Tales of belonging - Guardian
Tales of belongingGuardian, UK - Apr 6, 2008He is, truth be told, more British than many Britons. His speech is peppered with the anglicisms of another era - "the bally Germans", "keep a straight bat" ... |
Tales of belonging - Guardian A Conservative MP is re-elected in the Midlands thanks to the slogan: "If you want a nigger for a neighbour vote Labour." Labour comes to power, however, and passes the Race Relations Act. A Tory MP, Captain Colomb, asks why only Britain allows "the immigration of destitute aliens without restriction". African, Indian and Chinese sailors are attacked by mobs. After studying, reality hit home: "I had no money to go back to Australia. After two days, the family relocated to a hostel in Manchester, the city that has been Sugulle's home ever since.Now aged 26, she works as a financial adviser for the CIS pensions and insurance group. All the officers who used to terrorise me now have to call me Councillor Hossack. Always, before, I'd whistle and they'd come. America was recruiting for its farms and factories, and I was accepted for that programme. Among them are Sigmund Freud, Ludwig Guttman, Max Born and Karl Popper. And democracy - you can say whatever you wanted. And now it's become very much more positive."But the current English fascination with Ireland and the Irish makes Coyle uneasy. And we're British now." Jon Henley1950s: PakistanMaulana Mohammed Bostan al-QadriA slab of chocolate cake is placed in front of me and tea in a delicate china cup. And with Eid, the factory manager cann't understand that all the Muslims who worked in the factory will want to take it off ... Anglo-Jewish organisations reassure the authorities that they will bear any costs. Arrivals include Michael Marks, whose penny bazaar becomes Marks & Spencer, and Isaac Moses and his brother, who found Moss Bros. As a result, immigration drops sharply.1964 Immigration rises again, up to 68,000, but emigration outstrips it by 17,000 - a net loss for the first time since 1957. As mosques closed, traditional costumes were banned and protesters dispatched to a prison island, 380,000 refugees streamed into Turkey.With them went Slovi's family. As the economy picks up, men from Ireland arrive to work in factories and on building sites: 11,000 come in 1934, 14,000 in 1935 and 24,000 in 1936.1933-39 The British government, like most of Europe, is reluctant to admit Jewish immigrants fleeing the Third Reich. As the London president of the Former Home Army Soldiers Circle, she organises a memorial each year, "and when we were commemorating this year, three young people came up to me and asked if they can lay wreaths, because their grandparents were involved in the uprising. As they neared Britain, in June 1948, the passengers were suddenly gripped with fear that they might be turned back. At 81, Samuel Beaver King sits regally in his armchair at his home in Bexley, Kent, grey-haired but still tall, strong and - a few heart problems notwithstanding - astonishingly fit. At home, at school, everywhere." Talking to her today, it will be impossible to tell she was not born here.Sugulle did not stand out at her multiracial central-Manchester school either. Australian literature, Australian pottery, I am in love with it still," she says. Because before then, he will have had a problem with me being Irish. Before her remarks, polls found that only 9% of British citizens felt that there were too many immigrants; afterwards, the figure rises to 21%. Born at Priestmans River, Jamaica, on February 20 1926, King first came to Britain in November 1944 as an 18-year-old armed forces volunteer. But he never thought of leaving: "I wasn't going to be chased out by anything. But I don't have a lot of English friends; in our language school we are all foreigners, so it is difficult." He is reluctant to consider the idea anyone is hostile to eastern European migrants, and anxiously asks whether it is really the case. But if you don't have the language skills, like some of us, then it's much, much harder to become accepted as part of the community." Integration takes willingness from both sides, he says. But instead of advancing on Warsaw, the Red Army waited outside, cynically opting to let the Nazis eradicate the resistance so they can enter the city as conquerors, establishing Poland as a satellite of Moscow. But she doesn't see the English attitude to new arrivals as unnecessarily unwelcoming: quite the reverse. But the next week the RAF asked for people too. But the SS response to the uprising was devastating, and in October, the partisans surrendered. But the three-mile journey back from the jewellers ended up taking four days. But the Treasury still receives more in tax from immigrants than it pays out in benefits.2004Ten new countries join the EU. But the Windrush passengers, he says, were welcomed with open arms by employers with overtime slots to fill: King himself was offered five jobs at Balham labour exchange on his first visit (he signed up, instead, for another few years in the RAF). But there are a lot of articles written about Poland and Polish people in the newspapers that are very unfair."Every time a new group of immigrants arrives, she