BS: Gypsy Caravans

Subject: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 08:24 AM

Maybe it was Roald Dahl who first planted the seed of longing inside my soul, having one of these for his children, in his garden...or maybe it's just the gypsy in my soul that sometimes longs for a life of travelling...

Just the other day there was an old man sat in the middle of a large roundabout on the way to Exeter, his wagon glistening in the afternoon sun, his old horse tethered safely beside him, both seemingly oblivious to the cars all around them..A simplicity of life that is dying before our very eyes...

I'd have swapped being a passenger in the car to have been sat beside him on his wagon...clipclopping along at a slow pace...aware of all the elements, hearing the birds...

Anyway, here are some lovely videos that I hope many will enjoy...

Folk Musician, Nick Dow on Restoring Gypsy Caravans

Nick singing Master McGarth - with photos of gypsy caravans

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 09:01 AM

When I lived in Middlesex in the late forties and early fifties, every Spring, about March, a wonderful cavalcade of the traditional caravans pulled by stocky ponies would wind its way through my small town and stop in the woods nearby. There must have been about twenty or so, all painted in bright colours and designs. They let down little steps, and you could see shiny brass things inside. As children we'd go and watch, they didn't chase us away. I was enchanted. They'd come round the doors selling handmade clothes-pegs, it was just like a children's storybook scene. My mum used to offer the lady at the door any serviceable clothes such as a warm coat and my old wellies, always very gratefully received. They only stayed a week or so. Sadly, after about the late fifties, they never reappeared, but I always remembered them. (My mum was Irish and I think she felt a kinship with them!)

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 09:09 AM

I expected a thread about Vickers Trailers

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 09:29 AM

Sometimes they leave their caravans when they move to another site.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article45563.ece

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 09:41 AM

Would you kindly take your nasty comments OUT of my thread.

And, for your information I used to pick BAG LOADS of rubbish in my little Dartmoor village every single week, you know, used nappies shoved into hedgerows, broken bottles, crisp and sweet wrappers, cigarette packets, fish and chip wrappers, cans..oh, and not forgetting the used condoms, of course, down in the alleyway by the ancient 14th century bridge, just a few yards from my house..

NONE of the people in my village were Travellers or Gypsies.


And now, if you don't mind, please shove your foul links up your backside.

Thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 09:52 AM

Thanks for the links, Lizzie.

I know what you mean about the urge to have a simpler, slower life. But then I picture a motor vehicle hitting my caravan from behind, and I know the likelihood is so high and the results would be so terrible, that I give up the notion.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 10:11 AM

Caravans of Love :0)

My pleasure, leeneia :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 10:30 AM

Sorry chick, clearly you are unaware that no one owns a thread on mudcat, check with Max.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 10:38 AM

I don't know who the hell you're think your calling 'chick' but may I politely suggest you shove that patronising prattle up your backside too....for if you can't talk to me with respect, then please, don't talk to me at all.

Thank you.




Gypsy Caravan - The Movie :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 11:13 AM

You know, I'm going to have to back Lizzie on this one.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 11:19 AM

And so am I!

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 11:29 AM

Both of you behind her,lucky guys !

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 12:08 PM

Chick???? Eh???? I thought those sort of juvenile epithets died out decades ago. (I am backing Lizzie too.)

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 12:59 PM

Hey, Bluey, for someone who slams into Gypsies for being 'dirty scum' you sure are doing one helluva good impression of that yourself!   


And, just so's you know..it was a few months back that I was sat in a cafe in Totnes talking with Christophe, son of one of the Gypsy Kings. He lives over here now and had been busking in the street outside.

He was charming, eloquent and an absolute gentleman.

You could learn SO much from him...

Now please, be a good prat, take your sexual comments and place them...yup, you guessed it, (altogether now) where the sun don't shine!

Thank you!

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 01:06 PM

Great Chick, do you often sit with strange guys you meet in the street? quite a girl then.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 01:08 PM

"Chick???? Eh???? I thought those sort of juvenile epithets died out decades ago. (I am backing Lizzie too.)"

Me three.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 01:12 PM

I'd never sit with you, mate.

Christophe has more class in his little finger than you have in your entire body. And, for your information, he was on the table next to us. We were complimenting him on his superb guitar playing, and the conversation led on from there.

No doubt you'd have called him 'fucking gypsy scum'...whereupon, I'm sure he, and Sami, the Egyptian owner of the cafe would have chased you out of town, with your cowardly little tail shaking in the wind.

