A.T. McFETRIDGE 4077
It's the 1950's and here standing outside the shop is on the left Archie Fetridge
and his assistant Tommy Stockman. The A in the shop sign is Andrew Archie's
uncle who sadly died in the late 40's. The sign below it J.H. Denham is the
man who Andrew served his apprenticeship with in the hardware trade. Apparently
there was'nt anything they did'nt have in the shop, there was a saying "
You could get anything from a needle to a ship's anchor." They also sold
Shotgun and Fishing licenses. Now Tommy Stockman was a famous Lay Preacher
and he had the uncanny abilty to translate the Good Book into proper Ballymena
english so the local people might understand the scriptures. He was very famous
for telling the story of Jonah . "After being swallowed by the whale
the whale went up onto a beach at a place just like Portrush and went oooogh
!" explosive sound effect from Tommy and he continued " And oot
walked wee Jonah ! " This man remembers when he was an apprentice and
was sent to sent to Archie's for a tin of black and white striped paint, not
aware of what was going on I asked for the money which was duly given. When
I told Archie what the joker wanted he said did he give you any money? yes
I said. Archie said give it to me and he handed me a tin of black and a tin
of white paint. Now says Archie go back and tell him to stripe it himself
! That was Archie.