says, things take a while to settle down, and already she sees reasons for optimism about the latest arrivals. But they were the kind of friends who will put a knife in your back."For two months, the freedom fighters hung on, sheltering in sewage tunnels and using the narrow streets of Warsaw's old city to wage guerrilla warfare. But what do those who have made the journey to this country think about it all? By 1914, 150,000 are settled in London, Hull and Manchester. By 1971 Bradford has a population of 30,000 Pakistanis. By 1993, there are 32,500 racially motivated assaults a year. By 2006, with large numbers of Poles, Portuguese and Lithuanians working in the UK, concern is raised about "swamping" of schools and infrastructure.The new prime minister Gordon Brown calls for "British jobs" for "British workers". By the late 70s, he was working as a graphic designer back in Birmingham. Carefully picking his words, he says there should be no cause for alarm among British workers. Churchill vows the government will "never forget the debt they owe to the Polish troops". Council officials said it had to go, and eventually seized it one Christmas Eve. Cricket is not a sport, it's a way of life."He is, truth be told, more British than many Britons. Discrimination is, in theory, now illegal.1966The National Front is established.1968 Kenyan Asians rush to Britain. Enoch Powell makes his "rivers of blood" speech and is sacked from the Tory shadow cabinet. Fifty-eight Chinese asylum seekers are found dead in a lorry.Riots in Bradford and Oldham. First come 30,000 Eurasians (mixed race from two centuries of British involvement in the subcontinent), then Sikhs. Five art dealers committed suicide in the year she opened, she says. For himself, the first thing he did on joining the RAF in 1944 was to begin a correspondence course in welding and plumbing. Has Qadri noticed an increase in anti-Muslim feeling in recent years? He and his wife, Sabrina, have picked me up from King's Lynn station, and we're going to Yiheyuan, their takeaway restaurant two miles away. He grew up surrounded by aunts, uncles and relatives, part of Bulgaria's centuries-old Turkish community, but when he was just seven, the country's communist government began to implement a harsh assimilation programme, and his family fled across the border. He has received awards, including a recent lifetime achievement award at the Global Peace and Unity event, which promotes shared understanding across communities. He immediately spent £30 of it on a coat. He is a recognised Islamic scholar and a community leader in Birmingham, where he has lived for nearly 25 years. He returnss at least two or three times a month to see relatives, and is anxious to stress that the country has changed dramatically. He still remembers how much he was paid: £2,323 a year. He was still of that generation when England was really, 'Wow!'."At first, the spirited Hossack meekly submitted to her parents' ambitions. He worked in the factory for three years and there he learned the importance of bridging the gap between his faith and the culture of his new country. Her early experience of London may sound Dickensian, but it was October 1981 when Hossack dutifully pitched up, aged 24, on the instructions of her parents, who wanted her to complete her legal education by going to the bar. His father's decision to buy a restaurant in King's Lynn brought the whole family to Norfolk in 1978. His speech is peppered with the anglicisms of another era - "the bally Germans", "keep a straight bat" - and he never, he says, had any real trouble integrating. Home secretary William Whitelaw says we must reject "the lingering notion that Britain is ... I didn't feel lonely, but different." Were people kind to her? I didn't know which to take up, but my mother said: 'Son, the mother country is at war. I do try to understand things from the local perspective. I don't think I will have reached my potential." In its attitude to immigrants and immigration, Sugulle thinks the UK has greatly improved since she arrived. I had a professor in paediatrics who had been a doctor in Newcastle and he said he will write and ask to get me a posting." The soldier who had saved his life when he had been arrested, helped get Thakrar to the airport and on to the plane. I had an unpleasant experience in a bank where I was refused service by the staff. I had spoken a little bit of English in Pakistan, but not much." However, he spoke more English than some and will help other immigrants with filling in forms and visits to the doctor. I had to think about making ends meet." A lack of English also influenced the couple's decision to send their children to boarding school. I hate that statement because there isn't any need," she says. I knew I cann't stay." Four months later, a notice appeared in the Gleaner, the island's newspaper, offering right of entry to Britain for any colonial citizen taking the offer of a "passenger opportunity to the United Kingdom" on the Windrush. I knew why we had to emigrate." His parents began work in the nearby textiles factories, and like a third of their fellow refugees, never returned. I love both my countries, but I will be happy to stay for a better