‘It was a place where people would share their troubles and triumphs’

A NAVAN woman says growing up in her father’s sweet shop on Flower Hill made her feel like “ the luckiest child in the town.”

Joan Powell spent her childhood and teenage years living above Oliver Robert’s Shop, a newsagent that was at the heart of the community for twenty five years.

The shop was run by her father and mother, Oliver and Olive Roberts for a quarter of a century between 1955 and 1980.

A well known character in the town, Oliver was also a peace commissioner for a number of years.

Joan described the shop as a type of community centre, where people met to exchange news, check in on each other and of course buy everything from penny sweets to cigarettes and household items.

“It was a place where people would share their troubles and triumphs,” she said. “If you wanted to know who was getting married or what was going on in the area this is where you came to.

“Our shop would have been the last shop before you’d leave the town. It was almost in the countryside those days because there were no houses beyond St Mary’s Park. Blackcastle was only built around the 1970s. There was no other local shop so all the people of that area would have been our customers.”

Joan the eldest of four lived above the shop with her parents and sisters, Anne, Catherine and Sheila. She says her father sold everything from “a needle to an anchor.” adding: “We had everything from newspapers, groceries and toys to penny bags of loose sweets from jars. If he didn’t have it he’d try to get it for you.”

Far from things coming in perfectly wrapped plastic, in those days, everything was weighed out.

“We had to go into the shed and weigh out potatoes in quarter and half stone bags, everything was weighed on the scales from grapes and bananas to vegetables.

“We had to cut cooked ham and had a special knife for the ice cream that we put in wafers.”

There was no rest for the wicked in the newsagent game especially during the festive season as Joan explains:

“I remember my father working in the shop on Christmas Eve and waiting for people to come and collect their groceries that they had ordered,” she remembers. “ He worked very hard, seven days a week 365 days of the year. We lived beside the shop and over the shop. It was a lovely childhood.”

The small detail of the shop being closed didn’t deter people from getting their fix of the local paper back then according to the Navan woman who said:

“You’d have people knocking on the hall door when we were closed to collect The Meath Chronicle, it used to come out on a Thursday. You’d be sitting down inside and the doorbell would ring and you’d go out and serve people and they would wait in our hall for change!

Joan worked in her father’s business at the weekends but didn’t always feel 'like a child in a sweet shop' as she explains:

“In those days the the till did not add up the money for you so we would be given money and you had to add it either in your head or on a bit of paper in front of you, it was the less enjoyable part of the job!

“Sunday mornings were the busiest because you’d have all the people from mass coming in to get newspapers and their minerals and all their treats for the day.”

Although there were down sides Joan admits there were perks to the job fulfilling a Willy Wonka type role for the pupils of St Michael's!

“In St Michael's there was only a tuck shop for the borders once a week usually at the weekend and because I lived in a a sweet shop, the girls would make a list and give me money and I would go home every lunchtime for my dinner and return with the goods,” recalls the former Loreto student.

“Typical things on the list would be Macaroon bars, Trigger bars, Perri and Tayto crisps and other bars that would take the tooth out of your head!

Joan had a sophisticated operation smuggling the contraband into the convent school which she laughs about now saying:

“When I think about it now, my jacket must have been weighed down with the sweets. “I missed a trick though not charging anyone for my service!”

Although Joan and her siblings lived in a home Hansel and Gretel would have been envious of, treats were not galore for the youngsters but they did find “ways around it.”

“Years ago you’d have sweets in a jar and people would come in and ask for a quarter pound of Scots Clan or iced caramels and you’d maybe take one or two and put them in your pocket and bring them upstairs and eat them but then you’d have to dispose of the papers!

Joan remembers busy Christmas times with “lots of fresh holly and paper decorations and coloured lights in the window.”

“People would knock on the hall door on Christmas day looking for batteries, “ she added. We would have been back opened on St Stephen’s Day to hear how people spent the day before so there wasn’t much rest for my father or mother!”

“Dad passed away in 1999 and we lost my mother this year.

“Whenever we pass through Flower Hill it always brings back fond memories.”