Posted on 03/20/2010 8:00:24 AM PDT by jay1949
The “up” - “down” usage survives where I live. When someone says, “I live up Clear Fork,” than means he resides upstream of the confluence of Clear Fork and Wolf Creek; in this case, again, “up” being a southerly direction.
“I wonder what kind of Scotch they drink?”
They don’t drink Scotch. They drink whisky (without the e).
A Scotsman told me so. :-)
I live up the Haw, at the headwaters actually.
Like the Nile ... up is down.
Excellent! Many thanks.
One of my ancestral families settled in the Haw River valley in what is now Alamance County — they would be “down the Haw,” from your situation.
That’s on down to where it’s actually a river. More of a creek with a bog around here.
Ya beat me to it! “Scot’’ is a native of Scotland. “Scotch’’ is liquor.
Scotland is part of the mainland of Britain. Ireland isn’t. It’s an island, across the Irish Sea from Britain. The Scots and the Irish do not consider themselves to be kith and kin. Saying “Scot/Irish’’ is like saying “French/Polish’’. My family never used the term “Scot.Irish’’ in describing ourselves. We called ourselves “Americans. Of Irish heritage’’.
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Thanks sionnsar. Wow, two GGG topics you've posted in one day! |
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*ping of interest*
Given my travel-related absences, should be no surprise. After this week I expect to be home until after Easter.
That’ll be nice!
My grandfather died in 2000 at age 100. He was from Harrisonburg VA. He always said his family was Scotch Irish.
My father who was born there too but had spent years living in England would say scotch is a drink, people from Scotland are Scots.
With my grandfather we always thought it was probably the old timey way of saying it. He had a few other things that he said that I have recently read were old mountain words or phrases.
My grandparents were “entertained” with a shivaree on their wedding night. My grandmother was pleased at the great number of friends that turened up to sing and make noise that night.
The Scots-by-way-of-Ulster-in-Ireland appear to have been the first refer to themselves simply as “Americans.” The areas where they settled (WV-KY-TN etc) have the highest proportion of persons who tell the census folks that their nationality is “American.”
Looking back at comments on this thread and elsewhere, there does seem to be a north-south divide on the name issue. The Scotch Irish of the Shenandoah Valley appear to always have called themselves Scotch Irish, but in the north the terms often used are Ulster Scots (traditionally) and Scots-Irish (more recently).
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