just how lucky I was. While other people were travelling the roads of foreign lands, my family was the “camping family” and by the age of ten I had probably stayed in a tent in every county in the country.
My Dad is a teacher, but when his summer freedom came he was a Band Member. This meant every summer we’d camp where the band’s music brought them. Summertime was “Tour” time, and we had a ball.
During most of the 1980’s the only car our family had possessed was a grey 3-door Datsun (much like the 120A in the photos - sadly I can't find any old photos of it). In pure Datsun style, this car was a rust-bucket - which my father painted a different tone of grey many years later to cover the polyfilla which was covering the rust! The floor of the rear had a hole in it, and it being a time when rear seatbelts weren’t compulsory, we could stick our heads down and watch the ground move beneath us.
I’m sure I sound like an ould fella as I recall this, but I think it’s incredible just how much everything motor related has changed since then. Think about it. To have a left wing mirror was a luxury. Air conditioning was unheard of. Motorways were non-existent. If you were going northwest there was a checkpoint in Aughnacloy, and once you got through you would say how superior the roads “up North” were. Alcohol limits were different too – I was only a kid at the time, but if memory serves correctly the limit was probably two pints ("and the rest" - some of you may say), and if you were caught over the limit and knew the "right people", then there were no limits – allegedly!
Now, all of the above has changed. The only time you’ll see a car without a left wing mirror is if it was kicked in the night before by some idiot with nothing better to do. Air conditioning generally comes as standard. There are motorways everywhere – that some people still don’t understand how to use. Aughnacloy has no checkpoint, and the roads between there and Strabane have deteriorated massively. Thankfully the alcohol limit has been reduced hugely, and it doesn’t matter how many "right people" you know – allegedly!
For the Easter weekend we did what we know best. We hit the road. We marvelled at the road between Dublin and Cavan, and complained about how there’s been no improvement between Cavan Town and Ballyshannon. The days of storytelling in the car are still there, but when the voice starts getting hoarse from singing one too many renditions of Dinah Blow Your Horn you can turn on the DVD player to the rear.
On our way my wife and I listened to the soothing music of the Kings of Leon, Ed Sheeran and Ryan Adams, whereas my folks would’ve listened to Don Williams, Clifford T Ward, Bread, Paul Simon (with the amazing Graceland) and The Boss – because he was cool. When my parents threw on this music it meant it was time for my brother, sister and I to stop asking “are we there yet?” (This is something we hear from our five year old at every turn! – Some things will never change). At this point we’d fold down the back seats, and because our 3-door Datsun was a hatchback, we could all laydown flat between the boot and the back seats and cover ourselves with a duvet and get some shut-eye. On journeys like these we’d go to Bannow Bay in Wexford, which was a three and a half hour drive. Arklow was the half-way point, where we’d pop into Yankee Doodle and get one of their burgers each – YUM! The journey to Bannow now takes a little over two hours and the halfway point is any garage with good coffee and a clean toilet.
Despite my nostalgia – and I must make a point of this (to make myself feel better) - I’m still a youngfella, but with the incredibly quick advances in car technology, it’s hard not to say, “Oh how I remember when”.
