🧠FACTUAL FRIDAY🧠
by Charlie Elphinstone
This week I will be telling you about gators or as they are known as in Scotland “a pair o Nicky tams”. They where commonly worn by farmers and gamekeepers before boots and wellingtons or “wellies” were mass produced. They attach around your calves tightly above your shoes. This prevented mud, water and even vermin from climbing up you legs. Also there was a famous song written about them, it goes something like this A Pair o' Nicky Tams
Fan I was only ten year auld, I left the pairish schweel.
My faither he fee'd me tae the Mains tae chaw his milk and meal.
I first pit on my narrow breeks tae hap my spinnel trams,
Syne buckled roon my knappin' knees, a pair o' Nicky Tams.
It's first I gaed for baillie loon and syne I gaed on for third, An' syne, of course, I had tae get the horseman's grippin' wird, A loaf o' breed tae be my piece, a bottle for drinkin' drams, Bit ye canna gyang thro' the caffhouse door without yer Nicky Tams.
The fairmer I am wi' eynoo he's wealthy, bit he's mean, Though corn's cheap, his horse is thin, his harness fairly deen. He gars us load oor cairts owre fou, his conscience has nae qualms, Bit fan briest-straps brak there's naething like a pair o' Nicky Tams.
I'm coortin' Bonnie Annie noo, Rob Tamson's kitchie deem, She is five-and-forty an' I am siventeen, She clorts a muckle piece tae me, wi' different kinds o'jam, An' tells me ilka nicht that she admires my Nicky Tams.
I startit oot, ae Sunday, tae the kirkie for tae gyang, My collar it wis unco ticht, my breeks were nane owre lang. I had my Bible in my pooch, likewise my Book o' Psalms, Fan Annie roared, 'Ye muckle gype, tak' af yer Nicky Tams!'
Though unco sweir, I took them aff, the lassie for tae please, But aye my breeks they lirkit up, a' roon aboot my knees. �A wasp gaed crawlin' up my leg, in the middle o' the Psalms, So niver again will I enter the kirk without my Nicky Tams.
I've often thocht I'd like tae be a bobby on the Force, Or maybe I'll get on the cars, tae drive a pair o' horse. Bit fativer it's my lot tae be, the bobbies or the trams, I'll ne'er forget the happy days I wore my Nicky Tams.
Doric words and there meanings.
pairish squeel = parish school
fee'd = hired
mains = farm
nerra breeks = narrow trousers
hap = cover
spin'le trams = skinny legs
k-nappin' k-nees = knock knees
bailie loon = cattleman
third = third horseman
yne = then
gae = go
calf-hoose = chaff house
the noo = meantime
deen = worn out
gar = makes
wir = our
breist-straps = part of a harness
kitchie deem = scullery maid
clorts = spreads liberally
ilke nicht = every night
till = to
kirkie = church
gyang = go
unco ticht = very tight
muckle gype = big idiot
unco sweir = very unwilling
rig the kirk = dress for church
