Life and Times in SoCal

A light-hearted celebration of God’s Own County, its traditions, food, dialect, pride and enduring sense of home.

Every August 1st, Yorkshire celebrates Yorkshire Day, which is essentially an opportunity for an entire county to remind the rest of Britain how fortunate it is that Yorkshire exists.

The White Rose goes up, town criers appear in outfits last fashionable sometime around 1780, brass bands are dusted off, kettles are switched on, and Yorkshire folk everywhere become even more proud of being Yorkshire than they were on July 31st.

Which, frankly, takes some doing.

Officially, Yorkshire Day celebrates the history, heritage and culture of God's Own County.

Unofficially, it's Yorkshire saying:

“We’re still here. We’re still magnificent. And no, we’re not changing our minds about it.”

The Ceremony Nobody Asked For, But Everyone Loves;

One of the traditions associated with Yorkshire Day is the Yorkshire Declaration of Integrity. It is delivered with magnificent civic seriousness, often involving a town crier, ceremonial dress and enough official dignity to make you think something of enormous constitutional importance is about to happen. Meanwhile, half the audience is wondering where the pie stall is. The declaration celebrates the historic identity of Yorkshire and its Ridings, because while governments may reorganize counties and redraw boundaries, Yorkshire's response has traditionally been:

“Aye. Well, we’ll see about that.”

This is Yorkshire, after all.

We've had Romans, Vikings, Normans and Westminster politicians trying to organize us. and the response is:

"We're still Yorkshire."

The Food Does Most of the Talking

No Yorkshire celebration is complete without food and at the center of everything stands the Yorkshire pudding. Calling it a "side dish" is unnecessarily provocative.

A proper Yorkshire pudding should be crisp on the outside, soft in the middle and sufficiently large that smaller portions of the Sunday roast can shelter beneath it during bad weather.

One Yorkshire pudding per person is technically possible.

So is living without central heating.

Neither should be encouraged.

Then there's Wensleydale cheese, parkin, curd tart, fat rascals, proper fish and chips and enough gravy to require its own flood-management strategy.

And, obviously, tea.

Tea in Yorkshire isn't really a drink.

It's infrastructure.

Good news? Put kettle on.

Bad news? Put kettle on.

Visitors? Put kettle on

Family crisis? Strong brew.

Nobody knows what to do next? Put t'kettle on while we think about it.

Entire generations of Yorkshire families have survived on this crisis-management system.

The Yorkshire Language

Yorkshire Day is also an excellent opportunity for the dialect to come out properly.

Ey up - Hello

Nowt - Nothing

Owt - Anything

Reyt - Right/ok

Champion - Great

Tha'll be reyt.

The last one is particularly useful.

"Tha'll be reyt" can mean anything from:

“I’m confident everything will work out perfectly.”

to:

“This is an absolute catastrophe, but complaining isn’t going to fix it.”

Context is important.

Yorkshire compliments also require translation too

"Not bad." Means: Excellent.

"That'll do." Means: You've exceeded all reasonable expectations.

And:

"Tha's alright, thee." - Is practically an emotional declaration.

just don't expect a hug as well.

Yorkshire Financial Management

Then there's the unfortunate stereotype that Yorkshire people are tight. This is deeply unfair. Yorkshire people are not tight.

We simply believe money deserves careful supervision. A Yorkshireman doesn't see a 50%-off sign and think: “What a bargain.”

He thinks: “What were they robbin’ us for before?”

This isn't stinginess. It's financial governance.

I've spent much of my life in business, and I'm increasingly convinced Yorkshire invented cost control several centuries before anybody thought of calling it EBITDA.

My own career started in Yorkshire before taking me to Southern California, where today I find myself running a large food-manufacturing business. I've crossed continents, worked with many cultures and sat through more executive meetings than any sensible Yorkshireman would have volunteered for. Yet certain Yorkshire instincts survive remarkably well;

If something can be fixed rather than replaced, fix it.

If someone uses twenty words when five will do, become suspicious.

And if a consultant produces a 74-slide presentation explaining something that could have been written on the back of a beer mat...

Well.

Tha knows.

Local Pride, Turned Up to Eleven

Across Yorkshire, towns and villages celebrate August 1st with civic events, flags, music, food and mayors wearing chains heavy enough to affect their posture. Villages that spend the rest of the year quietly getting on with things suddenly discover several miles of bunting. The White Rose appears everywhere, and the underlying message is wonderfully simple:

Yorkshire is God's Own County. Evidence? Apparently unnecessary. Yorkshire has never been burdened by excessive self-doubt.

Admittedly, there is some supporting evidence:

The Dales.

The moors.

York.

Whitby.

Haworth.

The coastline.

Sheffield steel.

Bradford wool.

Leeds industry.

Mining communities.

Farming.

Cricket.

Rugby.

The Brontës.

Yorkshire pudding.

If Yorkshire were any prettier, we'd have to start charging Lancashire to look at it.

You Can Leave Yorkshire...if you want!

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Yorkshire identity is how well it travels. I left Yorkshire many years ago. Life and work took me through different countries, cultures and eventually across the Atlantic to California.

My accent may have softened.

Slightly.

I now live somewhere where sunshine is considered normal, people voluntarily put avocado on almost everything, and nobody seems sufficiently concerned about whether there is enough gravy.

But Yorkshire stays with you.

• The humor.
• The directness.
• The work ethic.
• The belief that people deserve respect regardless of the title on their business card.
• The conviction that if a job needs doing, you're better off getting on with it than organizing a meeting to discuss how everyone feels about doing it.
• And the deeply ingrained inability to look at an overpriced restaurant bill without thinking:

“How much?!”

Some cultural traditions are simply too strong to disappear.

Why Yorkshire Day Is Worth Celebrating

Behind all the jokes, Yorkshire Day celebrates something important.

It celebrates belonging.

It remembers generations of miners, mill workers, farmers, steelworkers, fishermen, butchers, factory workers, engineers, shopkeepers and families who built Yorkshire communities.

It celebrates magnificent landscapes and industrial cities.

It celebrates history, food, sport, humor, language and character.

And for those of us who ended up living a long way from where we started, it provides a reminder that home isn't always simply where you live. Sometimes it's the place that taught you who you are.

So, this August 1st, wherever you happen to be:

Fly the White Rose.

Raise a glass.

Have a Yorkshire pudding.

Put t'kettle on.

And celebrate God's Own County.

I've travelled from Yorkshire to California, and after all those miles, I have reached a carefully considered and entirely objective conclusion:

“Yorkshire's still reyt good.”

Although being Yorkshire, we wouldn't want to get carried away. So, we'll settle for:

“Not bad.”

Happy Yorkshire Day.

Long may the White Rose bloom.

Paul