That 'pie floater' you mention John, that's a staple diet item in Wigan.
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That is why Wiganers are always called Pie EYTERS.
They are born with a pie in their hands,
Soon it will be Curry.
Brian
Hi John.
Pie and Mushy peas from the pie cart on the wharf at Woolomaloo in Sydney, could have manned a few ships from the crowd that used to stand around eating after a session, now all the Gentry coming out of the Opera House congregate there.
Cheers Des
It would appear many of the original migrants to South Oz came from Wigan then
Re.Wigan and the Pies.
1985. Did a Fly to London .Cruise Back ,from Southampton,to Sydney. 17 Ports ,Sixty days. Was a 4Berth Cabin.
Luckily ,turns out. There were just Two One other. A former A.B . from Eastleigh.Hants. How fortunate!
As the Trip progressed,and We'd familiarised ourselves,with the Talent. Going our respective ways ,re. Sittings ,Bars etc.
Passengers were coming and going ,at various stages of the World Cruise. My Amore.Having joined at New Orleans . Few Ports then ,Venezuela,Jamaica ,Grenada ,Panama Canal ,Acapulco.etc. Her Party, eventually leaving,at San Francisco.
My said Cabin-Mate and I .Were Chuffed,with the situation. AS ,after every Port ,we would enter the Cabin ,expecting to see new arrivals,ensconced .Not to be ,Great! Our arrangement .re Privacy . Being. If a Key was in the door, Keep walking.
We left San Fran.this particular evening. Up in the Crow's Nest Bar together Way down ,past the Golden Gate.
Back at the Cabin.We were Elated .Only a few Ports to go now. Next,Honolulu.Congratulating ourselves on the luck.Door Opens .
Rotund little guy.enters. Declares "they'd given him a Cabin on A,Deck. And He insisted ,He wanted the Cabin He'd occupied on Part of the Cruise terminating at San, Fran. He' d done the previous year ,or something. Despite the fact ,knocking back a A.Deck one
,just to himself.
"He Were the Pie-Man from Wigan, He enlightens, ."Everybody knows Me." .If we heard that once ,A dozen Times!
Asked a few People ,met since, from that neck of the Woods. Only one ever ,Said he thought he knew him.Anyway,we all got on alright eventually, Final Port before Sydney , Auckland, a fourth person joined . So in the Main ,We had a good run ,as two Berth.
Should imagine the Pie-Man is ,by now ,churning them out .In the Bakery ,in the Sky.
It is amazing, Wigan is less than ten miles from me,
I have Never BEEN THERE,, I have passed through on the train to Liverpool but Never stopped there.
I have been to the remotest parts of the Planet, everywhere, But Never to Wigan.
I must make the supreme effort one day. everyone seems to be enjoying the best Pies there.
Cheers
Brian
For those that like to read have a look at George Orwell's Road To Wigan Pier.I think that there is free audio of it on line
Regards.
Jim.B.
Attachment 19292
A searing account of George Orwell's observations of working-class life in the bleak industrial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire in the 1930s, The Road to Wigan Pier is a brilliant and bitter polemic that has lost none of its political impact over time. His graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, cramped slum housing, dangerous mining conditions, squalor, hunger and growing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and great humanity. It crystallized the ideas that would be found in Orwell's later works and novels, and remains a powerful portrait of poverty, injustice and class divisions in Britain.
Published with an introduction by Richard Hoggart in Penguin Modern Classics.
'It is easy to see why the book created and still creates so sharp an impact ... exceptional immediacy, freshness and vigour, opinionated and bold ... Above all, it is a study of poverty and, behind that, of the strength of class-divisions'
Richard Hoggart
For those that like to read have a look at George Orwell's Road To Wigan Pier.I think that there is free audio of it on line
Regards.
Jim.B.
That is the way I remember it in the 1930s George Orwell said it as it was. He was a working class hero.
My great aunt Emma, my Dad`s Aunt in the 1881 Census is described as a Coal Miner, age EIGHT
My Great granddad, granddad and my Dad started work at 10, 11 and at 12 for my Dad, They all contracted Bysinosis, Lung Cancer from the Cotton Dust. Dad got £1. 6 shillings a month for it, paid on the 1st for the month. He died on the 12th, The Mighty Courtalds Group knocked on my mothers door and demanded the £1 . 6 shillings back as he did not live for the month.
They don't know they are born today, life is so much easier.
Brian
In Wigan they may like their meat pies but in Bury (where I went q couple of times to pick up my new cars), they like CHEESE pies, ugh. Have they never heard of a Greggs steak bake or cheese slice?
rgds
JA