future" Homa Khaleeli 1881Tsarist pogroms force thousands of Jews to cross Europe on foot. I remember when the M62 coach bombing happened, it made it really difficult to come on duty on the wards. I say, 'How come you're English and I'm doing all this for you?'" In fact, she fought Camden for months after she unilaterally planted a gum tree on her street. I think English people don't care because they have a high quality of life and they have their own jobs. I want to make sure it is perfect." He arrived on August 5 2007 without expectations, and believed he will only stay for a short time. I wanted to leave."Her home and childhood were normal for the time and place. I was given special tuition, and worked very hard to catch up with local kids." He did well, and later went on to study graphic design at a polytechnic in Leicester. I was shocked about that." Another time, he had arrived back at the airport with his family after a holiday. I was very young, but I knew the situation. I wasn't a lawyer, I had no qualifications." She got a job in an old-fashioned bookshop where, unknown to the owners, she slept in the basement, going to the local swimming pool to shower each morning. I went back to my room and had a good cry. I will sit there for hours, literally hours until my mum told me to get up and go to bed, or eat, or do something!"Though the 10-year-old Sugulle took western technology in her stride, English proved more frightening. I willn't have got somewhere in those times with an English landlord."Prejudice against Irish immigrants led to ugly scenes. If anything it's in danger of getting a bit smug and complacent. If I hadn't been given a chance, I willn't have the life that I have now."Leo Benedictus2000s: BulgariaSlovi KraevWhen he moved to London last August , Slovi Kraev already had two countries he called home. If somebody asked directions, they will help you. If somebody said when I got to Australia all planes will never fly again and you have to stay here, I'd be really happy. If they said it to me in Britain, I'd start building a boat."Patrick Barkham1990s: SomaliaKowsar SugulleIn 1989, Kowsar Sugulle's parents faced a terrible decision. I'm not saying she's ecstatic about it, but she doesn't have any issues with it."Equally unthinkable, she adds, will have been a university degree - in Sugulle's case, tourism management at Manchester Metropolitan. Immigration continues to rise: 130,000 people enter Britain this year. In 1919, troops from the empire are removed from a victory march. In 1976, Thakrar moved to London and became a GP. In 1995, unemployment among white Britons is 8%, compared with 24% among Afro-Carribbeans and 34% among Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants. In August the fascist Oswald Mosley sets up an office in Notting Hill, where 6,000 West Indians live, and distributes inflammatory pamphlets; 400 white men launch two all-night attacks on black people and shops. In fact, in 17 years in this country she says she has never heard a single word of racism directed towards her, although in the early 90s the little headscarf that she wore was a novelty. In fact, nearly two million Britons emigrate between 1871 and 1910 - significantly more than the number of people arriving. In my first days I was looking around with a map and people helped me even before I asked them. In the event, this proves impossible as 60,000 Jews arrive. In total, 7.9% of Britons now belong to an ethnic minority, most of whom have been born in Britain, and 238,000 children are mixed race. Intermarriage in Britain is now the highest in Europe.2003Toughening immigration policies criminalise many migrants and feed a shadow economy estimated at £80bn a year. Irish immigration continues but a government working party says that they do not cause the same "difficulties" as "coloured people" because they are of the same "race".1954 About 24,000 West Indians arrive in London. It brings just 492 people from the West Indies and is a one-off, but it becomes a powerful symbol of Caribbean migration. It is a very small problem that has been exaggerated and I think it can be solved - by talking and cooperation. It is close to Heathrow, and soon attracts Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus.1956 Soviet tanks roll into Budapest. It surprised me how little some British people knew about their country. It was a completely different way of life then - when there was a queue, it was a queue. It was as if yesterday I was somebody, and today I am somebody else. It was at my sister's house in London the day we arrived ... It was enough to live on, and he was able to send money to his family who had scattered as far afield as India, Tanzania and Austria. It was his father who urged him to leave. It was last updated at 09:30 on April 07 2008. It was last updated at 09:30 on April 07 2008.1940s: PolandMarzena SchejbalOne bright morning in August 1944, as the tanks of the Soviet army rumbled towards German-occupied Poland, two young women left their family home in Warsaw to go shopping. It was like, one minute I didn't know how to speak English, and the next minute it was easy-peasy. It was the first time I saw them - all enthusiastic young men, gathering