I Remember the Queen's Coronation

 I remember the day of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. At least, I remember what was said to me on that day. They told me I looked like the new queen. This was because, like Elizabeth, I had a swan neck. 

I remember the photo in the newspapers of the pretty new queen with the swan-neck. I had a swan-neck like her.

Krunchie at about 1953, in his Order of Malta uniform

The new Queen

I was the delicate one of the family. 

However, my mother told me that a swan-neck was a sign of beauty. When I looked in the mirror, I found that I was, indeed, more handsome than my brothers, although, in retrospect, I suppose the proper word is "winsome."

Mrs. McCormack had a piano and was taking singinng lessons. As we boys sat in conference in our den at the bottom of Breen's garden, we heard her singing (we would then have called it screeching) in her high soprano voice, and her window open, "God Save the Queen."

We responded by raucously roaring, "God Save the Old Tom Cat."

Mr. McCormack was an irritable, bald man. We roared out our only home-made song, "Baldy, baldy, the pride of Norfolk Road." This irritated Mr. McCormack and he would come storming out of his house to confront us, but we would flee down the road. We thought this was great fun and never considered the harm we might be doing to his health.

There would be no fun in it if he did not chase after us.

This was also about the time I heard Mrs. Breen admonishing her sons for calling me "Fanny." When Paddy Breen was a toddler, he could not get his tongue around "Francie," so he called me "Fanny," and the brothers took this up and continued it right up till this time.

I told Mrs. Breen I did not mind being called "Fanny." 

She said, "Do you know what 'Fanny' means?"

I did not know, but was aware that it was a name usually reserved for females.

This was also the time of the Norfolk Boys Army. Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of England and the newspapers had speculated on whether he would attempt to "take back the ports." Everybody was aware that the Irish Army was no match for the Brits, so, if a conflict should arise, it would be back to resistance by the people, and the boys of the keyhole of Norfolk Road were willing to play our part. We changed our name from "Norfolk Boys Association" to "Norfolk Boys Army," but never engaged in war with Britain. Instead, all we battled against were the Tramway Cottages boys and the lower end of Norfolk Road (fists only).

Then most of us joined the Order of Malta, an outlet for a few years for our patriotic sentiment.