Spoggy was bubble gum or chewing gum.
'Av yet got any spoggy?" was often the question posed by youngsters back then.
Ernie sold chewing and bubble gum inside his shop and also had several varieties available from metal dispensers outside.
These were on top of metal poles sunk in the ground and also fixed to the front wall of the premises.
In the latter case you put a couple of old pennies in the slot, turned a handle at the side and a pack of Beech Nut or Anglo Bubbly, in wax-covered wrapper, would drop into an opening at the bottom.
Several Brigg retail premises had these, including Bowen's Bakery, on Grammar School Road, near Glebe Road corner.
As pocket money rose with advancing years, youngsters graduated to Wrigley's Juicy Fruit - more expensive and with half-a-dozen tasty strips in a packet.
Some kids who had moved to Brigg from other parts of the district, used the word chuddy rather than spoggy.
The following are seldom heard now:
- Celter (or kelter) meaning rubbish
- Kaylie - sherbert (as in Fountain, with a black stick of 'Spanish' to dip in the fizzy contents of the yellow cardboard tube)
- Up street - visit the town centre ('I'm off up street')
- Benny on - very upset ('he's got a right Benny on)' Similarly, 'a right munk/monk on'
- Bealing - crying (pronounced by some as be-alin with the once-common Lincolnshire dipthong sound)
- Mesen - myself (similarly, yersen, yourself)
- Piggy-Pag - carry someone on your back ('gizza Piggy-Pag').
- All taffled up - entangled
- Guts for garters - a warning message ('I'll have your guts for garters').
- Grozzy or groggy - riding two on a bike (what would modern 'elf & safety have made of that?)
- Jiffle - fidget
- Flit - move, leave the scene (also applied to changing address to a new property).
- Frit - scared
- Daft apeth - a silly person
- Nobutt - nothing but a... (insert noun of choice)
Local geographical terms have also gone with time.
As kids in the 1960s and early 1970s, we always called the Springbank housing estate The New Houses.
This was a reference to their post-war construction, with the homes around Western Avenue being add last of all by Brigg Urban District Council.
Beyond the area where they were constructed was wetland known as The Swamp.
Young kids were warned not to go there, as was also the case with Quicksand - a low-lying patch of saturated ground not far from the river.
To those kids who lived on the other side town, the Davy Memorial Playing Field was always called Bigby Swings.
Sometimes we ventured out of town as far as Kettleby Wash Dyke - far down Bigby High Road (presumably where sheep were once dipped before modern chemical methods came in).
We also ventured out to Silversides - later given the official name River Meadow At the end of the lane were the sugar factory settling ponds.
There was an extensive caravan site at Silversides with a shop.
Although Brigg had two estates of post-war prefabricated houses - off Elwes Street and between South View Avenue and Hawthorn Avenue - if someone spoke of The Prefabs they meant the latter, officially named Woodbine Grove, now a children's park and play area.
Hawthorn Avenue was shortened to Awthorn in everyday speech (second word not included).
Every effort is being made in some parts of Britain to preserve native languages, dialect and terms, so what about Lincolnshire's?
There must be many more examples of dialect words we haven't included here.
If you have others to share, please post a comment or email scoopfisher@aol.com
PICTURED: Owd Brigg - a view along the Old River Ancholme from the County Bridge in the early 1970s with Riverside House on the left, the old brewery building centre left and Spring's jam factory on the right. Image from the Ken Fisher Collection.
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