The Doric as she is spoke!
One of the aspects of Leopard that I like is the frequency with which – not surprisingly – references in the Doric appear. Not that I can claim to be fluent in the dialect – after all I left Aberdeen in 1960 and I was a ‘toonser’! However I always had a soft spot for the works of Charles Murray, reflected in the fact that my Sassenach home is called Hamewith.
During the war years (’39 to ’45 that is) my mother had the foresight to arrange extended summer holiday accommodation for us in Tarves and there I did a ‘hairst’ at a local farm. I retained some of the rich vocabulary of the farm staff – as well as learning how to drive a pair of handsome Clydesdale horses, Prince and Donal, in a four-wheeled lorry.
One particular bit of Doric which I have never forgotten arose elsewhere. My late brother Gordon was an officer in the Boys Brigade company of Holborn Central Church and I was lucky enough to be co-opted in as an honorary NCO during the week or two weeks the company went on summer camp. (I did time in the army cadets at school.) This particular year it was at Kemnay and our C.O. lost no time in arranging that we play the local football team on the Saturday afternoon.
We had been advised that they would be powerful opponents and I was interested to see the player whom I would be directly marking. I immediately assumed that he was the son of the local blacksmith. He was a large strapping loon with more than his share of well-honed muscles; I figured I was in for a tough game.
After a few minutes I was intrigued to observe that this wonderful specimen of masculinity was wearing a hair net! Such an adornment I had never seen on a football field before, but discretion was demanded and I curbed my curiosity. After several close encounters of a football kind, I could contain my curiosity no longer and enquired, “What’s with the hair net?” to which he replied, quite unabashed,“Och weel ye see, Ah wisnae needin tae blaad my shade.”
Garth Jessamine
Wokingham