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NEFA 1994.039.01 Transcription
P: Alec Forsythe
T: Old
age
S: You never think you'll reach old age. He's
losing his balance now.
NEFA 1994.039.02 Transcription
P: Alec Forsythe
T: Songs
sung in the old says
S: Many folk sung in the old days. There were
some fine singers. He sings to himself but not in public at all.
Muckin o Geordies Byre, Gadie Rins, My Love She's But a Lassie Yet.
He knows all the tunes. His son sings in front of people, bothy
songs, etc., John Forsythe, he lives in Ellon and a burst retina,
etc. Son is stout and his mother was too. Father was a little mannie
like Alec himself.
NEFA 1994.039.03 Transcription
P: Alec Forsythe
T: Feeing markets
S: There wouldn't be a dance at a feeing market,
just straight to work. There were tests of strength, one with levers
to test your pulling power. There were some big hefty lads, "Ah
wite".
NEFA 1994.039.04 Transcription
P: Alec Forsythe
T: Candlemas
Rhyme
S: Heard the rhyme but they never did anything
about the day. He does not remember the second half. They never
rolled easter eggs.
NEFA 1994.039.05 Transcription
P: Alec Forsythe
T: Meal an ale
S: They'd have a meal and ale at harvest time.
There would be dancing in the loft and afterwards a big dumpling.
Johnston at Mains o Buthlay across from Cadger Hill had big meal
and ales. There were several dumplings and tea carried from the
kitchen to the loft.
NEFA 1994.039.06 Transcription
P: Alec Forsythe
T: The travelling mill
S: On the go at harvest time. They had their
own little mill but got the travelling mill two or three times a
year. Sometimes they'd come the night before and set up [buzzer
in home goes off]. Two lads on the mill working it. One lad from
the farm would carry water for the mill all day.
NEFA 1994.039.07 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Biographical
background
S: [Begins with announcement.] Born in New Deer. Father
was a roadman. Jimmie fee'd, handled the horses, and took care of
the cattle. Fee'd at fourteen when he left the school. Born in 1920.
£3/5d for six months. Then £10 a half year. You learned by copying
the foreman and did what you were told. He was nineteen when he
was in charge of his first pair. Never in a bothy. Round here it
was a chaamer. You ate with the farmers.
NEFA 1994.039.08 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Early rising on the farm
S: Rise at five, see to the horses, breakfast
at six. Brose, cup of tea, bread and milk. Two or three spoonfuls
of milk. You had your own bowls. There would be cream on top of
the bowl of milk, it was from the night before. Some places had
a kitchie deem for cooking, others did not.
NEFA 1994.039.09 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Commands for horses
S: Hie, whish, left and right. Jimmie just worked
the reins. Started work at 7 till 12. Dinner, then another five
hours (1-5:30 or 6).
NEFA 1994.039.10 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Evening pastimes
S: They would news, read a book, some singing,
some fiddling, sometimes a gramophone. Sometimes they would go away
to a pub or another bothy for a visit.
NEFA 1994.039.11 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: What would they sing?
S: They would sing cornkisters and "roch sangs" or
just bothy songs. Drumdelgie, Nichy Tams, the Hash o Bennagoak,
Bogie's Bonnie Belle. Remembers them but will not sing them.
NEFA 1994.039.12 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Hogmanay
pastimes
S: Hogmanay they would have a dance and go to
the pub. Eightsome reels, waltzes, grand march (first dance), Circassian
Circle followed by an old fashioned waltz. There were good bands.
Jean Stewart from Fetterangus had a good band. There were some queer
tricks tried, like tying folk in their houses, etc. Never anything
course but just fun.
NEFA 1994.039.13 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Term time dances
S: Dances at term time. 28th May, 28th November.
You finished at twelve o'clock on the 28th and then got the next
day off. Always went to Maud feeing fair. Everyone was there even
if they were not looking for a fee, it was the only day off. The
farmer would come up to you and then you would haggle about the
fee, etc.
NEFA
1994.039.14-15 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Feein for a drink
S: Anecdote about farmer and his son who took
him in for a good drink, but he did not agree to go. he got the
drink without the fee! At that farm four times. He left and was
invited back for more money.
NEFA 1994.039.16 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Feeing
and enlistment
S: There would be stalls at the feeing markets.
Travellers would sell paper roses and such like, keeping the police
away. The Gordon Highlanders would be there. They would get drunken
lads to agree. If you could not get a fee, you might enlist.
