 |
|
| Author |
Message |
Dingle McFarkle
Great Selkie o' Sule Skerry
User is Offline
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 1003
|
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 7:22 pm Post subject: Farming "Community" |
|
|
I know Ben_Ledi says there's no such thing as a "community" these days...... Sadly I think he's right.
I know someone who charges £20 for grooming a dog and I know someone else who can only get 75p for shearing a sheep. I was talking about this to a local (fairly young) stockman a while back. He reckoned that, once upon-no'-that-long-ago, there was no money invoved in clipping sheep.
The whole place was full of small farms, and it worked like this. At clipping time, all the small farmers would turn up at one farm and clip all of Jones's sheep. The next day, Jones would join everyone else at McTavish's farm to clip McTavish's sheep......... And so on. Nobody got paid. They just a good feed and a dram at the end o' the day.
The small farms have now disappeared under Wimpey Estates or else been given over to to horse livery (which is insanely lucrative..... until some wealthy tart gets fed up posing, decides to stop paying, disappears, and you get landed wi' another unwanted horse worth almost nothing these days.). Only a few biggish farms remain.
More recently, I was present when two local farmers met for the first time...... And for the first time, they realised that they'd been neighbours for the past 10 years.
Sad.... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Spry
Great Selkie o' Sule Skerry
User is Offline
Joined: 15 Jan 2007
Posts: 2216
|
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 8:57 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I don't know anything about farming communities but I do know that old Shottstown had one of the best communities ever when it came to supporting each other.
A whip round every week when someone was off work, mucking in with washing and scrubbing when one of the kids was down with scarlet fever or diphtheria. They were a great set of people.
_________________
 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Dingle McFarkle
Great Selkie o' Sule Skerry
User is Offline
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 1003
|
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 9:59 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Aye, I think miners had a community...... Gone now though.
One of Tom Weir's programmes was about the old lead mining community at Leadhills. Working lead ore, they often fell sick. The local doctor would advise them to drink a full bottle of whisky and then retire to bed. One of the other miner's would volnteer to to work the sick man's shift so that he didn't lose any pay. Maybe that's part of the reason that the sense of "community" has gone: we've all got it too easy now |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Spry
Great Selkie o' Sule Skerry
User is Offline
Joined: 15 Jan 2007
Posts: 2216
|
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Dingle McFarkle wrote: |
| One of the other miner's would volnteer to to work the sick man's shift so that he didn't lose any pay. |
Aye, I remember my father doing that very same thing at the gunpowder mills if any of his mates were off sick ----- and I expect they did it for him.
_________________
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Anona.Mouse
Site Admin
User is Offline
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 4076
Location: Under the cat, usually
|
| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 10:40 pm Post subject: |
|
|
It used to be like that in the home, too. You had one television set (if you were lucky) so everyone watched the same programme. If there was music on, on the single Dansette or radiogram, everybody listened. Maybe you didn't like everything your dad or your wee brother liked - but with a bit of give and take, everyone had their turn.
Nowadays, even if you're in the same room, you can have your iPod plugged into your brain, or be in the middle of some wildly fantastical computer game in some space jungle somewhere in Outer Space - while grannie is singing along to her Max Bygraves CD and Mum is watching her keep-fit DVD.
Every one of us is an individual, and there's no real point of contact any more. "Shall I turn the record over now?" means nothing, since nobody else even knows it's been on.
If we can't communicate in the home, what chance do we have outside, amongst strangers? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
SueDOnym
Kelpie
User is Offline
Joined: 15 Jan 2007
Posts: 818
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 11:02 am Post subject: |
|
|
I think another contributing factor is that few families seem to sit down around the table and eat a meal together these days - everyone seems to eat with a plate on their lap in front of the television. I must admit, because of things like son going to football training, or daughter's part-time job, they sometimes eat earlier (or later), but generally speaking, we do all sit down and eat as a family, probably at least five nights a week. It's good because it gives us all a chance to chat about our respective days, etc, and I'm sad that it appears to be unusual for many folk now... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Nurse_sooz
Telt ye ah could swim!
