When I think of some of the "terminology" my parents used when talking to each other I have a quiet giggle to myself. Some of this phraseology, in the context in which they used it, was harmless enough. [Mam telling aunt Nell about some material she was thinking of buying to make a dress] "Well, I'll need to take the belt to make sure they'll go together"
"why couldn't you just tell him [the man on the market stall]"
"how do you explain nigger brown to a bloody Pakistani?"
Nigger brown, as far as my mother was concerned, was in the same colour palate as pillar box red, bus green [Leeds buses were, then, dark green] or salmon pink. When it came to the question of race, she would never dream of using the N word. They were wogs. All Asians were Pakistani, even if they may have come from India, and orientals were all Chinese [though at the time, they probably were].
When it came to a persons creed, that too was open season for Mam and Dad, especially Dad, who was completely un-religious himself.
"A right Jewess faced looking woman" [though never, a Jew. He never seemed to denominate "Jewish" looking men]. "Irish looking" or even "Foxy faced Irish bugger" was another. At the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland, the TV news often showed funerals followed by hundreds of mourners. They would be "Catholic faced sods" [regardless of the fact that they may have been protestants!] This never upset Mam, who was a staunch Catholic, [as opposed to Dad who was, nominally, C of E] but was a big hitter when it came to loathing the Irish. "No bloody Irish in our family" so I guess, somewhere way back, the Philips' must be converts.
Dad would have had a field-day with one of our latest celebs, Ms Winehouse. Her pic was in the Evening [sub] Standard today. Boy does she have a "Jewess face". Unsurprisingly enough, she is Jewish. When planning this post I looked for a pic of the gobby chanteuse and found a stunner...
On the left is a recent pic of Ms Winehouse, and a right Jewess she looks too! On the right, a pre-fame pic where, I'm sorry to say this, she looks like a Jewish princess [my terminology] and hopefully, less offensive but no less true. Looks like the apple realy never does fall far from the tree after all.
