"As
I go a walk down memory lane
I remember some times when I was a wean
I’d walk to school in my old wellie boots
The lassies at school pulled my hair fae the roots
The laddies at school well they’d stand and laugh
Shouting ‘hey dirty tinker hae ye heard o a bath?’
I would walk the field home it was a good two, three mile
It was then that I realised school wasnie worth while
From
that moment on I hated folk from the toon
As my da used to tell ‘lassie I’m no old fool I’ve
been around’
You wouldnie get nothing if you chapped at their door
You’d bang at their houses till your knuckles were sore
Me and my ma would get up at first sign of light
After taking in turns wae the wean all night
After cooking and cleaning we’d go try sell some swag
My ma wae a basket and me wae a bag
We’d hawk for the day, then come back and get the wanes
fed
Wash them and dry them and put them in bed.
With
seven of a family land didnie come free
Then one day I walked in wae ma husband to be
I says ‘ da look this is going to be my gadgy’
Me like a fool thought ma da would go radgy
But he never he just turned and looked me right in the yack
And says ‘remember when your married there’s no
turning back’.
The very
next day I walked of, bags in my hand
That very same day I put on my gold band
Two years down, I’ve a wean wae a hungry moy
Not a penny in the hame to feed ma baby boy
Three days of hunger, the change is ma luck
My man swaps our wagon foer an auld Bedford truck
Now fifty three years have passed and hunger to my weans is
none
They all live in comfort each and everyone
I really am glad my life wasnie to be theirs
I’m happy for them that money isnae scarce."
Janet-Betsy
McAllister
Scottish Traveller aged 16
Remembering Who I Am, by Janet Betsy McAllister
"Remembering Who I Am is a set of moving poems by Janet Betsy
McAllister,
a young Gypsy woman from Stirling. The poems' focus is on the
travelling community in which she grew up.
A series of evocative photographs accompany the poems
£3.00 and available from Janet-Betsy McAllister,
c/o Michelle Lloyd, Save the Children,
Haymarket House,
8 Clifton Terrace,
Edinburgh,
EH12 5DR,
m.lloyd@savethechildren.org.uk,
0131 527 8200.
