Positively my last entry, Yes WAV we do try to fit in and have done so for hundreds of years.
However for the same amount of time we have been slagged off, kicked off and generally **********about. We dont just sell bloody pegs and, mend ***********g pots forget the romantic crap of being free to come and go as we please in highly decorated wagons pulled by gorgeous black and white cobs, the fact is most in the early days lived in bender tents, made a living how they could mainly even up to the last war, following the harvest, or doing odd jobs or things other people would not do.
The wagos came in as we started to get a bit behind us, but that was recent really in history, by victorian times we had come full circle, some gaining wealth enough to buy beter wagons the horses generally were a cross between a heavy mare and a lighter draft cob typ horse, the locals even then only wanted us around when something needed doing, after the war trucks and vans became available so we got mobile, going further ,faster, earning as we went, more money better things, so the wagon started to go and the trailer was born, now they could be fancied up and were, vickers , roma, cobdale , all saw a niche market and started to produce purpose built vans some costing more than a house at the time. Oh but then the roaming laws came in, oh joy, we fought a war to stop this kind of thing, but hey ho they are only gypsies, easy way to stop em, ban the towing of that length of trailer, the people who made them tried to shorten them to meet the new rules but nothing fitted, now of course the likes of hobby ete make an excellent living wagon and to your spec if you ask them. However where to stop. All the old aichen tans are gone, if you stop the gavvers and bailiffs are on you as quick as a wink, we try and try to fit in, but we as a race are being torn apart , yes we get up to all sorts of things there are good and bad all round, a very few people know what ive personally been through, and the support ive had from my non romany folky mates has been great, my romany friend equally, but and there is always a but,n i have even since coming back from sunny knockholt had anti romany crap come my way. so Wav it is hard and we all try our best but when councils can take away charter land and build factories that remain empty for years, yet we cant live on it, today, tuesday, i heard of another friends failure to get permission for a mobile home on the 20 acres he has owned for thirty years, yet if he sold it to the council for twenty thousand pounds they can build 100 detached properties on it . (rabbit hutches) tell me that is not discrimination, he has been fighting for ten years now. so when things get better all the gypsies will be gone . Make someone happy wont it. I will no longer be adding to this thred as its going nowhere and to be honest i dont feel comfortable withit.