User is Offline
Joined: 19 Apr 2007
Posts: 212
Location: On a blue computer chair....
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 1:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I used to love sitting at the table with my mum, dad and brother. Got some great philosophical chats sometimes and it was where I learnt the facts of like...birds, bees etc etc....
I think it's really important or you'll never find out what everyone's up to or what's on their minds. I think it brings you closer.
_________________
Cake or Death? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Anna
Over the waders
User is Offline
Joined: 04 Jun 2007
Posts: 94
Location: Penicuik
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 6:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Community is the one thing I think everyone's missing these days. Sadly it's not something I've really experienced being young still, but Having read a lot of books I can see that it was a great thing.
It's so depressing that everything revolves around money these days; people always seem so surprised when I offer to do or make something for free. I'd love to go back to the times when people did things for eachother, and everyone knew their neighbours. I also think bartering should return, it's the best idea ever!
It's also sad to see so many local shops closing down because of supermarkets; places like Penicuik and Balerno seem to be turning into ghost towns.
Just out of curiosity Dingle, do you still know any farmers who shear sheep? Since I spin wool I'm always interested in finding people with spare fleeces they are willing to sell. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Dingle McFarkle
Great Selkie o' Sule Skerry
User is Offline
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 1003
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:28 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Anna wrote: |
Just out of curiosity Dingle, do you still know any farmers who shear sheep? Since I spin wool I'm always interested in finding people with spare fleeces they are willing to sell. |
I know someone who might be able to help. I'll pm you sometime after I've spoken to her again. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Dingle McFarkle
Great Selkie o' Sule Skerry
User is Offline
Joined: 14 Jan 2007
Posts: 1003
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
SueDOnym
Kelpie
User is Offline
Joined: 15 Jan 2007
Posts: 818
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:13 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I know it's probably irrational, but I just keep thinking - get caught in the rain, smell like a wet dog! Or "wouldn't it be really itchy"? Anyway, I don't really want to look like a Bearded Collie - although I do agree with Dingle, Beardies are nice dogs!  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
| |
| Recent Topics |
» Litter
by Anona.Mouse on Mon Sep 01, 2008 2:40 pm
» A Man of God?
by Spry on Mon Sep 01, 2008 1:44 pm
» Accu weather forecast on this forum
by Anona.Mouse on Sun Aug 31, 2008 7:06 pm
» Penicuik Pool
by soup on Sun Aug 31, 2008 1:27 am
» Bumbling in
by Spry on Thu Aug 21, 2008 5:45 pm
» Four Midlothian Post Offices to close
by Anona.Mouse on Wed Aug 20, 2008 7:56 pm
» War crime
by Spry on Sun Aug 03, 2008 3:15 pm
» Just run that one into me again . . .
by Anona.Mouse on Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:33 pm
» Deep Sea Fish (interesting article)
by silvers on Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:44 pm
» Roy Walker - Festival Fringe
by Anona.Mouse on Sun Jul 27, 2008 1:39 am
» Was there ever a Golden Age ? (BBC website 16 07 08)
by Anona.Mouse on Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:42 pm
» Bring back ----
by Anona.Mouse on Tue Jul 15, 2008 8:01 pm
» Weather Warning!
by Big Davie on Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:52 pm
» This is really scary
by TattieBogle on Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:07 pm
» Balerno days
by TattieBogle on Tue Jul 01, 2008 6:46 pm
» H M T Lancastria
by Anona.Mouse on Sat Jun 14, 2008 4:36 pm
» Two minutes of my time
by silvers on Thu Jun 05, 2008 4:11 pm
» penicuik u.f.s.childrens gala day
by Ben_Ledi on Tue May 27, 2008 9:42 pm
» Language and pronunciation
by silvers on Sat May 24, 2008 4:44 pm
» Hi-ho, silvers!
by Anona.Mouse on Mon May 19, 2008 3:13 am
» Glencorse Kirk
by Anona.Mouse on Tue May 13, 2008 3:39 pm
|
|
| |