As I said, you have a GREAT deal to learn from the Gypsies.


Lizze - who has Spanish Gypsy blood flowing through her veins..so WATCH what you damn well say!

Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,999
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 01:28 PM

"Chick???? Eh???? I thought those sort of juvenile epithets died out decades ago. (I am backing Lizzie too.)"

Me three.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 01:34 PM

"I'd never sit with you, mate." Thanks be to Christ for saying that love.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 01:41 PM

Tell you what 'Bluey' come back to me when you can play like Cristofe..

Cristofe Sors


....until then, you sit OUTSIDE my caravan, OUTSIDE my fence, and OUTSIDE my world.

And as for sitting with you...?

Ha! I sit with no man who doesn't have the Blood or Soul of the Gypsy running through his veins.

Now pootle off out of here before you make yourself look even more of a prat than you're already doing, there's a good 'litle boy'....

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,999
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 01:41 PM

Engaging in conversation with people like Bluesman over his prejudices simply gives him the attention he so badly desires. Forget him. He don't mean nothin'. Just wind is all. Just wind.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 01:43 PM

Well, he sure his fartin' from his mouth, that's for sure, Bruce. ;0)

Maybe I should call him Trumpy if he keeps on... lol

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 02:15 PM

Liz, are you in anyway related to a guy called Fred McCormack ?

You will find me here dear.

http://www.earlyblues.com/midlands%20perry%20foster%20100905.htm

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 02:38 PM

Just found this... :0)

'Our History - Romany Museum'

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 02:49 PM

And this...from 1939:

Romany Gypsies in Canterbury, Kent - 1939

Amazing piece of film from so long ago...

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 03:33 PM

Well, assuming that you are telling the truth, Bluesman, thank you for coming clean about your (alleged) identity. Your phraseology is much like someone specific and not as you assert. Now the puzzling thing is this - if you tell the truth about anything, why does a racial bigot like you (judging by your posts) play the music of an ethnic group that you would wipe off the planet or preserve for slavery?

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 03:42 PM

BTW - if you ARE Perry Foster, please identify that small body with the middle of the headstock that Perry plays. I spotted it in one, but I'm an aficionado of the make. There is another contemporary bluesman who used to play one, but he has given it up.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 06:13 PM

Richard Bridge, look upon this as a "no comment interview", does that ring any bells ?

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,999
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 06:24 PM

Try the name, Mark. Think organ-type instruments.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Leadfingers
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 07:26 PM

While deploring Bluesman's use of "chick" there is nothing objectionable in his post other than that word !
And he IS correct in his assertion that No One 'Owns' a thread in here once they have hit 'enter' .

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 07:37 PM

After a quick 123,People Search, I now accept that the word "chick" was wholly inappropriate on this occasion. I wondered why so many were quick to correct me. Bit of a blunder on my behalf.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Aug 11 - 08:44 PM

No, that rings no bells. What are you trying to say?

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 12:07 AM

A recent news filler might be of interest. The post is a little longer than I like, and ordinarily I'd "extract" and let people follow the link; but it's been up for a week and likely to disappear soon.


Invisible millions pay price of statelessness

People rejected by countries they call home live in a shadowy limbo

Reuters
8/23/2011

LONDON — Rejected by the countries they call home and denied the most basic of rights, stateless people live in a shadowy limbo — in the words of one such person, like being "between the earth and the sky."
Up to 15 million people are stateless, not recognized as nationals by any country. They are some of the most invisible people on the planet — an anonymity the United Nations hopes to lift when it launches an international campaign on Thursday to highlight their plight.

"One of the big problems we have is that this simply is not recognized as being a major issue globally," said Mark Manly, head of the stateless unit at the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR .

"In the media there's very little discussion, in universities there's very little research and in the U.N., until relatively recently, there hasn't been a lot of discussion either, so the effect of all that is that we still have major gaps in our knowledge," Manly told AlertNet, a humanitarian news service run by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Statelessness exacerbates poverty, creates social tensions, breaks up families and destroys children's futures. In some cases it can even fuel wars when disenfranchised people pick up weapons, as has happened in Ivory Coast and Democratic Republic of Congo.
Yet only 38 countries have signed the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness which marks its 50th anniversary on Aug. 30.

One of the largest stateless groups is the Rohingyas, a Muslim people of South Asian descent refused citizenship by the Myanmar government. Hundreds of thousands are scattered throughout Bangladesh and Southeast Asia.

