It's funny how you can believe something about yourself, something that is fundamental to your sense of identity. One day you get called out, it seems you have not just been lying to others, you have been lying to yourself.

That happened to me last week. I went to read to Maureen a blind lady in her late 90's. She is mentally as sharp as a tack (which is more than can be said for me). We had not met before.

She asked where I was from, and I said that although I was born in a Warwickshire town called Sutton Coldfield, I considered myself half Irish, half Geordie. The latter, for our overseas pals, is the name given to those who live in the far North East.

I had noticed her accent, and expected her to greet this warmly. She frowned. "Where was your father born?" she demanded, quite sharply "Wingate, a mining village"  "Ha, then he was certainly not a Geordie. He should never have told you he was and you should stop going round claiming you are.” She was deadly serious.

That was me told. They told me beforehand that she did not suffer fools. She went on to insist that only those born along the banks of the River Tyne, like she was, can call themselves Geordies. Wingate is inland, Northumberland. Who knew? Dad spent a lot of time in Newcastle, thought of it as home. He was wrong.

Telling her I know all the words of the Blaydon Races and Cushie Butterfield cut no ice. I was not someone who could be trusted to tell the truth. I am a fraud.

I am not what you could call patriotic, I don't care where people come from if they are nice. However, that little bit of family history was something I must have been more proud of than I thought. There's nothing wrong with Northumberland, I like watching Vera for instance. But it brings to mind lonely, morose landscapes and people, not the spirited tough but kind Geordies.

I know that technically a Cockney is supposed to be someone born within the sound of the Bow bells.(Where is that exactly, how far does the noise carry?) 

To me though if someone says "Landen" instead of "Lunden" that is good enough for me, they are cockney, with all the associations. Think Del Boy, or city boys in red braces, jellied eels, Chas and Dave.

There used to be a bus driver in nearby Coventry who had an ancestor who was a Cherokee Indian. He fully embraced it. People thought he was nuts. I knew someone who worked with him, and he took a lot of teasing. He had proof that it was true. It pleased him, maybe made him feel a bit special.

A woman I know had her DNA checked, and found she was mainly from the Orkneys. She has never been there, but now reads all she can about the place, and hopes to visit with help from her grandson.

Is there some link in your family tree that does that for you, makes you feel a sense of pride or kinship? 

I will continue to say I am half Geordie. After all, you don't often meet someone as pedantic as Maureen. I identify as part Geordie, so there! 

Val

A Moodscope member