The annual school party was number two. This was followed
by a further five parties as a result of our group attending other denominational
Christmas carol practice evenings every week during the four weeks before Christmas!
During this period we sang with the Methodists at Sharp Street Ragged School,
at Wood Street Mission Hall, at Charters Street Sunday School, at the Wesleyan
Central Hall in Oldham Street and at St. Peter’s Protestant Sunday School
in Ancoats. Seven parties, seven visits to father Christmas and seven Christmas
presents. We never had it so good.
I watched in awe my mother and sister preparing our Christmas feast. We were
fed like gentry. Everything that possibly could be, was prepared in her kitchen,
using recipes passed down by my maternal grandmother, the aroma which greeted
all who were invited to feast at our table was unforgettable.
Egg Tagliatelle served in tomato sauce with portions of corn-fed chicken, seasoned with traditional herbs. Reconstituted dry salted fish, finely chopped and mixed into a home made pizza style dough, along with sweet crispelli and biscuits were in abundance all rounded off with a Marsalla-flavoured trifle on a delicate home-made cheese. My uncle Antonio supplied the wines which were a dry or sweet Martini Rossi, a choice of white or red Orvieto.
Before any of this could be enjoyed the religious festival
services were observed.
Being an Altar boy my first duty was to serve midnight mass at St. Michael’s.
For thirty minutes before the mass commenced the choir and congregation sang
a range of Carols chosen by Canon Ryan, the parish priest.
Every candelabra in the church was ablaze with light, the pews and the aisles were packed and on the stroke of mid-night Canon Ryan led the congregation in a rendering of “Adeste Fidelis”. It was an experience I have treasured to this day.
One extra special treat was in store for the children. On
or about the 6th January, the elders of the community treated us to a visit
to the Pantomime. We were each given a carrier bag containing a present and
filled with sufficient sweets to last a week! Little did we know that when the
curtain came down at the end of the performance in 1939 it also came down to
signal the end of a way of life which had been so full of hope for our community.
It would be another ten years before the spirit of that community was restored.
