But I have two rather "Reeky" stories of Glasgow to share...
DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT FOR THE LIGHT OF STOMACH!!!!!
In Glasgow, just like in Edinburgh, in the pre-indoor plumbing days, buckets of waste were thrown out with the same "Gaurdeloo" cry. Like in Edinburgh, the rain would wash it down the hill. But unlike Edinburgh, there was no Loch it flowed into. Instead it piled up at the base of High Street, right at the Fish markets --- STINKY! Well it came to be, that the people responsible for cleaning this up stopped doing so (ancient strike?). The waste piled up, until a wall of 15 feet developed. Yes that's right, 15 feet of human feces. The city was going to be fined for this....so they cleverly auctioned it off to a local farmer who carted it away.
Speaking of throwing out waste -- it was allowed to take place twice a day: 7am and 10pm. Pubs also closed at 10pm. So the idea was that someone about to throw their waste cried out "Guardeloo" and someone in the way would call back: "Halt ye Hatch" (basically wait....I'm in the way) but then you had the drunkards piling out of the pubs. They heard the cry and instead of calling back, they looked up. As you can imagine, they got the waste poured on them. Eventually they would make it home, drunk with feces on their face. Hence the development of the phrase: "Getting Shitfaced"
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Glasgow, Scotland
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