Chat, gossip and "reputations"

[Nick]

Charles the boiler man finally turned up yesterday and I took the opportunity to call a neighbour who has been trying to get him to finish off a job at her house for weeks. She came round double quick and blocked his van in so he couldn't escape

Conceding defeat, he then remarked on a person locally known to all of us who was/is , allegedly, "losing the plot" (gambling, in this case). The information had a grain of truth but was wildly exaggerated.

I pointed out that the great benefit of 25 years in London was the anonymity. IN a village there are no secrets and, when I came to think about it, everyone I know here has a "reputation" for something or other: thrift, profligacy, drinking (most of them!), philandering, profiteering and so on. No one is untainted by some sort of allegation.

Is this true for others in rural locations?

[Snoopy]

Like you I spent years working and living in and around London. I was, however, born in a village and now live in another village. You are absolutely right. Everyone knows everyone else's business but the tales do get exaggerated in the retelling.

[Nick]

Al tleast all these "reputations" cancel one another out over a period of time. Some of the stories about the landlady of one of the local pubs would make your eyes go  .

It involved the local hypochondriac, 3 lesbians and a druggy. 

[Snoopy]

No smoke without fire

[Pastis]

Is this true for others in rural locations?

In my experience, definitely. I once let my house out (urban) and rented a small but beautifully formed cottage in a village in Hertfordshire, just as a trial for six months. The first three months were pleasant and quite entertaining but then it dawned on me...

I was being sized up, paired off, spied on, quizzed, befriended and spurned in equal measure 
Needless to say after six months it was back to town

When I visit family in rural Hampshire it's just the same. Who's moved in? Whose split up with whom? Oh dear, that'll lower the tone. You mean she drinks from the furry cup? He's what? With an Antique dealer?
I swear there's an Archer's script writer living down there 

[Snoopy]

'Twas rural Hampshire that I came from 

[Just One More]

It's the same for me here. God knows what they know or make up about me. Of course, the pub is the centre of the rumour mill

[Barman]

It's the same for me in rural Hampshire. God knows what they know or make up about me. Of course, the pub is the centre of the rumour mill

How very dare you? 

[Nick]

It's the same for me in rural Hampshire. God knows what they know or make up about me. Of course, the pub is the centre of the rumour mill

Here we have four pubs and a village shop.Does that multiply the gossip?

Stupid question. It's impossible to enter any one of them without "hearing" something or other.

[Snoopy]

When we had a pub one regular was a really camp old queen who would sidle into the bar on a Sunday Lunchtime and always started his conversation with the words "Not that I am one to talk about people, as you know, but......" as he glanced over his shoulder and leant forward in a conspirital manner
Needless to say this is a favourite expression in the kennel.

Terrific for a gossip like me, running a pub, I knew everyone's business.

I do recall one lady who came in with her husband most evenings saying to the wife "I was standing in my bath wiping the condensation off the windows at 7 o'clock this morning, as you do, and you'll never guess who I saw leaving XXXX's house ~~~ in a very furtive manner" 

Another woman, after a falling out with a friend, used to refer to her now ex-friend as the "Madonna with the fallen boobies" and wondered why I offered her a saucer of milk!

Lovely stuff ..... I now put all that "training" into practice, sitting in my North Wales village editing the community magazine. Knowing what will get me sued is the most difficult part about what I dare publish but there are days when the 'phone never stops with the gossips all ringing in with snippets.