to talk about their activities. It was very hard."Li's father died in a car accident, and he reluctantly took charge of the family restaurant. It wasn't, unfortunately, enough to allow him to stay in Britain at the war's end. It willn't even matter where you were from."As the political situation began to improve, so did her day-to-day interactions. It's a small country and there are only so many resources."Only two incidents of racism spring to his mind, and both happened in the past couple of years. I've also seen police officers not taking race crimes seriously. Jews are blamed for stealing jobs and taking houses. King's family sold three cows to raise the £28 10s ticket and, clutching a rucksack and a small suitcase, he boarded the former troopship. Li has found time to meet me between a meeting with the local council, his daily paperwork for the West Norfolk & District Chinese Association, of which he is the founder, and his catering stint, which starts at 3.30pm and ends at 11pm. London Transport actively recruits West Indians in 1956 and by 1958, there are around 115,000 West Indians in the capital. Many are taken on by the Woolf rubber factory in Southall, west London. Many Germans anglicise their names but by the end of August 4,300 are interned.1918 Around 1.4 million men from the Indian subcontinent fight for the British in the war - more than from Scotland, Wales and Ireland combined. Many other Chinese of similar background to me also tried to get involved. Many people had served throughout the subcontinent during the second world war so they had the experience outside [Britain] and they can explain to their children, and some people even knew some Urdu words. Many work in sweatshops or are sold into sex slavery. Maulana Mohammed Bostan al-Qadri's wife sits quietly on the other side of the room watching me. Meanwhile, 60,000 Irish are arriving every year.1950 During this decade, 250,000 people arrive from the Caribbean, India, Africa and Hong Kong. More migrants arrive in Britain between 1960 and 1962 than have so far arrived in the whole of this century, despite a toughening of the laws to restrict immigration.1961 In October the first work permit scheme is introduced. Most of my landlords were Irish or Indian. Most people don't mind eastern Europeans and immigrants. Mostly I am hopeful that the future of this country is bright."Emine Saner1960s: ChinaKwai Li "There are fewer and fewer Chinese people living in this area now," says Kwai Li. Moving to a room in Chiswick, west London, he immediately liked the pleasant, ordered streets."I felt very comfortable because the area really impressed me. Nearly a third of those who die on the British side are not British. Newspapers predict a "foreign flood" of seven million refugees "swamping" Britain; DH Lawrence and HG Wells advocate eugenics. Nine Afghan men hijack a plane with 85 Afghan refugees on board: the plane lands at Stansted. Nine children in the family, small detached house, no running water, very poor. Nine months later, as the war ended, they were liberated, and suddenly Schejbal had to make a decision."Some of the girls wanted to go back to Poland," she says. No one has said anything wrong to me."Slovi is keen to study for a masters degree, and hopes to get a job here, working in geographical information systems. Now he runs his own successful practice and, at 62, he says he has no intention of retiring. Now there is democracy in Bulgaria and my name is Bulgarian, but that is my choice and I use it because I feel I am Bulgarian."His move to London was much less dramatic, and was sparked by Bulgaria and Romania joining the EU and his desire to learn English. On the first day it was awkward, from what I can remember. One day, the local roundtable club members held their meeting in our restaurant. One night I was driving back home from the hospital in Kampala and I was caught by the military and taken away." He doesn't go into detail about what happened to him. One night, when a boy was brought in with suspected meningitis, Thakrar was asked to do a lumbar puncture to confirm it. One opinion poll finds that 54% of Britons think that the Poles should "go home".1948 The Nationality Act gives imperial subjects the right of free entry into Britain. Only the British are actually genuine in accepting immigrants. Only those with ancestral ties are allowed to come to Britain; many go to the US and Canada. People like me who live here are really frowned upon in Australia. Quotas are set for those without jobs or skills. Race rears its head as an election issue. Schejbal, like 1,700 other Warsaw women, was designated a prisoner of war and held, along with her mother and sister, in freezing, rat-infested barracks in Oberlangen in Germany. Schejbal's father, who had been taken to a labour camp, was never seen again. September 11 encourages many white residents to link migrants with terrorism. She gradually got more involved in the art world, organising a final show at the Wapping arts community before the developers moved in. She had always dreamed of being a ballerina, so when the camp held a party, she offered to dance; afterwards, two women who had seen her perform approached her backstage and explained