NEFA 1994.039.17 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: The
end of the markets and fairs
S: The fairs wound down and the tractors came
in. The market in Maud stopped about 1942. Still got their holiday
and went to Maud for a dram.
NEFA 1994.039.18 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Candlemas
rhyme
S: Has heard Candlemas Rhyme, starts reciting
it. [End of side A.]
NEFA 1994.039.19 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Changing
from bothies
S: Not bothies now, now horses, just shelts and
ponies.
NEFA 1994.039.20 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: School
days
S: Gone to school in New Deer. Remembers the
laird, Dingwall Fordyce. Had a Rolls-Royce. There was a chaufeur.
Dingwall Fordyce helped out the boy scouts. New Deer show was held
in the Pleasure Park. Cattle show, not really a sale, though there
was some inside dealing. Then there was a rabbit show. It was in
July and then there was another in August.
NEFA 1994.039.21 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Aikey
Fair
S: The fair was held Wednesday and Sunday. There would
be horse selling and drink. There would be fortune tellers, amusements
and selling things out of vans. People came every year from far
and near.
NEFA 1994.039.22 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Harvest
S: Meal and ales were dying out by the time he
came along. Later there were evenings out at the local school. Meal
and Ale is a brose made with ale. He never liked it, but preferred
the morning brose.
NEFA 1994.039.23 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Jock
Strachan, Crichie
S: Strachan hired him as second horseman at a
farm near Methlick. He was glad to get away from the farm he was
at before. He seldom saw Jock. Geordie Will was the grieve at that
time. Jock used to sing on the telly. Used to play the old fashioned
concertina. He could play behind his back. He would be there. Once
Jock set Jimmie's plough for him and went down the road saying that
JT must be swearing at him. He was an ill trickit man. Once he attached
the cart to the hames. But JT seldom saw him. Mostly saw the grieve.
Had a course little devil of a horse. Big plough used to use three
horses.
NEFA 1994.039.24 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Cattle
and horses
S: Preferred cattle to horses. Cattle man would
feed them, breed them, supervise suckling, etc. Not so much walking
as a cattleman and you were one your own. You were inside more too.
The cattle would go away to market on floats. You would walk them
to Maud in the summer.
NEFA 1994.039.25 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Sheep
at Crichie
S: Had three hundred hogs (sheep), but Jimmie
never liked them. They made a mess of everything. Only a big farm
would have a shepherd, the farmer usually looked after them.
NEFA 1994.039.26 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Mutton
and meat on a fee
S: People didn't get much mutton on a farm because
you did not get much meat on any farm at that time. Perhaps you
would get beef on a Sunday.
NEFA 1994.039.27 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Feeing
conditions
S: You would get your fire and your food on a farm.
You would go to bed at about nine after you sorted your horse. Then
to bed on a caaf matress. It was changed every year, but you had
to be careful not to get prickles. The maid would turn it every
week or so. Plenty of blankets, and pretty comfortable. He's seen
a railway carriage that was cold but a bothy was not too bad. Anecdote
about drunken farmer. He left after two weeks and started at Mains
o Auchleddie the following Monday. Someone knew he had left and
he got the offer. Went to local shop for a dram on Saturday, and
the next morning a farmer came to him with an offer. Names farms
where he worked.
NEFA 1994.039.28 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Shifting
at term time
S: Once the weekly wages came in it was easier to
shift. During the war you could not shift, or you would be called
up. Jimmie was discharged unfit, so he was free to come and go as
he pleased. He passed physical, but others were amazed that he was
let in at all. He was tested to see if he was shamming, 1940. That's
when he went to work for Jock Strachan, till November when he moved
on. Sometimes the lads made a bad move. Sometimes they would not
be asked to bide on and so had to movve.
NEFA 1994.039.29 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: How
did farmers know you were looking for a fee?
S: They did nothing to indicate that they were for
feeing, the farmers just knew. You had your blue suit and in those
days you had just the one suit.
NEFA 1994.039.30 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Going
to church
S: Went to kirk until 1942. Not a lot went to
church. You had to work every second weekend and you would have
to change your kirk every six months. Still does not go to church.
NEFA 1994.039.31 Transcription
P: Jimmie Thain
T: Agricultural
college work
S: [Eventually got a job at the Agricultural
college.] [End of Tape]
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