"There are no countries in this world for Rohingyas," said Kyaw Myint, 44, now living in Malaysia.

"Even animals can have peace of mind, but for the Rohingyas, because we are stateless, there is no peace of mind."

The effects vary by country, but typically stateless people are barred from education, healthcare and formal employment. They often can't start a business, own property, hold a driving license or open a bank account. They can't get married legally or travel abroad to work or visit family.

And they can't vote, which means they can't elect politicians who might be able to improve their lot.

Being stateless is like being "between the earth and the sky", said Mohamed Alenezi, a Bedouin from Kuwait.

"You are here and not here," added Alenezi, 42, who now lives in London.

Like many Bedouins (stateless Arabs) he is the descendant of nomadic Bedouin tribes which for centuries roamed freely across what is now Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan and Iraq.

Origins of statelessness

Probing the origins of statelessness is a lesson in world history and geography.

In many cases groups failed to be included when their countries became independent or drew up a new constitution. Many Kuwaiti Bedouins fell through the cracks when the country became independent in 1961, and the Roma in Europe have faced major problems in obtaining citizenship in the new countries that emerged after the break-up of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.

Manly said the UNHCR is closely watching the succession of South Sudan. It is also scrutinizing the drafting of Nepal's new constitution amid fears millions could end up stateless.
A major factor behind statelessness is often racial or ethnic discrimination. Syria, for example, denationalized many Kurds in 1962 and Mauritania expelled around 75,000 Black Mauritanians in 1989.

Stateless people are vulnerable to exploitation, including slavery and prostitution, and risk arbitrary detention. Their lack of identity can make accessing legal help impossible — no one knows how many stateless people are locked up worldwide.

Among the biggest sufferers are children. Open Society Foundations, the George Soros initiative which among other things tries to improve the lives of marginalized people, estimates around 5 million children globally are stateless, often simply because their parents are.

The 1961 convention stipulates signatories must grant nationality to a person born in their territory who would otherwise be stateless. Experts say this is key to resolving the problem.

"This is really a crucial principle that needs to be realized if you want to break the cycle of statelessness," said Sebastian Kohn, Open Society's expert on statelessness.

"It doesn't mean giving nationality to everyone born on your territory. It's just about giving nationality to stateless persons born on your territory."

Kohn also urged governments to abolish citizenship laws which discriminate against women -- another big cause of statelessness. In at least 30 countries, mothers cannot pass nationality to their children. If the father is stateless, foreign or absent, the child usually ends up stateless.

Some hope

There have been some successes. For example, Sri Lanka has amended laws to allow Hill Tamils, descendants of immigrants from India, to obtain nationality. Ukraine has reintegrated Crimean Tartars deported to Central Asia under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

And experts believe awareness is growing.

"I think states are actually starting to recognize that there is a potential overlap between statelessness and national security issues," Kohn said.

"Obviously, if you disenfranchise people . that can lead to all sorts of social and potentially security issues, and in the worst cases civil war."

In December the UNHCR will host a ministerial-level meeting where countries will be asked to join the 1961 convention and make pledges to address specific concerns on their territory.

"It's an issue whose time has come," said Maureen Lynch, a consultant to the International Observatory on Statelessness.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters

John

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 01:15 AM

Thank you for that information, John.

I had never even heard of statelessness.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Musket
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 04:37 AM

Gypsy caravans?

Well, we all must have a hobby.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 04:44 AM

Back to type I see.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 04:44 AM

Very true Ian, a nice hobby is gardening, a bit of sweeping up here and there, getting the back into a little cleaning up. I think Fred went down to Sunderland to help out there a few weeks ago.

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/1_800_bill_to_clean_up_after_travellers_leave_rubbish_strewn_across_sunderland_site_1_3

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 04:49 AM

Sorry Ian, that link to the Sunderland Ech didn't seem to go through, here is the story. Good morning Richard.

By Jane O'Neill
Published on Tuesday 12 July 2011 11:41

TRAVELLERS who set up an illegal camp have landed taxpayers with a bill of more than £1,800.

About 10 caravans made a temporary home on private land off Commercial Road, in Hendon, for about two weeks.

Under Government guidelines, the city council was obliged to pay out for toilets and water to be provided on the site.

Information provided under the Freedom of Information Act reveals the cost of the toilets was £102, plus VAT, and a water bowser was £454, including VAT.

Vandals burnt out the bowser, leaving the council with charges of more than £2,200, although the owners agreed to take hire costs off the total.