that they were seeking to recruit live-in nannies. She had never been to Britain, and spoke no English.After her experiences in Poland and Germany, though, mere displacement to a foreign country seems not to have fazed her much. She had never seen a bus or a white person before. She narrates the story of the decades that followed as a series of chance encounters. She now runs several galleries, which continue to show contemporary non-western and western art. She says something in Urdu to her husband. Since I sold the restaurant and began to run a takeaway in King's Lynn, I have come across racism from many young people in our local area. Slovi became a high-school teacher, while his brother trained to be an electrician, and both men occupied their own floor in their parents' three-storey home, "so we can be close, but not too close and everyone has their own life". Slovi is adamant that Bulgaria is still his home. Smartly dressed and made-up, she has dashed away from the office to meet me at a coffee shop in the Arndale Centre. So, you see, slowly, there is some sign of continuation with the young people. Somehow, Hossack survived and thrived.In the 1990s she became Australia's cultural attache in London, promoting arts and culture in a land that assumed down under was all Crocodile Dundee and Kylie Minogue. Ten thousand Hungarians arrive to a warm welcome in Britain.1958 Two hundred and ten thousand people from the Commonwealth are now living in Britain. Thakrar can speak English, but found it hard to understand the English spoken here. Thakrar wanted to integrate and found it easy. Thakrar was one of the 80,000 Ugandan Asians who were expelled from the east African country by the military ruler Idi Amin, and one of the 30,000 that came to this country. The 2001 census shows that 3.5 million have arrived in Britain - but three million have left since the 1991 census. The 90s also sees more immigration: many Somalis flee to Britain after the bombardment of Mogadishu in 1993.1996This year sees the first of a series of punitive asylum and immigration acts - people who do not declare asylum immediately they arrive in Britain are denied housing. The arrival of Bengalis in Brick Lane and the East End is the last of the great seaborne migrations. The best knee surgeons come from Northern Ireland because of all the knee-capping.' And that was when things were getting better! The government agrees that it will accept 10,000 Vietnamese boat people; eventually 15,000 arrive.1981The Brixton riots in London are followed by further riots in Toxteth, Liverpool after a provocative arrest in the home of Britain's oldest black community. The Guardian reports: "The quiet, inoffensive nigger becomes a demon when armed with a revolver or razor."1920 Indian doctors begin to arrive. The idea of having a good time while raising money for charity appealed to me, and so I joined the club and got involved in local affairs." These days, on a Sunday, Li often plays golf with friends while Sabrina goes to a local church. The Immigration Act imposes more restrictions on entry. The next day the social security people came and said that we can have £4 a week to live on. The teachers were great, and they encouraged me to learn English. The teachers were nice, the kids were OK, and as I started to learn the language, I fitted in more. The Treasury protests, fearing that controls will damage the economy. The war in Serbia and Kosovo creates a million displaced people; the British National Party re-emerges.2000The UN estimates that there are 19 million refugees in the world - only 380,000 make it to Europe. The world is only a village."Alice Wignall1980s: AustraliaRebecca HossackWhen she arrived in London after a tearful flight from Melbourne, Rebecca Hossack felt as miserable as the despondent British faces she saw everywhere: "I was utterly wretched. Their country, Somalia, appeared to be heading for civil war. Their next job was to tell the children."It was all hyped up, coming here," says Sugulle, who was nine at the time. Then it changed - things started happening. There are immigrants to this country who have more in the way of solid British values than some people who were born here."King is inordinately proud of the fact that one of his nephews has a PhD in biotechnology, and that his granddaughter went to Exeter University. There are so many books.' But they said they didn't want books - they wanted live, experienced people. There are so many parks and so much greenery in London and the buildings are different from my home countries. There had been a period where people left because there wasn't enough to sustain them at home, but lots of my contemporaries stayed in Ireland. There is no attache post now and she feels her homeland has changed. There is public sympathy for the plight of the Ugandan Asians. There was an opportunity for some of them to escape to Britain, leaving everything behind, before the situation got any worse. There were few migrants, and only a handful of Chinese people. There were police nearby and they did nothing. They are more serious than in Turkey or Bulgaria and they don't like showing their feelings. They asked how many I had done and I said 'about 300, 