One of the caravans caught my eye and I photographed it from fifty yards away with a mature weeping willow tree and terraced houses behind it. There were no people in the shot and besides taking that picture was entirely legal. Ironically, the travellers' encampment on a public recreation ground was wholly illegal.
Just then I heard a voice from the children's playground and a woman started to walk towards me. I guessed she was protesting about me taking the photograph.
Turns out she was not a woman after all but a teenage girl of around fifteen and she approached with an assorted gang of small children mostly aged between four and ten.
The girl challenged me about my camera work and rather than getting on my high horse and putting her in her place, I decided to play it cool. After all, there might well have been gypsy parents in the caravans and before you knew it I could have been in the middle of an unsavoury scene.
Our voices were not raised and I had no problem with deleting the picture I had just taken. All the children had unwashed, freckled faces. The smaller kids touched my pockets and appeared very interested in my watch. The lead girl was wearing shorts and a "Barbie" T-shirt with the name "Barbie" repeated in red and white.
After the situation had been diffused, I had a ten minute conversation with Rose and her twelve year old sidekick - Anna. The small urchin-like children had drifted back to the playground area. Both girls spoke in Irish accents though it is very possible that they have never set foot on the island of Ireland.
ME: Oh I know that. It's a bit like black and Asian people. They meet lots of prejudice.
ROSE: We get blamed for everything. Any time something is stolen, travellers get the blame.
ANNA: It's not fair.
ME: I understand where you are coming from. Being a member of the travelling community cannot be easy.
ROSE: You are right there. We have got lots of enemies.
Travellers refer to those who dwell in settled host communities as "gorjas" or "gorgers" for we are not a part of Romany culture. Over centuries there has been regular tension and sometimes conflict between gorjas and travellers.
When I was a boy, I remember a gypsy troop travelling through our village twice a year with horse-pulled wooden caravans. Nowadays, the descendants of those traditional picture book gypsies have modern caravans and nice vehicles to pull them. Superficially, things may have changed but fundamentally travelling communities stay the same.
I would guess that Rose and Anna have rarely if ever had a pleasant conversation with a gorja man. After all, they are probably told from an early age that you should never trust a gorja...
ME: (laughing) No. I am not famous. Are you famous?
ANNA: I'll never be famous.
ME: But I see that you are famous. You have got your name all over yout T-shirt. Barbie!
ROSE: I'm not Barbie! My name is Rose.
ME: But it says Barbie! Where's Ken?
ROSE: (laughing) I'm still waiting for Ken to come along.
ME: And you must be Chelsea! Isn't she Barbie's best friend?
ANNA: No. She's her sister. My name is Anna.
Oh, Neil. This is just beautiful. Rose and Anna will remember you for the rest of their lives, I'm sure of it. Thank you for showing those children such consideration and respect. You're a dear. xx
ReplyDeleteI am quite proud of the way I handled it Jennifer.
DeleteWhat might have been an ugly interaction turned out to be fun and funny and sweet and education.
ReplyDeleteCan't beat that!
I will remember that interaction for a long time.
DeleteYou are well experienced in handling a situation that could possible turn ugly. You probably gave this kid some experience and confidence in life situations.
ReplyDeleteThirty eight years of dealing with children probably helped me in that situation.
DeleteWell done you! You had a pleasant little visit instead of something ugly. My grandma used to tell me stories of the gypsies that came through the rural area in southern MO where I grew up. I don't remember her ever talking bad about them. My grandma had so many fascinating stories of life, I miss her still.
ReplyDeleteWell, I never knew you would have gypsies in the USA.
DeleteI had a nice little paragraph typed and when I hit publish it disappeared.
ReplyDeleteWell done you! What could have turned ugly was a sweet conversation.
Your nice little paragraph turned up after all!
DeleteThat was a nice interaction ad I see you managed to get a photo after all. I'm sure the children will remember for a long while how nice you were. I'd be wary about children patting my pockets though, I sometimes carry a sandwich and don't like them squished. Now that I think about it, I haven't carried a sandwich in a long time. My last long-day trip was to the beach where I bought fish and chips instead.
ReplyDeleteDo you have gypsies/travellers in Australia? Somehow I doubt it.
DeleteWe have "swagmen" in the outback, though not as many as there used to be. And there are gypsies too, living in groups I think, with their Romany lifestyle. I'll have to look them up on google to be sure.
DeleteYou did the right thing there. And so did Rose and Anna. As for the smaller children touching your pockets, I don't like anyone touching me or my outer garments uninvitedly. Small children do not have the same boundaries as adults, but it would have put me ill at ease, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteIt made me bristle a little but I could not swat them away like flies.
DeleteWhat an interesting meeting. You could have pressed the point about public space and the right to photograph. Instead you you made a few people think a little better about 'gorgers'. I prefer that spelling.
ReplyDelete"Gorgers" sounds like "gorgeous".
DeleteI'm a tiny bit disappointed I don't get to see the photo but it was worth deleting in the name of goodwill.
ReplyDeleteI looked up if we have Romani in Australia and we do but they live a sedentary lifestyle.
As a teenager I very briefly dated a boy whose grandmother was a traveller
Did he take all your jewellery or just your heart?
DeleteRose sounds a very self-assured fifteen year old - possibly because of less pleasant interactions with adults. You were fortunate that, having been a teacher for so many years, you knew how to handle young people.
ReplyDeleteWhen you mentioned the younger children patting your pockets and showing interest in your watch, I had a horrible feeling you were then going to say you found afterwards that you'd had your pocket picked. A wrong assumption, I know, but children have been known to be taught to do such things.
However it was an interesting encounter. What did Tony think?
There was nothing in my pockets but a snotty handkerchief. You are right to consider my long teaching experience though - it really helped me to deal intelligently with the situation. Tony was loitering fifty yards up ahead. Like me he had sensed the potential danger.
DeleteYou handled the situation very well YP. I often talk to travelling people at carboot sales. They are human like the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteWell handled. I too remember gypsies in wooden caravans periodically camping in a field in the village where I grew up - a field I passed by on my way to/from school. An unusual touch of the "exotic" back in the 1960s...
ReplyDeleteWell, that's an encounter you'd probably never have in Florida. Or perhaps you would. I don't know. But you handled it very well, I think.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm glad you respected their wishes and treated them with kindness, Neil.
ReplyDeleteWhen mum was a small child, a hundred years ago now, she was told to behave and the threat that was used was, if you don't behave, we'll give you to the gypsies. Times change and don't change. I'm glad everything went well and those girls have a better opinion of gorjas now.
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice exchange. You both walked away feeling a little more enlightened.
ReplyDeleteI think you handled the situation admirably. I'd like to think I would have done the same, but I doubt it, honestly. It really, really bugs me when I'm legally taking an innocuous picture and someone challenges me. It's one of my pet peeves. I probably would have just run away as fast as possible!
ReplyDeleteFunny really, down here in Portsmouth "Travellers" are a dirty name. Generally they arrive, park illegally, there's generally a spate of thefts, then they leave a huge amount of damage and rubbish behind when they leave. I suspect that these are not really travellers though, because the ones that come down to Wickham Fayre are totally different. One weekend a year they race their horses and carts through the village and along the main road. All reasonably well behave d and then they're gone, no mess, no damage. Takes all sorts I think. Good for you as to how you handled the situation though, could have easily turned ugly, especially if big brothers or dad;'s had turned up.
ReplyDelete