In Abergele in the sixties, your birthday party was a non-event if you hadn’t booked Dai Magic.
He was brilliant! He could even make packets of crisps appear out of thin air. Well, out of a saucepan of flames actually. We were all well and truly mystified. Yes, David Copperfield makes the Statue of Liberty disappear, but can he conjure up bags of salt ‘n vinegar out of thin air?
Dai Magic was the late Dai Davies who had a busy greengrocer’s in Chapel Street in the days when the veg was packed in brown paper, not poly bags. He always wore a brown overall – Clark Kent style – at work, but for children’s parties he’d appear – transformed – as Dai Magic.
He had a trick where he’d hold a narrow box with two doors on the front. Into a slot at the top of the box he’d drop a round disk painted to look like the sun. He’d tilt that box and you’d hear the sun roll down. He’d open the uppermost door and, as you’d expect, the sun had disappeared.
‘Open the other door, Dai!’ we’d all yell.
‘Can’t hear you.’
‘The other door!’
He opened it. No sun there either! Wow.
Nowadays, if you want your kiddies’ party to go well, you book a bouncy castle; we had something far better at parties in Abergele in the sixties. We had Dai Magic.
I remember Mr. Davies very well, before leaving for Canada in l952 my father had the shop next door, Marsden and Hick. Remember on one of our visits home and visiting Mr. Davies he gave our three children a special Magic Show!
In the 1950s I delivered fruit&veg etc for very kind Mr and Mrs Davies. I used one of those heavy black delivery bikes with sign below the cross bar. Sometimes on a Friday night, even in Winter, I would go as far as Bodtegwal. I was busiest on Saturdays often working until 6p.m. or later at Xmas delivering pounds and pounds of sprouts! Tips ranged fro zero to a shilling(5p) and I was paid 12/6d a week plus a bag of monkey nuts, an orange and an apple. My predecessor was John Lodge, I think of Peel Street. It did me a lot of good – still eating veg. and cycling!
As Glyn Jones remarked about the delivery bike – it was still in use in the early 60’s as I had the same job and the same bike from the description as he rode about on, it kept me fit I suppose and likewise I still cycle to this day my current one being a up market Avanti 16 speed racer. Mr and Mrs Davies were a lovely, kindly couple. This was my very first job apart from seasonal farm work that I did for Mr Parry of ‘Hendre Fawr’ collecting hay bales or sitting on the side of the combine harvester ‘Bagging the Corn’ of various sorts !
My daughters’ birthday in about 1968 wa delighted to have Davy perform his
famous tricks. I’m lucky to have a movie of the event showing the excitement on the childres faces !!