Gypsies?

**moribund** · January 4th, 2010

Just finished reading "Thinner" last night for the first time. Like the other Bachman books, it proved to be a quick, entertaining read. I enjoyed the story and, of course, the ending. Just one thing kept bugging me throughout... the concept of Gypsies in modern society. Am I just uneducated to it, or are there really such people still traveling the country?

**wally wonder** · January 5th, 2010

you bet! in more than one form or another.

**aptpupil** · January 6th, 2010

There are certainly lots of "gypsies" still active in the UK, although the term has widened to embrace virtually all groups of "travellers", with no regard to ethnicity. Indeed, it is estimated that their numbers could exceed 100,000.

As someone with more than 20 years of service as a police officer, I can vouch for the fact that the vast majority of travelling communities over here tend to be of Irish origin, but are still described as "gypsies". Nor do they live a poor life. They often live in permanent communities, in luxurious mobile homes witb expensive cars. They live outwith the "system", finding their own work from canvassing homeowners and local businesses (and are not averse to using intimidation along the way), paying no taxes, and refusing to ever give proper identities if and when arrested, preferring to spend a short spell in prison rather than furnish the police or the courts with their proper details. In this way, they never end up with a criminal record. Their communities are also jealously guarded, with the general public physically prevented from entering, and even the police regularly only seeking to gain access as a last resort, and doing so in numbers and carrying firearms.

These communities certainly lay to rest the romantic connotations of the term "gypsy".

**moribund** · January 7th, 2010

I suppose I have a much better time imagining a "traveler" than I do a "gypsy." Perhaps I just have a stereotypical image in my head about what a gypsy "should" be. But, either way, it's still a good little story.

**91rewoT** · January 7th, 2010

There are definitely gypsies still living in the U.K. When we lived over there we would frequently see them "camped" at the side of a road, with their horse (or horses) staked out in the ditch to eat. The wagons are awesome looking and the horses are beautiful!