Jul 28 2010
Remember the Bumpers?
The Bumpers were always a great attraction at any carnival. The lads would always try and convince some Young One to let them sit in it with them. ‘I know how to drive, sure haven’t I got a bike’. The crack would be ninety and the roars and screams everytime someone crashed into the back of someone elses bumper car. The ould fella in charge was always shouting ‘No crashing allowed, you all have to go the one way’. Sure who ever listened to him anyway. I remember in the mid 1960s going to a carnival in a place at the far side of Phibsborough church. It was the only time I ever saw the Wall of Death in action. It was just like Elvis Presley in Roustabout with the noise of the motorbike engines being revved and the smell of petrol fumes filling the air. Where are those lads now I wonder? They’re all probably on the old age pension by now. Do they ever tell their grandchildren about the Wall of Death? But we all loved the good ould Bumpers, especially at night when it got dark and the sparks they gave off from the overhead wires made it all the more exciting.What a great time we had back then, no computers, mobile phones, flat screen televisions, micro wave ovens, tights, internet or McDonalds…just good clean fun that we made ourselves.