Mae Ma’s Spoon
By Margaret Rowe from Canada (Ullans Winter 1999)
T’ither nicht A wuz in mae bed wunnerin what A cud write fur the Ullans, an then it cum tae mae. A cud write aboot mae ma’s mixin’ spoon. A wuz that axcited it was fower in the mornin’ afore A went tae sleep efter thurnin ower in mae heid what A shud say and tha wye A shuid say it.
When A was a waen, sawenty yeir ago, there wur a lot of fowk that trevelled roon the country goin frae dure tae dure; wans wur jist beggars, askin fur a slice of breed, or lake big Mery, for a gopin of oatmale which she kerried in a poke tied roon hir waist; ithers ye micht ca pedlars, and yin of these wuz P.Q.
He cum frae Striban, about five miles awa, an unner his airm he had a wee wudden box fu o needles an pins, an spools of threed an the lake.
Wan day Paddy cum jist as mae ma wuz reddin up efter bakin, an she still had in hir han the oul spoon that had bin used tae mix the dough fur a liftime. Seein Paddy eye the spoon mae ma said:
“Och Paddy, A wish yea cud get mae a guid big spoon: this wan’s worn tae a skiver.”
Weel, twa-three weeks efter, Paddy waekt in wae the grannest big table spoon yea iver sa. Mae ma, who wuz a bit leary, thinking maybe he had nyucht it frae anither hoose (tho’ shae had niver known him tae dae the lake), said:
“Sure Paddy that’s jist what A’m needin; whar did ye get it?”
“Well, Ma’am,” sez Paddy, “it was issued tae mae the day A joint the Fusilers in 1914.”
Mae ma used that spoon fur the rest o hir life and when she died in 1987 mae sister tuk it tae hir placed, and she is mixin hir dough wae it yit.
© Margaret Rowe and The Ulster-Scots Language Society
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