Times Gone By

Watched Who do you think you are, episode on Boris Johnson, and was prepared to have my thoughts that he is a plonker confirmed. His grandfather changed the surname from Kemal to Johnson. Phrases uttered during the programme included "It became symetrically necessary to demonise." "It`s punchy, it`s polemical" and "Wowee" His granny had always insisted that the family were decendants from royalty, Boris commented "Granny was right, we were wrong to sneer." Photos of a young Boris on a horse confirmed that he isn`t just wearing his hair tatty to appear eccentric, he`s always had it in that style, and his father sports the nutty professor coiffure too. By the end of the show, I quite liked good old Boris.

Went to Beamish for the day, it`s much improved, more trams and buses, they now have a masonic lodge and a Barclays Bank. I bought a ceramic ink well, need it for sod all, but it just brought back memories of school. Also a book,Whey Aye Man, It lists the usual translations for the Geordie dialect:-

"When a gor in last nite, a hoyed up on the nettie."
(I had too much alcohol last evening and consequently I was a little sick in the toilet.)

"Aave gor a gammy leg, ye knaa, so a cannit lowp aboot!"
(I will struggle to jump over that hurdle because I am a little lame.)

"Divvent let ya dog pittle on me grass!"
(Your Labrador has urinated on my garden, please do not let it happen again, thank you.)

There are old fashioned drawings, Little Jack Horner exclaims "Hev yee pinched aal the plums like?" Humpty Dumpty is lying broken, the soldiers are gathered around him holding pieces of egg...."A divvent knaa where this gans" "Gis it here man! Aa`ll dee it"...."Dee yee knaa wot he was deein?"...""Messin aboot on the waal so a hord like."

Loved the old songs in the book, Cushy Butterfield, Keep yer feet still Geordie Hinny and The Blaydon Races:-

I went to Blaydon Races
`Twas on the ninth of June
Eighteen hundred and sixty two
On a summer`s afternoon
I took the bus from Balmbra`s
And she was heavy laden
Away we went along Collingwood Street
To see the race at Blaydon.

A friend of mine IW, recently found some old photos of the street parties in 1962 in South Benwell for the celebrations of the centenary of the Blaydon Races, lots of familiar faces from the past. She also had a collection of Victory Tea party snaps from 1945, she loaned me them to scan for the archive at Benwell library.


It`s a well known fact that many Geordie`s finish off a sentence with the word "like". Sheryl on X Factor drives me mad, each performer who walks in "O yi Alreet like?" Don`t get me wrong I love our dialect and encourage it`s use, but it wears a bit thin when the same phrase is repeated so often, "Change the record Sheryl, yar a luvly lass utherwise pet."

There are old pit style houses at Beamish, colliery, farmhouse, geese, chickens and such. The old town pub, The Sun is now open for quaffing, but it`s tiny, reminds me of the Cumberland Arms. We ate shepherd`s pie and mushy peas in the old Co-op restaurant, there were old plants, water boilers and windows with the sash openings. The weather was lovely and families sat on the grass around the bandstand. The staff roamed around wearing Victorian dress. Kids tried to use the metal hoops in the school yard.

We called in on friends who live near the Bowes incline, M was cutting the grass on his bogey style lawn mower, needless to say D wanted a turn on it. M had spent most of his time mowing in a finely tuned circle, and D did curly Q`s over it, M too polite to say. S shouted us across for a cup of tea, so not too much damage done.

M "What di thi caal them things that run in front of ya car?"
D "Pheasants?"
M "Aye, a nearly knocked one down."
Y (Noticing his dog Jake snapping his teeth, arching his back and lurching along the grass) "What`s up with Jake?"
M "He`s gettin` randy, when I first saw him like that, I thought he was havin` a stroke."
S "Suppose he is, sort of."
M " Come and have a look at our new conservatwat."
D " It`s lovely, you get all the sunlight on this side of the house."

We sample some of S`s home made chocolate cake and talk about old times, nowt like it.