Tarry Toot

[paul mann]

We can mind what monkey's blood, frog spit and tarry toot were?

[Eileen]

what was tarry toot?

[Malcolm Robinson]

Anything that had like old black bitumen on which would burn great on the bonfire. Used to drip everywhere.

Get a drop on your hand and you had a scar for life.

[Symptoms]

Tarly Toot = oil cloth/lino (the original lino was patterned, bitumen impregrated linen used for floor covering). It fell out of favour when vinyl floor covering emerged but has gone through something of a recent renaissance in posh interior design.

Frog Spit = the froth produced by the nymph of the froghopper (Cercopoidea). This froth hides, insulates and keeps moist the nymph.

Monkeys' Blood = the raspberry flavoured dribble Mr Whippy squirted over your ice cream cornet.

[Alan Edgar (Eggy1948)]

Frog Spit - as described by Symptoms =

We used to chew 'tarry-toot'. Pick it up from where the roads were being laid or repaired. It tasted a bit like liquorice.

One lad used to eat it, he turned into a right cyclepath!

Edited June 1, 2013 by Eggy1948

[Vic Patterson]

Tarry Toot! Tar or pitch, used to seal leaky roofs etc, or the tar running down the side of the road (used to hold the chipping on the road) could be collected on the end of a stick or arrows! (used mom's best butter to get off hands knees)

Monkey's blood, red raspberry flavour on your ice cream (if you didn't have a 99)

Frogs spit! Frothy stuff that used to be on some plants, never found out why!

[keith lockey]

I also remember Frog's Spawn was a nickname for tapioca!!

[paul mann]

Tarly Toot = oil cloth/lino (the original lino was patterned, bitumen impregrated linen used for floor covering). It fell out of favour when vinyl floor covering emerged but has gone through something of a recent renaissance in posh interior design.

Frog Spit = the froth produced by the nymph of the froghopper (Cercopoidea). This froth hides, insulates and keeps moist the nymph.

Monkeys' Blood = the raspberry flavoured dribble Mr Whippy squirted over your ice cream cornet.

Correct. Well done. Like the cyclepath. We used to find bits of rope that had been tarred at the end to keep them from fraying and you could light it and it would smoulder forever.

[Symptoms]

Just a supplementary thought about tarly toot. One of the reasons why there was so much lino available back then for bonfires was the increasing popularity of fitted carpets in the 60s. The old, ubiquitous, and cheap lino was being ripped-up and being replaced by fashionable shag-pile. The lino was so easy to tear into 12" squares for easy chucking onto the fire ... often followed by lumps of asbestos*.

I remember in the 50s my Mum & Dad painting the wooden floorboards with a 16" strip around the edges of the room then the unpainted centre section would have lino or often a home-made carpet. My Dad had a carpet-making frame and made rugs; he even made a stair carpet once. I remember going with my parents to a huge wool store in Byker to regularly pick-up wool supplies which was sold in gigantic hanks which once we got home had to be rolled into balls for convenience. Anybody now living in an old house will often discover those painted edges around rooms as it must have been a very common practice.

I also remember my Granny telling us to go a breath the tar fumes when the 'road men' were repairing the road - she said the fumes were "good for our chests".

*exploding asbestos on bonfires has featured in previous posts here.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Symptoms

[wonky]

lol..tarry tooty..remember it well and still use it on ocasions..now days its been replaced by hammerite for a car underbody..

[paul mann]

Just a supplementary thought about tarly toot. One of the reasons why there was so much lino available back then for bonfires was the increasing popularity of fitted carpets in the 60s. The old, ubiquitous, and cheap lino was being ripped-up and being replaced by fashionable shag-pile. The lino was so easy to tear into 12" squares for easy chucking onto the fire ... often followed by lumps of asbestos*.

I remember in the 50s my Mum & Dad painting the wooden floorboards with a 16" strip around the edges of the room then the unpainted centre section would have lino or often a home-made carpet. My Dad had a carpet-making frame and made rugs; he even made a stair carpet once. I remember going with my parents to a huge wool store in Byker to regularly pick-up wool supplies which was sold in gigantic hanks which once we got home had to be rolled into balls for convenience. Anybody now living in an old house will often discover those painted edges around rooms as it must have been a very common practice.

I also remember my Granny telling us to go a breath the tar fumes when the 'road men' were repairing the road - she said the fumes were "good for our chests".

*exploding asbestos on bonfires has featured in previous posts here.

Old lino, especially from the kitchen, burned really well.

[Basil Weir]

On 6/1/2013 at 04:29, paul mann said:

We can mind what monkey's blood, frog spit and tarry toot were?

 

[Basil Weir]

TARRY TOOT

I am 85 yrs old now, living in California, but think often in Geordie which I consider to be as legitimate as any other language such as French. In my childhood in Silksworth which has been swallowed up by Sunderland we kids played around the pit head and scrounged anything that was not nailed down. One item was TARRY TOOT which was hemp rope taken out of steel hauling cable. This rope was saturated with some kind of oil and had an interesting property. If lighted with a match it would burn steadily for hours but not with an open flame, just a flameless burning. If the rope was long enough this would continue for hours until it was all consumed. The ash if untouched would have the exact form of the rope. I can imagine that in a primitive society it would be useful to keep the community cook fire lighted. For us kids it was amusing.

[Vic Patterson]

We used to call roofing felt and linoleum tarry toot! great for fires and flaming arrows...