Police are investigating the arson attack.

However, disgruntled resident Eddy Moore thinks the council should stop them returning.

He also claimed large amounts of rubbish were dumped, although the authority disputes this.

Mr Moore, of Canon Cockin Street, said: "It was not there before they were and it was there when they left.

"There was a lot of builders' rubbish intermingled with black bags of stuff. They crossed a public footpath, then went over what I believe is a strip of council-owned land."

Paddy Cronin, managing director of Edward Thompson Printers, which owns the land, said the travellers promised to leave after two days.

"We were disappointed because we thought we had an agreement with them. We did not invite them to stay and they illegally went on to our land.

"It was not left clean and tidy, but we did make sure it was clean and tidy.

"We are not anti-traveller, just anti-people who want to make a mess and illegally park on our land. We have blocked off the land now, so it is hard to get access with vehicles."

Sunderland Council head of housing Alan Caddick said: "The council has a policy on unauthorised encampments, which is followed each time there is such an encampment in the city.

"Local authorities have a duty to consider the accommodation and welfare needs of gipsies and travellers as part of their statutory obligations."

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 05:23 AM

Please see my earlier post on the Dartmoor Village I once lived in, where I too cleared up piles of rubbish every single day, dropped by non-gypsy folks, non-traveller folks who lived in the village itself but who didn't give a flying duck about it.

Thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 05:29 AM

Bit of help needed down here if you are free, nice part of the world too,I got a great Pork pie there once.


http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Travellers-leave-mountain-rubbish/story-12860040-detail/story.html

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 05:40 AM

Gloria Buckley MBE - Traveller/Gypsy - From The Traveller Times


"She's intolerant of prejudice and points out that she could so easily judge the settled community for the crimes committed by one of their number, but she refuses to. She recalls Ian Huntley, the man from the settled community who killed two schoolgirls close to one of her sites in Suffolk. The painful memory of the Soham murderer, which horrified Britain is etched on her face. "That man now has a roof over his head and regular daily meals," she added. "But my people get chased from place to place because some of them make a mess."

My people have a lot to offer the community," adds Gloria. We have pride and respect and we believe in family. We were organic conservationists before people started bandying those words around as fashionable. We never take more than we need because that leads to greed. And this is the century when everyone will be coming back to their roots and to nature."

She talks of her father and mother, and the natural wisdom they passed on to her.

We knew about star formations and the changes in the moon. We could read the hedgerows and the countryside. My people are originally from Hampshire, where they bred horses. They followed the army trading with them, and blacksmithing, long before the army did it for themselves. They also travelled with the great artist Sir Alfred Munnings, and served the King and Queen."

For us community means common unity. When we pull onto a site for example, we put our strongest at the entrance, and our most vulnerable at the back to protect them. My mother and father taught us survival, and we have never forgotten that. We never starved."

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Musket
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 07:30 AM

EH?

All I said was everybody must have a hobby..

You see, Hobby is the make of caravan much beloved of travellers, presumably because they are wider than UK makes.

Well I thought it was rather witty, but there you go.

Seems there is a difference between a hobby and a hobby horse..

I was in the beer tent at the local town show yesterday. A bloke was on stage singing Irish songs and a diddycoy (must have been 70 yrs old at least) was keeping us entertained by dancing to it all day, in-between drinks. (My contribution to the one above about Gloria Buckley, saying what nice people they all are.)

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 07:32 AM

Yes I read MsBuckley's page, very interesting, I really enjoyed her sense of humour, this page had me in stiches, the one about getting your palm read was priceless.

http://hahas.co.uk/gypsy/

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 07:34 AM

Pot duly stirred in a different way in a different place.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 07:50 AM

The other week I had to talk to the Sports Centre near me about the amount of rubbish appearing on the road where I live. It turned out they were allowing anyone to walk in and use their vending machine, and so mounds of bottles and litter were starting to appear.

After discussing it, they stopped this from happening and now do a regular clean up in the car park and the street where I live. I also help clearing up when I walk my dog to the park every day, simply picking up bits lying around.

None of the people throwing this rubbish down, or letting their dogs crap all over my street are travellers or gypsies.

We also have fly-tipping down here in the West Country. This will, I'm sure, increase as it becomes more and more difficult/expensive for folks to dispose of things at council rubbish dumps. I'm sure many builders tend to 'lose' rubbish they remove from people's houses..and I'm just as sure that many of them will NOT be gypsies or travellers.

