Everyone is talking about BFGW at the moment, a documentary about travellers and their ways. It's kind of interesting watching as my great-grandad (Pop) was a Romany gypsy and I guess if things had gone differently in his life then I might be one of the travelling population living in a trailer somewhere at the moment.
People mock travellers and have many pre-conceived ideas about them. They generally get very bad press. However I feel very protective about them, for obvious reasons. A program like BFGW thrills me because I get to look into the world which I know only a little about but it also horrifies me because it opens that world up into the public domain where people laugh and criticize the things they have seen on the TV.
I always want to defend the travellers. When people slag them off I want to tell them about how my great-great-Grandmothers caravan was always spotless with the brasses shining. I want to tell them about how Romanies will never use the same bowls for cooking if they've been used for washing clothes and faces. About how my great-Aunt knew all the herbs and plants to use as natural remedies if you were ill. And about the great family ties which bound families together so that at a funeral people would travel from all corners of the country to show their respect.
The problem is that most of the travellers in the BFGW show are Irish travellers - many of whom came over to England because the Irish government cracked down on travellers and made life difficult for them. Pop would have called them 'Irish tinkers' and would have shaken his head and tutted at them. Even when he was young in the early 1900's there were 'other' travellers who were beginning to give gypsies a bad name. When you hear of homes burgled, drives being done cheaply and old ladies being robbed of money in exchange for bad work then you hear people blame gypsies. But they are generally wrong. It's not often gypsies, it's usually travellers.
I'd love to go back in time and see my great-grandad's Mum and Dad camped out by the river in Bradwell. They originally travelled all over the place but later settled their caravan there and there they stayed. When my great-grandparents married they moved into a council house. What a shock that must have been for Pops after never living in one before.
The BFGW show this week was the first one which really made me think of Pop. There was a guy who was bartering to buy some furniture and it made me remember that about Pop. He never paid full price for things, he always wanted to get a deal. But he was secretive about money and never said how much things cost. And if he was doing business, the men would be in the front rooms with Pop and the women would be in the dining room out the back and in the kitchen, even if it meant having their coffee in there. I remember Saturday mornings when we would sit in the back room and Mum or Gran would knock on the door and take drinks into the men. Men did business - women did not! It did make me smile to remember this.
Pop loved his family gatherings too. His various brothers and sisters were often around (he was one of 14!) and for Christmas and birthdays it was always everyone around their house. Every Christmas as a child was spent there with ALL the family - a very very big crowd. Mum and Gran had to cook in their ovens too and run it down the road. Family was very important and both R and I learnt from a very young age to always look out for each other. Not a bad lesson really.
I watch BFGW and cling onto the little details about modern Romanies which make me understand my great-Grandad just that little bit more. But I still cringe when the Irish travellers parade around in their Barbie-style wedding dresses with fake tan and inch thick make-up.
No comments:
Post a Comment