As I reflected on tattie howking during the war, it must have been around October when it wasn't as rainy as July, though the days would not have been quite so long! We must have been paid only 10/-d (ten shillings, which is about 86 cents American today!) a week as I now recall being handed 30/-d by one of the teachers at the end of the three weeks, which I would have promptly handed over to my mother. That wasn't much less than my first week's pay as an office girl, but it was much harder work. I then began to wonder did I REALLY walk to and from school in the dark? Yes I did, along with thousands of other schoolchildren in Glasgow, and NOBODY worried about us being kidnapped. Sometimes, if I was "speaking to" my girlfriend we'd walk to school together, but if we were on the "outs," I just went off to school by myself as a five-year-old in the early morning dark and afternoon dusk! As we would say in Scotland, to "mak siccar" that my imagination was not running away with me, I checked Google for the sun's dawn to dusk appearance and disappearance at this time of year. >From what I gather there's been some disagreement about making Double Summertime year-round in the U.K., but if there was Double Summertime when I was growing up, the sun must have been taking it's time to appear as we did walk to school when it was just getting light and then home again as it was beginning to get dark. Now remember I'm talking from the perspective of someone who is an octogenarian! Maisie (P.S. Angela, I don't know if your mother ever mentioned this, but as London was quite a bit south of Glasgow, perhaps it was light at both ends of the day.) Sunrise and sunset in Glasgow Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom Rising and setting times for the Sun Length of day Solar noon Date Sunrise Sunset This day Difference Time Altitude Distance (106 km) Dec 13, 2010 8:39 AM 3:43 PM 7h 03m 32s − 1m 12s 12:11 PM 11.1° 147.273 Dec 14, 2010 8:40 AM 3:43 PM 7h 02m 28s − 1m 04s 12:12 PM 11.0° 147.257 Dec 15, 2010 8:41 AM 3:43 PM 7h 01m 31s − 56s 12:12 PM 10.9° 147.241 Dec 16, 2010 8:42 AM 3:43 PM 7h 00m 42s − 48s 12:13 PM 10.9° 147.226 Dec 17, 2010 8:43 AM 3:43 PM 7h 00m 01s − 40s 12:13 PM 10.9° 147.212 Dec 18, 2010 8:44 AM 3:43 PM 6h 59m 28s − 32s 12:14 PM 10.8° 147.198 Dec 19, 2010 8:44 AM 3:44 PM 6h 59m 04s − 24s 12:14 PM 10.8° 147.186 All times are in local time for Glasgow

As a boy in the 1940s and 1950s in Kirkcolm and Stranraer I can remember the Irish Tattie Hokers coming over and just sleeping rough as it were in sheds; even using the big potato sacks as "bed-linen". More to the point we didn't pronounce it "howker" we pronounced it "Hoker". I would also need to concede that almost everyone nowadays says howker but it was hoker to me and I get calls about it when I say 'hoker' on the radio in my Scottish Radio program. The Stranraer area people pronounced lots of words differently from the rest of Scotland other examples being haid for head and not heid; or fae for from and not frae.The Scottish dictionary also confirms that in Wigtownshire, Kirkcudbrightshire and Ulster NI. it was hoke (Wgt., Kcb., Uls.); Our then accent was referred to as Galloway-Irish as against the Northern Irish Ulster-Scot and we spoke very much the same with a very distinct Irish component in our accent. As recently as last year in London I was asked if I was from Northern Ireland or Stranraer and that is after 53 years in Australia. >From the Scottish Dictionary: Tattie ho(w)ker, one who works at the potato-harvest, esp. a temporary worker from Ireland (Uls. 1953 Traynor, - hoker). Also HOWK, v., n.1 Also howck, hou(c)k; hoak, hoke (Wgt., Kcb., Uls.); hock, hok(k) (Sh.); ¶hauk (Ork. 1936 Ork. Agric. Jnl. XI. 15); ¶huck (Gsw. 1793 R. Gray Poems 40); holk. [Sc. huk; I.Sc. hk; Gall. hok] I. v. 1. To dig, delve the soil (Sc. 1710 T. Ruddiman Gl. to Douglas Aeneis), to make a trench or the like in the earth, to uproot or remove from the ground by digging. Ppl.adj. houket, disinterred, dug up Sam Heron