400'. They come to harass us, smash windows and disrupt our work. They do the jobs the English people don't need and don't want. They said they didn't do 40 in a year." After that, he says, his abilities were never questioned. They used to send us parcels of clothes. They want nothing to do with catering." The 55-year-old came to Britain from Hong Kong with his mother in 1964, to join his father, who was already a restaurateur near Birmingham. They were no longer living in a well-established Chinese community; they were a minority among minorities. This time, the lead cow looked at me, and didn't budge. This year's census reveals that 5.5% of Britons are from ethnic minorities (now the preferred term); nearly half live in London; 10% of Indian familes are professionals, compared with 5% of whites; and half of Caribbean families have a single parent. To improve your language you have to live in an English-speaking country. Twenty-year-old Marzena Schejbal and her sister had decided to buy rings for their boyfriends: tokens to remember them by, in case the chaos of the approaching military confrontation brought separation, or worse. Two-thirds of Britons say there are too many immigrants and believe they make up 20% of the population. Up to 1,000 work in Britain between the wars.1930 Repeated attempts are made during this decade to restrict foreigners in the shipping industry, with subsidies for firms employing white workers. We are getting old!' They wanted to talk about history. We arrived on the Clyde, it was -4C, and three inches of snow on the ground. We had already experienced five years of occupation." Instead, after a few months in Italy, the three women arrived at a refugee camp near Purlborough in West Sussex. We had an image of England as a good place to live." But her first experiences of life in a new country were "bleak and wet and sad". We knew more about Britain than about Jamaica. We learned all about Newcastle coal, Leicester shoes, Lancashire cotton. We spent the first decade trying to mix in, to integrate. We went to the local school in our bare feet, like everyone did." Coyle says she didn't know much about life "over the water" as a child, but the route to England was a well-established one for young Irish women, and Coyle was encouraged by her father to train as a nurse here. We were sent to an RAF camp near Scarborough for training, all of us complaining, complaining about the temperature, and the sergeant major said: 'Strip, you're going to play football.' Well, we had to. We're going to be able to afford this, afford that.' It was very exciting." So in August 1990, Sugulle's mother, along with five of her nine brothers and sisters, a further five of her orphaned cousins, and Sugulle herself, arrived in London as refugees. We're going to have an exciting new life. We're looked upon as rather sad, like, 'Why will you want to be over there?'"Having lived in Britain for half her life, she finds herself defending it to her friends. We're no different to anyone else."Despite having lived half her life here, and "being more settled than most of my English friends", Coyle doesn't consider herself anything but Irish. What did he first notice about the UK, apart from the cold? When I came here, it was very different from I imagined - it was cloudy, rainy, small houses. When I come back here I take a deep breath and go, it's work now, and my heart feels heavy. When I look at my kids, they're very British but they're very Indian too." . When I will say, King John was more a thief than a king, they will look at me quite blankly. When Poland falls, its 3,000-strong government in exile lands in London and 160,000 Polish refugees arrive; 120,000 stay on after the war. Where is it?'" Thakrar became a paediatric registrar at a hospital in Newcastle. Whereas English people, when they do let you in, and my theory is it takes three years, are really lovely. While immigration isn't a new thing, I see that the British people have been more and more dissatisfied with immigration in the past few years. With a son and daughter to look after, "I didn't have contact with the English, because I didn't have a chance. With different communities and different cultures - we must understand and respect each other." How did people treat him when he first came here? With no money, no contacts and no business experience, she borrowed £20,000 from the bank in 1988 and blew it on her gallery opening party. Yet in 1905 the government passes the Aliens Act, placing restrictions on Britain's borders for the first time. You almost didn't realise you needed money. You didn't as an Irish person ever socialise in the English places. You didn't feel safe because you willn't be welcome."After completing her training as a nurse, Coyle moved to London. You earn enough and you can have more work opportunities. You just have to be patient."Oliver Burkeman 1940s: JamaicaSam KingSam King has the recipe: "Work hard, get an education, buy your own home, keep your nose clean." It has worked for him. You needed your hospitals cleaned, your buses driven, your rubbish collected, your gasworks manned, and we did it. You'd go to the shop and pick up stuff and you paid when your dad sold some cattle.
