Friday 19 February 2010

Market Words

Should have stood Stamford Market today but the weather deterred me. A heavy fall of snow last night made the roads dangerous so I felt it better to stay at home with the family and do tea drinking, doodling, reading and listening to my new CD from Amazon, 'The Astounding Eyes of Rita' featuring Anouar Brahem on oud.


What words can I use to describe it? Beautiful? That's the first word than comes to mind but it conveys little.
Perhaps 'rhapsodic', 'flowing', 'melancholy' would be better,but that sounds like a critic talking. These words carry little weight. But I don't have the vocabulary to describe my delight in the music, which is a pity. The music is better speaking for itself.


Words are always inadequate to the experience they attempt to express; but some words are better than others. A profession develops a specialist vocabulary over a long period of time that carries a feeling of the daily life of those who practise it. Market trading is no exception. It has a rich hoard of words, that can be very musical.


My old and dear friend Mike used to know a bit of traditional patter that went like this:


I'm not 'ere today and gone tomorrow, I'm 'ere today and gone tonight.
I'm travelin' for a large firm in Manchester, Cock, Scratchem & Co
dealing in black and white thread, railway arches and treacle lines...


Unfortunately that's all he can remember. The piece went on in similar fashion at great length. It was the kind of language used by 'pitchers', market men who 'pitched' goods by shouting and drawing a crowd.


As Mike said in his Email to me:


All gibberish without a pause but it worked. By the time you figured out something he said, you missed a slice and wanted more. Hooked so you bought.

I'm desperate to know what comes next in the patter.

I'm hooked.


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