Ping?
I lived in Augusta for a few years, and they are some strange people. The women look like they border on having down syndrome.
I have had three different run ins with them. They are scum of the earth. The first time was at a rest area off an interstate in South Carolina. A young couple with a baby approached me and said they were stuck and almost out of gas.
I told them I would buy them $10 worth at the next exit. We stopped and they waited for me to give my credit card to the cashier then proceeded to fill their tank with around $30 worth. I should have phoned the sheriff but was in a hurry and just chalked it up to experience.
The next time, I was doing a little shovel work in my parent’s driveway. They were in their 70s and financially comfortable. A guy in a new pickup stopped by and asked about paving the driveway. I told him my parents liked it just the way it was and he drove off without any problem. I had immediately sensed a fraud tho.
The third time I was caught off guard as I had phoned him from a card he had left at a nearby store’s bulletin board. He advertised yard work.
I needed someone to haul a new yard tractor home. He agreed to do it and said he would only charge me for the gas it took. I told him that was not enough but he insisted so I said OK. After we got the tractor on his trailer he stopped for gas and filled up two empty tanks. Took around $60. Nothing much I could do and just decided to think of it as one of those things to never fall for again.
They tend to be handsome, well groomed and drive new pickups. They will often hit a general area for a few weeks then move on but some are semi permanent residents.
Gypsies ???
There were gypsies who’d show up at the Holiday Inn I worked at and rent an entire 30-room block for a week. We kept everything locked up and buttoned down, I double locked my shop door, didn’t want my tools and equipment to disappear. It was a relief when they’d vanish! They ran a blacktop resurfacing scam on folks. Ugly scum, the lot!
I thought they were called Pikeys, and they really like their caravans. And dags.
I have driven through there many times and the houses are enormous and look new. They are primarily brick and did not ,at that time, appear to have much landscaping. The windows were all darkly shaded or curtained.
If I read the article right I did not realize that South Carolina had 14 as the age or marriage until it the law was recently changed. Interesting.
The Irish Travelers have been around for YEARS.
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There was a Law and Order Criminal Intent episode entitled “Graansha” about Irish Travelers. Very interesting people.
Chicago PD used to have separate gang books - latin, black, white... and gypsy.
They apparently make a lot of money but there is a downside.
Most of them have been caught and convicted a few times. I guess it is just a cost of doing business for them.
I watch a lot of British (& Irish & Scottish & Welsh) TV shows. They sometimes deal with issues of the “Irish Travelers.”
bump
I guess I was you young and stupid at the time, but when it came time to selling doughnuts for local school activities, Murphy Village was the first and only place I’d go. Drive up, park centrally, and they’d line up to buy them. I’d usually be in and out of there in 20-30 minutes and my job would be complete.
Never had any troubles.
A dialect is a cant, cant is not a dialect.
A cant is a dialect, vernacular, or “lingo”. “Cant” is not a particular dialect.
They aren’t ‘Irish Travelers’ they are grifters and thieves.....pure and simple