Anyway, cute dog, cute kid

Photo from the Portadown News 1974

I lived on what we called ‘An estate’. An estate is a housing development administered by a state authority or on behalf of a state authority. In Northern Ireland (NI) the authority was called, ‘ The Housing Executive’. This was the seventies and NI was at the beginning stage of what was called, ‘The Troubles’.

Due to the conflict, ‘ The Troubles’, between those seeking unification with the rest of Ireland (Republicans) and those seeking to remain part of the Union (Loyalists) with Great Britain, matters such as Housing were administered by a ‘Quasi Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation’ referred to as a Quango. It was believed that prejudice and religious discrimination was so endemic that elected councils could not have responsibility for these matters. Curiously, the Councils did have responsibility for stray dogs!

‘Anyway’, a word we used a lot at home to mean ‘well that has nothing to do with the story though I thought I would tell you ‘anyway’. Anyway, not a lot happened on my estate but occasionally something would. The estate was built in the late 1960s on ground that was previously fields. This meant that although living on ‘An estate’ fields surrounded it. Not far from my ‘Front door’ was a river and between the river and the front door was the ‘Playing fields’. The playing fields were gravel football pitches. Anyway, every year a dog show would pitch up for the day. I looked forward as a three and four year old to visiting the Dog show as I got to see a variety of dogs that I did not normally see. One year I had a pup, it may have been Sandy, and I decided to bring Sandy to the dog show and ‘show my dog’. So, I brought Sandy, the pup, to all the people showing dogs and showed them ‘my pup’. I could not find ‘a dog show’ for Sandy though the local Newspaper photographer spotted me in my ‘Bay City Roller’ trousers and my Eskimo T-shirt showing off ‘my pup’ and decided to take a photo. All the other kids curious both by the sight of the pup and a photo opportunity joined in. That Friday we got the ‘Front page’. Not sure who was the cutest the four-year-old or the pup!

Jack aka g

Originally posted 3rd January 2015 on Blogger.com