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Eddie and Julie
"My uncle Eddie was,
he reckoned, the first chimney
sweep in Edinburgh. He used to go
out with his wife, Julie,
to sweep lums. At one call,
they had a joint chimney at the top which serviced two
houses.
One neighbour,
on hearing that the woman next door was
getting her lum swept, asked my uncle to
do hers at the same time. Both women left the key with another woman
on the same landing.
My uncle collected both keys
and let his wife into one of the houses and made his way up to the
roof. His method was to tie a brick or
stone on a rope and drop the brick down the chimney where my aunt
would wait with a catcher to collect the soot. He would shout
'Ah Hoo' down
the lum and she would reply in like manner indicating that they had
the right chimney.
The trouble with a chimney
stack which services two houses is that you can hear the reply
fairly well. But if you don't turn
the vent plate the right way or forget to turn it when you've
finished the first chimney, the soot comes out in the wrong hoose.
Well auntie did her Al Jolson
impression when he came down, but it
wasn't in song.
Bob Sinclair, Queensland,
Australia: January 21, 2010
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