Tramp Sandwich

Tramp Sandwich

I'm not sure how old I was, but if I had to guess I'd say it was between eight and ten.
But if I was as young as six or as old as thirteen that would be possible too.

Anyway, one day a genuine tramp turned up to the gate. He was an old fellow, dressed in a tatty suit. Back then most old men seemed to wear full suits though, whatever their background. I think even papa wore a suit when he was out on the farm.

The old fellow was looking for work, so mum or dad gave him a hoe and he dug up some  weeds from the gravel for a while. He didn't over-exert himself. I watched him for a bit as he poked at the ground with the hoe.

After that he was then give a fiver, a cheese sandwich and a cup of tea. I guess a fiver was worth about twenty quid back then.

Now this old fellow, I assume, was not merely a homeless person, he was a proper tramp in the mold of the guys from the Two Ronnies sketch. Rural homeless I guess, but on the move. Where had he come from and where was he going?

Was he a seasonal worker? Had he led his entire life like this, always on the move? Or was he only recently homeless? I think he'd been at it a while, looking at him.

Although this was unusual for the time (80s) it was accepted, Aunt Chrisse would have been alive at that time and she would remember Scotland when it was full of tinkers, peddlers and other people that moved about like that.
I'm sure mum, as a little girl, would remember a time when folk would come to the farm looking for work. Seasonal workers for sure, and possibly tinkers?

Today though, what would people's reaction be? If a man in his late 60s or even 70s turned up at the door, the very picture of a tamp, looking for work in return for a fiver and a sandwich?
You'd call someone wouldn't you? We take care of old people better than that these days don't we?

Have we lost something along the way though? I've read books (Down and Out in Paris and London, The Grapes of Wrath) and seen films (Sullivan's Travels) about a life on the road. Was there ever a time when it was romantic? Probably not, to be honest, outside of Hollywood.

I'm no expert (and I live near the city now) but it seems to me, the homeless people you see  these days are that way because of drugs or drink, or they are mysterious Eastern Europeans  shipped over here to beg the main street on a Saturday night. I don't know the story of any of them, but I should imagine they all have a home (of some description) to go to if they wanted.

Whoever they are, they are not the remnants of a by-gone era of Scottish traveller folk and  whoever this guy was, he was already a relic of the past back then and we never saw anyone  else like him in Dalry, that I remember anyway.

As a little boy, I remember observing that the life of a tramp must be tough when all you get to eat is cheese sandwiches! I would have turned my nose at it, back then, finding it too dry.
At the very least I would have wanted some tomato or pickle in it.

These days I eat plain cheese sandwiches all the time though and I always think of them as 'Tramp Sandwiches!'

(As an aside, we get gypsies and Irish travellers at the door in Aberdeen sometimes, but they are young fellows out to do the roof or a driveway. If they are out on the links I can see their expensive looking caravans from the front garden.)

(As a further aside, I used to always give money to beggars, but now not so much because of a) I've a family to look after and every penny goes to that and b) I've seen real grinding poverty over in Indonesia and as a consequence lost a lot of sympathy for your average drunken Scottish bum on the street!)