On the drom!..
The day before we shifted' all the women would
start packing the trailers down, and the men would wash the vans and trailers so that they was clean to travel. it was hard
work for the women.
they had to pack all the Crown Derby and other dishes away into
boxes and tie the cupboard doors so nothing fell out! But they did it well, and so the night before we shifted,
the trailer was all washed, packed up and ready to go!!
The next morning we would all get up early and wash our hands
and face, then have our breakfast and start packing up all the water cans and dog boxes and the outside tents, after that
we would then pack up the wash basins, gas bottles, the generator and everything else we could get into the vans!!
Last of all we would wind up the jacks and yoke up the trailers
to the vans…
And we were off!!
We always looked forward to shifting, it was a cushty feeling to
be moving on ... and atching on a tan' for too long would make us all fed up and bored!
So when the time was right,
we all wanted to move on, making sure that we left the tan spotlessly clean so we could always come back another day.
My
family always travelled together. there was my close family and my uncles and aunties, my granddad and granny and any
other family members that happened to be pulling with us at the time!! It was one big family convoy!!
Years ago,
as chavvies we would love to sit in the trailer as we travelled on the roads, but today the muskrers would pull us up and
of course as it's not safe!!
Sometimes it could be a long journey,or sometimes a short journey,
but if it was long journey we would stop for the night on a lay-by
or field! This could turn out to be hard and unpleasant, cos the muskrers would pester us and also we would
have to go to local houses or garages to ask for water!! At times we would run out of diesel or petrol for the generators
and have to go to bed early with no telly or lights!!..
many a time we would pull on cushty places'
i remember if we was moving through cumbria' we would stop at the devils
bridge'
Gypsy's have stopped off their for many years and it was always a cushty
hotchying spot.
But it was always cushty when we got to were we were going to stay!!
The first thing we would do, was find a clean, and hard level place,
were every one could park the trailers, and after we got parked we would start putting down the jacks … you have to
make sure the trailer is level so one person stands on the in side of the trailer and tells the other person out side the
trailer which end needs jacking up or down?..my brother in law' places a coin on the side bord and if it stands
without rolling 'he knows his trailer is level.
After that you would fix the power on, and then unload the vans!!.
It
was a full days work to sort every thing out and get comfortable and feel settled!
It was always cushty to pull somewhere
that your friends were staying; you could be with a friend for a month' and then not see him or
her' for a year or more! So it was always good to see old friends and family!!
whenever a Gypsy pulls on to a new place' all the other Gypsy's
that's pulled there will all come out to help shift the trailers on.'
Its a hard life on the road but I wouldn't change
it for the world. and to stop us living in a vardo is like taking away a Gipsies arms and legs!! This is something that many
gorgers and authorities don't understand, but it's our way of life, it's what we know, and what we are used to and I
love it very much!!.
In the old days' when they would move with horses and wagons' the journey
was slow and easy. they couldn't move at fast speeds but a good horse could do about 15 to 20 miles in a day.
if you had to travel up a very steep hill' every one would get of the
wagon and walk' so as to make it lighter for the poor old gry.
when my granny and granddad were travelling with the wagons' my granddad
said that if you came to a very steep hill and the horse was all ready tired and having trouble pulling'
you didn't drive him strait up the road.
you had to move him at a vertical angle from one side of the road to
the other' thus making the pull less of a struggle for the horse,' also' every time the wagon stopped' he would shove a block
under the wheels to stop the cart rolling back down the hill again!
some of the time you had a line horse hitched to the side of the shafts to help with
the pull' and take some of the burden of the main horse when going up the hill's.
on a horse and wagon you don't miss a single thing in the world.'
you notice every single thing that you pass by' weather it be an
old house' or field or pub' or shop' or a lane.
in the old days the Gypsy's would leave a pile of leafs or a mark at
a good stopping place or a kind persons gate were you could get water,' these signs were called patrins' and if any Gypsy's
were passing they would look for the patrins.
the old folky could shoe and clip their own horses' and they new how
to tend them if they were unwell.'
a good wagon puller would stand around 14.2 hands and a good dray puller
stood about 13.2 hands'
you would look for a horse with a good long stride that would cover a
better distance without trying'
the horse had to have a good temperament' and be well behaved around
children'
it also had to have good bone a thick neck and a bright eye' it
didn't matter what the horse looked like' as long as it was good at its job. and it wasn't until after the days of the wagons
were over that Gypsy started to buy a horse based on its looks alone.
before the days of the wagons came' most Gypsy's lived in tents'
called bender tents and even when the wagons came along they would still use the bender and queeny tents' this must
of been a hard life in the cold weather or wind and rain' but every old Gypsy i ever spoke to tells me that they were better
days'. and i can under stand why?
some people ask Gypsy people' why do i live in a trailer? and
why don't i live in a house? the answer is a simple one!! hundreds and hundreds of years of breeding' family and
tradition.'
living in a trailer doesn't make you a Gypsy!! but its been
part of our life and our history'
and just as much a part of british history'
after all we have lived here for hundreds of years'.
its a good way of life' and i hope it never disappears
by Gypsy Leeboy'©2007
