Sum craic looking back at old school books

I have in my possession a ‘Busy at Maths 5’ primary school text book, writes Colm O’Regan

I picked it up in The Shelf second hand one day in a stroll down Memory Lane, or George’s Quay in Cork as it is called on these ‘maps’ people talk about. Every so often I open it because second-hand school books are handy triggers for memories. Maybe not specific memories, more a vague sense of how primary school was. Just opening the book brings back images of wet anoraks on a radiator, sandwiches discarded in the toilet bowl, and having ‘indoor shoes’ to keep the muddied Clarks off the carpet.

The book also sparks memories of this time of August and schoolbooks time. When you got the new maths book and did a couple of things. One was to enjoy looking at the cover before it was hidden behind spare sitting-room wallpaper or tiles or whatever protective material there was to preserve its retail value. One year I think we may have used Fianna Fail MEP’s election posters.