” On a Sunday they’d get up on a morning time and they’d just bake, non-stop, me mum and me older sisters, and we’ve have sausage rolls and pasties and pies and trifles and cake and buns. All day long we’d eat, that was our treat for Sunday. “
A 12 year old Gypsy boy interviews Elizabeth Issacs
Elizabeth is interviewed about her pets, food and travelling when she was a child.
List of Questions
1 sec Did you have pets?
A boxer called Bengo. Bengo would know when the family were shifting, He’d run and get in the old TK Lorry so he wouldn’t be left behind.
After Bengo we had a farm dog, he was a like a proper Gypsy dog, we never took him for a walk because he walked himself. In those days there were no dog wardens. The dog could walk up to the building site, and he’d go up at break time and the workmen would give him food. There was an old lady who lived up the road who would take the dog on day trips on the bus. When she died, the bus driver still took the dog as he was so used to go.
2 min What did you eat?
When I was little my mum was a good cook, there was no fast food. Stews, Jo Grey, puddings, on a Sunday my mum and older sisters would just bake. We’d have sausage rolls and pasties, and pies, and trifles and cakes and buns. All day long, that was a treat for Sunday. We’d cook all morning and eat all afternoon.
2 min 45 sec Did you travel a lot?
When I was little we did. My mum and dad were both born in wagons, and when they met they travelled in trailers. When my dad’s dad died he left them some land. My dad and uncle build bungalows on their pieces of land. He only stayed in the bungalow for 3 months, the worst of the winter months, then travel for most of the year. When I was 4 my dad my died. It was tricky for my mum to go shifting on her own, she still did it every summer, but as she got older we spent less and less time on the road. When I was about 15, she said she was too old and gave up the travelling. When I got married to a Traveller we went back into trailers then.