There are good and bad everywhere, as can be seen in this very thread, and I find it perhaps fitting that the sort of personality who is coming across as deeply unpleasant and uncaring about others is having a go at folks he regards as being deeply unpleasant and uncaring too.

You are scattering your own rubbish around these threads, Bluesman, spoiling the view, with no thought or regard for anyone around you.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 07:57 AM

The Travellers' Times Online Magazine

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Silas
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 08:37 AM

Well, Lizzie, I rarely agree with your, normally potty, ramblings, but I agree with you this time, your link to the Travellers Times mag is quitye revealing and well worth reading.

Thanks

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Davetnova
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 08:38 AM

There are two sides in any argument/debate. Yes people should have their rights protected, but at the same time these same people should contribute to society through taxation and show respect to the countryside and residents of the areas they visit.

It seems more like ping pong here, you post this link, I post that link. The only one I read above with any credibility was this one.

http://thylacosmilus.blogspot.com/2011/04/roll-up-roll-up-circus-is-in-town.html

---Use a consistent GUESTname please. JoeClone----

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 08:46 AM

Silas, thank you. Yes, there are some great links from that site. The people who produce it, write the articles etc. are all Travellers and they like to focus on the positive.

You see, it's worth reading all the potty stuff for the occasional gem, eh? ;0) (I'm chuckling quietly, behind your screen) :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 10:59 AM

Fight, fight, fight! Some people turn everything into a wrangle. It's just habit, and there's no good reason for it.

This thread is supposed to be about getting away from it all. So here's my contribution. It even has music in it.

Lou and Peter Berryman wrote a song about a family in Madison, Wisconsin that went way downhill because they never ate their vegetables. The name of the song is "Vegetables."

"Her husband comes to see her dressed in ragged clothes
with a runny nose
and a fifth of wine.
And a bucket full of bullheads he had caught that day
on Monona Bay
with a hand-held line.

She would spread a little blanket on the apple crate
Where they always ate
when they had the food.
They would eat and they would drink,
and when the grub was gone,
they would carry on
if they were in the mood."

You know, there are times, such as when I am digging the decomposed food bits out of the crevices in the gasket of the refrigerator door, that I wish that I too could spread a little blanket on an apple crate and call that the dinner table.

And then I'd like to carry on. But how exactly does one 'carry on'? Any tips would be appreciated.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,bankley
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 11:25 AM

"Life is like a child's shirt... dirty, ragged and short"

Lizzie, you might want to check out my friend, Ronald Lee's, site
Romano Kopachi...
we've played music together and he's done a lot for his people

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Big Ballad Singer
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 11:56 AM

My adoptive paternal grandfather was from Romania and could claim both Romani and Hungarian ancestry.

You know, all of the bigoted talk about the Romani being dirty, uncouth, etc, really burns me. My grandfather and his family were some of the most dignified, hard-working and honest people the world has ever known.

I resent the blanket characterizations of anyone, especially those with whom I share such an important bond.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 01:48 PM

Thank you, Ron:

Ronald Lee's site - Romano Kopachi

And from that site:
<<<<<"We the Roma are a huge tree that has many branches. Each branch is a nation and each nation has many clans."

Romani refugee claimant while waiting for his hearing at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Toronto, 2002 >>>>


Gosh, he's written loads of books, including a Romani-English dictionary! :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 01:53 PM

Lizzie, your link to the little film showing the Romany Gipsies in Canterbury 1939 is exactly the same type of thing I mentioned in my post here on this thread. In fact, who knows, their annual routes may have brought them to Middlesex and their descendants were the ones we used to visit on their site in the late forties! I did enjoy watching it, so thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 02:07 PM

I thought you might like it, Eliza. I'm glad you saw it. x :0)
I'm from Middlesex too, originally. From Pinner.

leeneia, I've a feeling you may like this link:
Gypsy Waggons

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Chris_S
Date: 30 Aug 11 - 03:29 PM

The Nick Dow videos are excellent, thanks Lizzie - I remember booking Nick for our folk club in the 80s and loved his singing and playing. The skill in painting the wagons is breathtaking, something spiritual in the way the designs are weaved and created. If only to have that sort of talent.

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 31 Aug 11 - 06:57 AM

My pleasure, Chris.

The Gypsy Chronicles

Subject: RE: BS: Gypsy Caravans
From: Jack Campin
Date: 31 Aug 11 - 07:31 AM

the Kyle family caravan