Berry picking or tattie howkin…..one, tother or both?

[Angel eyes]

Banned now as child exploitation, really😏 summer time we the berries, no for me hot, sweaty… flies everywhere yuk give me a dry cold day in October and a decent picking partner happy days……kids don’t know what their missing……

[The Gorgie]

PlayStation 5 sounds much better tbh.

[John Findlay]

Made good money as a 14yr old howkin tatties in the 70s

[il Duce McTarkin]

17 minutes ago, Sir Craig Gordon said:

PlayStation 5 sounds much better tbh.

 

Depends what a couple of hundred thousand years of human evolution deems most beneficial, I suppose. 

 

Instant gratifiaction in the comfort of your own home for little physical outlay v's a grudged appreciation of the benefits of labour in conditions of mild adversity to the benefit of the species in general. 

 

Don't get me wrong. Replace 'PlayStation 5' with 'handful of eccies' and I'm the proverbial Tramp with the discarded kebab. 

Edited August 6, 2022 by Dirk McClaymore

[Weakened Offender]

I used to work with a strange guy from Rosewell who woukd take his two weeks annual leave to go tattie picking for cash in hand pay. 

 

Worked with another lad from Mayfield who, twice a year would take annual leave and sign himself in for medical tests. 

[The White Cockade]

My Uncle used to have a market garden at Pathhead

Used to pick strawberries and raspberries every summer back in the 70’s

you didn’t get paid much doing it that’s for sure

[Morgan]

We need more chimney sweeps.

[Doctor FinnBarr]

1 hour ago, Morgan said:

We need more chimney sweeps.

 

Bit pointless nowadays unless they rent themselves out for weddings.

[Pap]

Was down the mines when i was 14.

[Shanks said no]

1 minute ago, Pap said:

Was down the mines when i was 14.

 

Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'

 

 

 But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.

[Pap]

10 minutes ago, Shanks said no said:

 

Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing 'Hallelujah.'

 

 

 But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.

 

You had it much easier than me, for sure.

[JudyJudyJudy]

There certainly was a hell of a lot of poverty a few years back 

[Seymour M Hersh]

Spent a summer up in Aberfeldy grouse beating. That's as close as I ever came to the thread title and not really that close. Was a fun two weeks though. 

[Carl Fredrickson]

While at school I did the tatties one October week. It was during the miners strike and my dad had just retired. I made what was to me a small fortune (about £12 a day in 1984) and I thought that would set me up for life. 

 

Downside was that I was in pain all over and struggled to play football for my boys club the following weekend. 

[Jambo-Jimbo]

3 hours ago, Seymour M Hersh said:

Spent a summer up in Aberfeldy grouse beating. That's as close as I ever came to the thread title and not really that close. Was a fun two weeks though. 

 

Yip did the beatings in my early teens back in the 70's, it was something like £3 a day, a fortune to a 14 yr old, hard work though.

[frankblack]

Used to go berry picking with the family growing up, but the prices to pick your own just aren't worth it.

 

A certain place on the outskirts of Edinburgh charges twice the price to pick your own than of pre-picked Strawberries in Lidl! (like for like weight)

Edited August 7, 2022 by frankblack

[indianajones]

The sort of character building graft a lot of these little arseholes need these days. 

[Dawnrazor]

5 hours ago, Seymour M Hersh said:

Spent a summer up in Aberfeldy grouse beating. That's as close as I ever came to the thread title and not really that close. Was a fun two weeks though. 

My son and a few of his mates are hoping to go up to an estate in the Angus Glens next year for a seasons Grouse beating, £65 a day + full bed and board. It should be a great experience for them, earn a few quid, make some new mates, a bit of character building and a reference for a job application in future.

[ri Alban]

Rhubarb 

[Cruyff]

14 hours ago, Morgan said:

We need more chimney sweeps.

[Seymour M Hersh]

1 hour ago, Dawnrazor said:

My son and a few of his mates are hoping to go up to an estate in the Angus Glens next year for a seasons Grouse beating, £65 a day + full bed and board. It should be a great experience for them, earn a few quid, make some new mates, a bit of character building and a reference for a job application in future.

 

If they can handle the midges they'll have a blast. Not bad pay. A big change from my time as I think I was on the same sort of money as Jambo-Jimbo .

[Jambo-Jimbo]

1 hour ago, Seymour M Hersh said:

 

If they can handle the midges they'll have a blast. Not bad pay. A big change from my time as I think I was on the same sort of money as Jambo-Jimbo .

 

£3 was a lot of money in 1974-75

[Dawnrazor]

5 minutes ago, Jambo-Jimbo said:

 

£3 was a lot of money in 1974-75

The first time I went beating it was 3 quid and a fiver if you had a dog, about 1981.

[Jambo-Jimbo]

2 hours ago, Dawnrazor said:

The first time I went beating it was 3 quid and a fiver if you had a dog, about 1981.

 

Bring your own dog, no chance of that happening on the beatings I went to. The only dogs allowed would have been whatever lord, lady or Colonel's dogs or the gamekeepers dogs.

[John Gentleman]

Tattie howkin's the hardest work I've ever done, and I was only 12/13 when I did it. Always during the autumn school holidays which, I believe, were historically scheduled to align with the tattie picking season. Made just enough over the week to afford a box of Brock's fireworks for the upcoming bonfire night. It would've been around 10/- for a week's hard labour. 

The fermers were mean gits tae. You'd ask, "can I take some tatties hame"? He'd reply, "aye, but only jist a wee bilin' (wee boiling)".

They never wised up to our two-tag team act mind. We'd 'select' a 'picking neebor' - usually a mate. While the fermer was concentrating on US not nicking HIS precious tatties, our 'neebor' would sneak into the barns and nick his eggs. Eggs were a lot more valuable than a 'wee bilin' of tatties. 

That's Karma for you, right there....

[John Gentleman]

On 07/08/2022 at 20:42, Dawnrazor said:

My son and a few of his mates are hoping to go up to an estate in the Angus Glens next year for a seasons Grouse beating, £65 a day + full bed and board. It should be a great experience for them, earn a few quid, make some new mates, a bit of character building and a reference for a job application in future.

What have the grouse done to deserve a beating?

Aye, awwright, off to the crap jokes thread for me......

[Dawnrazor]

2 hours ago, John Gentleman said:

What have the grouse done to deserve a beating?

Aye, awwright, off to the crap jokes thread for me......

I'll give you 8 / 10 for the effort 😆

[All roads lead to Gorgie]

Someone could make a fortune picking chips and lighters off the pitch at Easter Road. 

[Locky]

Christ, no way I could do that now. My back and legs would be in bits.