The Butcher Boy

trad

In Dublin city where I did dwell

Lived a butcher boy I loved right well

He courted me my life away

But now with me he will not stay

I wish I wish I wish in vain

I wish I was a maid again

A maid again I ne’er will be

'Til cherries grow on an ivy tree

I wish my baby it was born

And smiling on its daddy's knee

And I poor girl to be dead and gone

With the long green grass growin' over me

She went upstairs to go to bed

And calling o’er her shoulder said

Give me a chair 'til lights are down

And a pen and ink to write right down

On every word she dropped a tear

And every line cried Willy dear

Oh what a foolish girl was I

To be led astray by a butcher boy

He went upstairs and the door he broke

He found her hanging from a rope

He took his knife and he cut her down

And in her pocket these words he found

Oh dig my grave large wide and deep

Put a marble stone at my head and feet

And in the middle carve a turtle dove

That the world may know I died for love.

The Bowling Alley

Dad had false teeth from a relatively young age, thanks to the ill-advised actions of a patron at a bowling alley.

Before the use of a mechanical means of setting bowling pins, humans did the job. They were usually young males and known as pin boys. Dad was one such at the age of about 12, I believe. In that region of the USA, the preferred style of bowling was known as candlepin, developed in Worcester, Massachusettes in the late 1800s.

It has two main differences from ten pin. Firstly, the pins are the same diameter top and bottom, and slightly wider in the middle. Secondly, once you had bowled your first ball, the fallen pins, known as deadwood, were left where they fell. This makes it strategically quite different, as you can use the deadwood to help knock down other pins. Thirdly – and most significantly for this story - the bowling ball is much smaller, about the size of a grapefruit, and therefore much faster.

So Dad didn’t have time to get out of the way when he was resetting the pins and the guy at the top of the lane sent down a fast one. Dad was reaching across the pins area, the ball struck the pins and one of them smashed into his mouth, taking out most of his front teeth.

Candlepins showing the deadwood left in place