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A couple of Gypsy skills were considered of little value until needs were found for them. For example, the Gypsies had figured out how to live on the road for extended periods of time. This was of immense value in the settlement of America, and you will find early Gypsies engaged in that business.

Another skill was in making inexpensive costume jewelry ~ aka "junk jewelry". For several centuries they had a near monopoly in that particular business. When WWII came along, most American Gypsies relocated to Los Angeles to work in the aircraft plans working with aluminum. Their skill with light metals was of immense value at that time. Every now and then you find a young person of Gypsy ancestry searching for "cultural contact" to find out what it was Grandpa and Grandma left behind.

Ain't America a great land ~ it even assimilates Gypsies ~ and a Bill Clinton whose grandmother told fortunes in traveling carnivals can become President.

Gypsies were on the edge of the law, but they could also be tradesmen and craftsmen. They were very well known for being "Tinners"--repairing tinware back when such things were repaired instead of replaced.

There's a temptation to be PC when discussing Gypsies--what can be understood by "gaijos" about their culture would indicate that a clever theft or con is something to be proud of. Gypsies do not like physical contact with non-Gypsies. We are "unclean". They have a distaste for cats.

Point of one interest--Gypsies, like hobos, would create little signs along the road that would only have significance for fellow Gypsies. These are called "Patterans". I saw one for sale in a catalog years ago--it was a figure of a cat marketed by the retailers as a " hobo sign that there was a nice lady ahead who would feed you."

Quite the contrary. A cat is an unclean animal because it licks itself and takes all the uncleaness inside itself...if a patteran was the figure of a cat, it didn't indicate anything pleasant.

If the Gypsies went to LA in WWII, why are there few problems with Gypsies in southern California? I've lived here all my life, and every year there is a story in the papers about the "Johnson families" but Gypsies here, such as they are, seem to stick to fortune telling and related scams. Maybe it's because most driveways here are concrete!