Bingo and One Armed Bandits – They’ll be the Ruin of the Country

April 1964

South Yorkshire Times, April 1964

Bingo and One Armed Bandits – They’ll be the Ruin of the Country

“Bingo and one armed bandits will be the ruin of this country” is the opinion of a former Denaby Main man who went to the United states in 1928, and came back three weeks ago for the wedding of his youngest sister.

Mr Patrick Conway (59) was born in Annerley Street, Denaby, and used to work in the printing Department of the “South Yorkshire Times” before deciding to go to America.

He now lives in New York and has a summer home in Miami, Florida

Disappointed.

He said this week that during his visit he was looking up all friends but I’ve been very disappointed by the weather. “I have had only two days of sunshine since I’ve been here,” he said.

He sailed back this weekend in the Queen Elizabeth. He sailed over, arriving in the British Isles at Greenock, “as my sister and I are not too clean on flying.”

His sister, Mrs Mary Keenan, a nurse at Fordham hospital in the Bronx, is over with him, and was matron of honour at her sister, Mrs Catherine Conway’s wedding in Denaby.

Mr Conway said two features of particular note are Bingo and “one armed bandits”

They would never be allowed to this extent in the States. He felt it was shocking the way money was spent in this way around here. The interest has grown up in the last five years (the last time he was here.) “It will eventually ruin the country, I believe.” he said.

For the better.

Mr Conway’s other impressions of the area are more favourable. “There have been great changes for the better in both Mexborough and Denaby,” he said.

He noted that adults enjoyed the same type of dancing as youngsters, “sometimes that doesn’t happen in the States.

“We leave the twist dancing to the youngsters and we have the more formal dances” he said.

The pop scene, Mr Conway says that although the “Beatle Cult” has arrived with a vengeance in America, the long hair has not. “I have never seen hair so long as it is worn by youths here,” he said, “but I suppose it is needed to keep you warm in your winters,” he quipped.

He hopes to come back to Denaby for another holiday within the next two or three years

 

 

 

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