Soft Mick.

garinda · 10-03-2005, 17:22

Who was 'Soft Mick'?
As in "look at her, she's got more shoes than Soft Mick!"
lt is very localised, certainly in Ossy it's still said, and l think in Accrington. ln Blackburn though they've never heard of him. Perhaps he stayed close to hearth and home.
I have this picture of a weaver mincing to the mill everyday in a different pair of clogs, please if anyone knows an origin let me know.

g78 · 10-03-2005, 17:28

Dunno about that one, heard other expressions using 'soft as ....' but they arent really suitable to say here

grannyclaret · 10-03-2005, 18:19

that saying was very popular in burnley ,when i was young ,,there was a stall on the market and the chap was called barmey mick ,but i dont know if they were the same ...

garinda · 10-03-2005, 18:34

So he got as far as Burnley but not to Blackburn, The plot thickens. Thanks Granny.

Margaret Pilkington · 10-03-2005, 19:45

I have a brother called Michael, and when he was younger.....and not so young too, he would fight everybody in sight so that he couldn't be called 'soft Mick'.

stanaccrington · 10-03-2005, 22:37

It might have something to do with Paddys but dont quote me heres another though I think its Ossy only but would love to be told yes or no " agate this" or she's agate........ anyone?

Doug · 10-03-2005, 22:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanaccrington

It might have something to do with Paddys but dont quote me heres another though I think its Ossy only but would love to be told yes or no " agate this" or she's agate........ anyone?

"What you on agate", Stanerlee. God I love it, I've not heard that in donkeys’ years. Soft Mick was part of our childhood, but I've heard people up here in Blackpool use the expression a lot too.

The use of the quote "more shoe's than" and the expression "Soft Mick" where always used in common conjunction, Leading to the idea that he was an Irish shoe peddler (with house and Cart) working the east lancs area in the early 1900s.

grannyclaret · 10-03-2005, 23:19

agate was also said in burnley ,and does anybody know who skenning emma was ,?? they said that like dellboy would say gordon bennett,i have visions of some poor girl with jam jar bottomed glasses

Doug · 10-03-2005, 23:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by grannyclaret

agate was also said in burnley ,and does anybody know who skenning emma was ,?? they said that like dellboy would say gordon bennett,i have visions of some poor girl with jam jar bottomed glasses

"What you skenning at" Don't you just love hearing these old sayings again. More Please......

wayneyboy1942 · 11-03-2005, 00:15

GAnyone know about how Gormless came about? I've no idea!,I got told that"Dullaly tapped" was to do with soldiers comming back from India at a place called Dullay,it was always hot and they had nothing to do but drink alot of booze,they got into drunken fights and thats where the "tapped" came from,if something is dirty we always say it's wick or like a midden.

WillowTheWhisp · 11-03-2005, 07:29

Soft Mick has always been alive and well in our family. I was first introduced to him by my mother and she came from Hapton but my Dad was also familiar with him and he was born and bred in Accrington although he'd spent most of his life in Coventry before moving back here.

My late husband's family on the other hand tend to have more shoes than you can "shake a stick at" although I often wondered why anyone would want to shake a stick at their shoes.

People always seemd to be "aget summat" when I was a child.

garinda · 11-03-2005, 08:13

My vision of a mincing shoe fetishist mill worker. is looking unlikely. Mick as an lrish name is looking good, so is the idea he was a peddlar of shoes or a cobbler.
l could never say agate, even in Blackburn they wouldn't understand. ' She was a what?'
'Skenning Emma' was obviously too myopically disabled to find Ossy as we've never heard of her, [though it made me howl.]
'Soft Mick' isn't just used about shoes though, it's any extravagance, 'She's had more men than soft Mick.' What's that all about?
Theres also 'F***ing Ada'. but l think she was more widely travelled, and isn't local, but the mind boggles.

garinda · 11-03-2005, 11:34

After searching slang dictionaries on the web, l've finally accepted that Mick is a derogatory term for an Irish man, and soft just means simple. But why is it so localised, and why does it means extravagance? l'm still hoping he was an Accy dandy.

Other good localish words found in the slang dictionary were-
crammed [grumpy,]
mard [feeling miserable.]

JohnW · 11-03-2005, 11:50

I presume that f***ing Ada may be a cousine of Bloody Nora?

JohnW · 11-03-2005, 11:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by garinda

After searching slang dictionaries on the web, l've finally accepted that Mick is a derogatory term for an Irish man, and soft just means simple. But why is it so localised, and why does it means extravagance? l'm still hoping he was an Accy dandy.

Other good localish words found in the slang dictionary were-
crammed [grumpy,]
mard [feeling miserable.]

I always thought that 'mard' meant soft, as in a wimp. eg. "Don't be so damn mard, what ya cryin' for?

Another one my mother used to come out with was: "You're as soft as my pocket." meaning mard as I described above.

Some more:
If you were doing something and making a bad job of it my father would say; "You shape like John Smith" or "You're not fit to wrap toffee up at Tommy Hodsons"