Happy first of the month - White Rabbits to you
Of course in days gone by before the time of having alarm clocks, people were employed to wake you up in the mornings... came across a nice photo this morning ..
Of course - who woke her up??
A tongue-twister from the time tackled this conundrum:
We had a knocker-up, and our knocker-up had a knocker-up
And our knocker-up's knocker-up didn't knock our knocker up
So our knocker-up didn't knock us up
'Cos he's not up.
The trade also ran in families. Mary Smith, who used a pea shooter, was a well-known knocker upper in east London and her daughter, also called Mary, followed in her mother's footsteps. The latter is widely believed to have been one of the capital's last knocker uppers, according to Mr Jones.
With the spread of electricity and affordable alarm clocks, however, knocking up had died out in most places by the 1940s and 1950s.
"When knocking up began to be a regular trade, we used to rap or ring at the doors of our customers," Mrs Waters, a knocker upper in the north of England told an intrigued reporter from Canada's Huron Expositor newspaper in 1878.
"The public complained of being disturbed... by our loud rapping or ringing; and the knocker-up soon found out that while he knocked up one who paid him, he knocked up several on each side who did not," she continued.
The solution they hit on was modifying a long stick, with which to tap on the bedrooms windows of their clients, loudly enough to rouse those intended but softly enough not to disturb the rest.
Or Mary's solution was the pea blowpipe.
Yet it still continued in some pockets of industrial England until the early 1970s, immortalised in songs by the likes of folk singer-song writer Mike Canavan.
"Through cobbled streets, cold and damp, the knocker-upper man is creeping.
"Tap, tapping on each window pane, to keep the world from sleeping..."
The use of the long pole was more prevalent - a few taps on the pane at the front woudl not disturb the rest of the family...
Meanwhile - in other news - politics is still continuing..
The Job (Prime Minister) Interview:
Interviewer: So, what skills do you think you could bring to the role?
Applicant: Listen, I've seen the other person waiting outside, and he looks a right state. I mean, *sniggers*, seriously?
Interviewer: Don't worry about him, It's you I'm interested in talking about.
Applicant: I heard he used to hang around with some really dodgy people, I wouldn't employ him, he's filth.
Interviewer: Let's just focus on you shall we? What would you say your strengths are?
Applicant: My strengths..eh..well I'm strong.
Interviewer: Being strong is your strength?
Applicant: Yes, and stable.
Interviewer: I see. Looking at your application I notice that there is quite a bit of crossing out. You seem to change your mind about things a lot?
Applicant: That bloke outside looks rubbish.
Interviewer: Please, it would really help if you concentrated on your own application. Now, there are a lot of facets to this job, requiring a lot of different skills. Are you quite sure you would be up to the tasks involved, and able to lead your team with confidence?
Applicant: I heard a lot of the people in the last place he worked, didn't like him.
Interviewer: OK, I think I have asked all I want to. Is there anything you'd like to ask me?
Applicant: Yes, who would you rather wake up and find out you'd employed, me or that bloke outside?
Interviewer: Ok, thank you for coming. We'll be in touch
Applicant: He killed a puppy
Interviewer: OK, thank you. Bye.
I have a postal vote - so it has gone already...
Cheers!
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