Times are a changing

Last night I went scrumping.
Pig pellets are incredibly expensive and apples, no matter where they come from, can supplement a pig's diet   rather effectively and more importantly, cheaply.
I need not have bothered really as my sister called around with a sack load from her garden, but the exercise of humping a couple of plastic buckets full of apples around the lanes probably did me some good.

I suspect kids of today will have very little idea of the original meaning of the phrase " to scrump"......it is an activity that has all but disappeared from the arsenal of mischief behaviours young  boys possess nowadays

I was slightly dismayed to learn this morning that one of the urban definitions of scrumping is in fact "to dry hump another person"
how things change

ps a quick hello to my nephew and his partner Rebecca "good luck for the big day"
x

37 comments:

  1. One of many words which has been hi-jacked out of ordinary usage by Facebook users - I don't know wether I care or not. I would like to be able to use the word 'gay' in it's original context, but not much hope of that. Oh well.

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  2. gay now means "!something shitty" doesnt it....?just make up your own language tom,it will be easier

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  3. Scrumping, a good serviceable word along with the milk-crate I believe was necessary and the stomach remedy for afterwards!

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  4. I hadn't heard the new meaning of scrumping - now I wish I still hadn't!
    I really miss not being able to use some words now that their meaning has been changed. A lot depends on the company you're in as to whether you can say them and not look a complete twerp.
    Mind you, I'm now at the age where looking a complete twerp bothers me a lot less - either that or after nearly 60 decades I'm getting used to it!

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  5. The long and ancient childhood activity of 'scrumping' is still practiced today I'm happy to say.

    Usually done these days by children in inner cities 'scrumping' plasma televisions and 'scrumping' from mobile phone shops that are on fire...

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  6. Oops! - meant 6 decades!! Brain shrivelled up again...

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  7. a new, pejorative use became prevalent in some parts of the world. In the Anglosphere, this connotation, among younger speakers, has a derisive meaning equivalent to rubbish or stupid (as in "That's so gay."). In this use, the word does not mean "homosexual"
    wiki(for what its worth)

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  8. scrumping is not only for young boys. I'm in my fifties and I still scrump the old fashioned way. I'm wondering was there a word for following a horse with a bucket and shovel? Another old fashioned activity the youth no longer participate in!

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  9. Ah, and this brings back memories of my first scrumpy, in a pub in the fog-enshrouded hills outside Sheffield. Extremely blurred and slurred memories.

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  10. scrumping = STEALING apples.
    I have no option other than reporting you directly to the Nursing and Widwifery Council. I hope you've got plenty of savings. An apple a day makes your job go away.

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  11. where about mitch
    I used to live in sheffield?

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  12. I go a-scrumping daily, at this time of year. Scrumped apples and pears always taste better.

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  13. cheapskates that we are- Bruce has his (£5.00 bale) hay supplemented by armsful of wilted nettles and he absolutely ADORES them, eating them all before he even starts the hay...but then I guess he may well be the porker equivalent of a horse!

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  14. Please don't tell me that 'funky' and 'fab' now also mean something I can't say at church!
    Jane x

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  15. Anonymous12:25 pm

    How on earth are we ever going to know what people are talking about if there are more than one meaning for words? I can get confused enough as it is.
    John, a slap on the wrist for stealing apples lol.

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  16. Aye, the times are definitely changing. Doesn't mean we have to change with 'em. I refuse to use the "trendy" words of today. I'm still using the expressions from fifty years ago ... and my grown kids have picked them up, too. Who knows? Maybe WE'RE setting the new trend!

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  17. I'm affraid that the youth culture in Britian today means that unless you embrace the new language you're asking for trouble with english 'words.

    It's chav pseudo Jamaican patoire or nothing now.

    Init.

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  18. Yes, you have to be careful about your words today, as many have completely different meanings. I always know I have used the wrong word when my children's eyes roll and they start to giggle. It is hard sometimes to keep us with this fast changing world.

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  19. Ah scrumping - I used to know of a few fairly hidden apple and/or plum trees in our Lincolnshire village whichwould guarantee a fair return on an October evening. Happy days.

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  20. Color me stupid, never heard of the word scrumping, either the old fashioned way or the youth's word of today.

    Ever think about asking about getting folks culls from their apple trees? It cleans their place up and is food for the piggies.

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  21. I was a naughty scrumper, the apple pinching type :(
    Wish life was more like the old days....language and all.
    ~Jo

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  22. New word to me, with any of its meanings.

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  23. It's a pity I hadn't read this yesterday. We have loads of apples going spare and Mrs P departed for a weekend on Anglessey this morning. She could have dropped them off on the way!

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  24. Regarding word changes. I always remember my Grandson when he was little upon my saying the it was WICKED to tie up a fox as a pet, his reply was, no its not it's horrible. His definition of wicked was 'all good' mine was bad.

    Briony

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  25. So many words don't mean what they did when I was growing up either, John.
    And it's not just people on facebook who have hijacked their meanings. They've been changing for some time.
    Ah well. Everything changes, I guess.

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  26. Anonymous7:05 pm

    Scrumping. I never would have guessed that meant stealing/pilfering/poaching fruit.

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  27. The new 'meaning' of the word 'scrumping' is pretty horrible and says quite a lot about Facebook too

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  28. It behoves us to keep old meanings alive and to use the expressions of our ancestors.I'm all for it and love a good 'crikey' or a 'cripes' and use 'beyond the black stump' whenever get the chance! I refuse to give in to youth culture, the are others in the world too you know!

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  29. I never went scrumping when I was a boy. But then I lived in London and there weren't many apple trees around. I guess it's more of a country thing.

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  30. I grew up here, where I live now, and we have a small orchard. I still went scrumping, usually before apples were ripe as i recall. Maybe it's a female thing - the forbidden apples taste better? ;)
    Our pigs lurve apples and grunt "Where's me puddin'?!" (Really, they do!) ;)
    As to the new meaing it means little coming from a generation who have no concept of the beauty of their own language :)

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  31. I scrumped grapefruits from citrus groves in Florida when I lived there. I had 12 orange trees in my yard (the subdivision was built in an orange grove), but not a single grapefruit tree, so under the cover of darkness, I'd walk up the road to a grapefruit grove and scrump. Only did it a few times--they were full of seeds and meant for juice, not eating.

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  32. Those pigs look quite happy with thier bounty. Isn`t the cost of feed terrible??

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  33. I have a pile of windfall apples, shame you don't live closer....bit far to wander over with a couple of buckets......

    Gill in Canada

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  34. Hmmm, I had never heard the term "scrumping" before today. I'll have to be careful about how I use it in conversation!

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  35. I'm with Jo...wish things were more the way they used to be. :(

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