Mining the past and Deeside's annual spectacle, 'The Fall of Rosita'
Post categories: Connah's Quay,ÌýHistory & Memories,ÌýPrestatyn,ÌýShotton
| 08:57 UK time, Tuesday, 15 July 2008
We've been using the 91Èȱ¬ Local site to collect your local history for a number of years now and, every so often, some very special stories strike a chord.
Often they aren't the 'big' stories, but they are important. They're the kind of stories you'd hear in the pub, the ones that don't find their way into the history books, the stories that die when a generation dies out.
So that's why our local history site is proving very popular with people sharing all kinds of stories and overnight two great little memories came in to us.
Here's an extract of John's account of a Deeside spectacle laid on by a well known couple, the Fullwoods:
"One name that keeps popping up here is Fred Fullwood. There was something exotic about all the Fullwoods. I can just remember Fred in his athletic heyday.
"Fred was by now in his 50s and quite replete around the middle, clad in worsted wool trunks with his fellow artiste and life-partner in daring gypsy attire, the two would leapfrog and gyrate within a small arena. With the van loudspeakers blaring a crackly 78 version of Bolero, the act climaxed as, balancing his long-suffering other-half by her nether-regions, he proceeded to spin her at sick-making revolution on his outstretched hand.
"The crowd, many of whom had waited a year for this spectacle, would roar approval. Especially when Fred, flushed with adrenalin and Ideal ice-cream, with a triumphal grunt, heaved Rosita into the air. As the moment of this Herculean thrust dissipated, he would throw wide his arms like a preacher in ecstasy - and look in anticipation towards the crowd. It went wild. There was never as much as a whimper from his wife.
"Fred's attempt to catch the still-gyrating deadweight of a long past slip-of-a-girl, was spectacular if seldom successful. In later years we would remember it wistfully as 'The Fall of Rosita'. Dragging herself upright, utterly disoriented but beaming and proud, you could hear the audience gasp."
You can read more of John's and other people's memories in our local history section about Shotton and Deeside
The other account which came in overnight was from former miner Glyn from Bagillt who trained at Gresford Colliery before going to work at Point of Ayr:
"...one day the call came, I was to go and work underground helping to build the 'stoppings' to stop the smouldering of coal which had been kept alight. The walls were about 3ft thick at each end then filled up with sandbags and concrete. It was the only time I saw the canary at the face, and it survived, so did I. I never worked on land again but spent the rest of my time underground..."
Thanks to all our contributors for sharing their memories - and please keep them coming.
