In case you’re not familiar with the words grockle and emmet I had better explain; they are both nicknames for tourists, a slightly derogatory nickname, especially used by west country people when the seaside towns of Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset are invaded by visitors. However, it’s slightly mean because these tourists are what keep much of the local economy going, either staying hotels, bed and breakfasts or other accommodation, buying souvenirs, sticks of rock, gimmicky knickknacks and novelty hats, eating in cafés and restaurants, buying ice-cream, riding on donkeys, going on piers, going put fishing, hiring surfing equipment… all of which gives employment and brings in much-needed income.
No-one is quite sure of the origin of grockle, although it seems to have arrived in the 1950’s; maybe it was from a popular clown called Grock, maybe it was a strip cartoon about a boy who had a pet dragon called grockle, but it was brought to the attention of a wider public in the film The System.
An emmet is a Cornish word for ant, which was derived from Old English… and certainly when you see the hoards of tourists busy enjoying themselves on the promenade or on the beach, they do look very like ants scurrying over an anthill!
We live in a seaside town, so we have plenty of visitors, plenty of tourists, especially when the weather is nice. However, today, we were emmets! We went to Oxford and very sensibly used the park and ride scheme; you park your car in an out-of-town carpark and catch a subsidised bus into the town or city you are visiting. I have been to Oxford several times and I have never seen it so full of people! There were whole coachloads of foreign tourists, long crocodiles of children from other parts of Britain and from overseas, trailing round the sights, many of them looking out for scenes from Harry Potter, it was graduation day so there were proud parents and families of young people who had passed their degrees and received heir awards, there were people like us who had come on their own to look round… it was hectic, it was frantic, in places it was chock-a-block!
We reminded ourselves that next time we visit a popular place, we shall try to go at a time and in a season where other grockles stay at home!
Look up and you see no emmets!
Lois Elsden 