You know how the experts on antiques programmes avoid saying something's worthless by using phrases like "it's a decorative piece" or (to the hopeful owner) "it must give you a lot of pleasure"? That was my parents. Don't get your hopes up, don't get above yourself, don't start thinking you're anything special. I think they genuinely thought it was safer to live that way.

They never passed judgment on my exploits as a floor singer and amateur traddie; my father had died before I started going to FCs, and my mother's death was one of the things that propelled me into traditional music. If they had, though, it would have been something along the lines of "it must give you a lot of pleasure"...