Hello Douglas and John,
The Herald, 30 June 2015
THE Scots Word of the Week (The Herald, June 27), “poor oot”, an old Edinburgh expression for the throwing out of coins for children to catch prior to a wedding, reminded me that as youngster in Greenock during the war we had a different expression. When the bridal car was about to leave our tenements the shout would go up: “Scrammy wedding” and we would gather to scramble for the coins that were thrown out to us.
My wife, from a different part of Greenock; commented that if no coins were thrown out to the children the shout would be: “Scabby wedding.”
Bill Robertson,
** *** ******** ****, Bishopton.
The Herald, 14 November 2019
Scheming kids
THE debate continues. We asked whether the tossing of coins from wedding cars to those vulture-like kids who gather for such occasions is a scatter or a scramble. Today’s shocking revelation is it’s… neither. “When I was a wee boy in Telford, Edinburgh, we called it a poor-oot,” reveals Harry Woodward, who is still a resident of that fair city.
“It was probably called that because wedding guests felt obliged to pour out their loose change to those of us not invited to the festivities,” adds Harry. “Although maybe the ‘poor’ referred to our status as ‘schemie’ kids!”.
The Herald, 18 November 2019
Throw away lines
MORE information has come to light regarding the name given to a gang of rascals, rogues and reprobates (ie children) who chase a wedding car in the hope of grabbing pennies tossed in their direction. A Broughty Ferry woman who grew up in Arbroath during the 1940s tells us it wasn’t a scatter, a scramble or a poor-oot: “When we heard on the grapevine of a wedding, we appeared en masse to scramble for the money in what we called a heize,” she explains, before adding. “It was possibly called that because the pennies were thrown high in the air from the wedding taxi. Nobody in our street owned a car!”
Above information is from Factiva via my local library. Factiva newspaper database is also available at NLS.
https://auth.nls.uk/eresources/browse/title/F
Hope that’s not in breach of copyright,
Alan