topic A Rainy Day? in The Round Table

A Rainy Day?

cee-dee — Sat, 22 Sep 2018 19:17:48 GMT

Yesterday the BBC ran a story around rainy day phrases and one of them was about "saving money for a rainy day"

Their "explanation" was :- "The philosopher Abraham Tucker summed it up in the 18th Century with the warning: 'It behoves us to provide against a rainy day while the sun shines' - a reminder of a similar idiom, 'make hay while the sun shines', which advises us to seize the day while opportunity lasts, because rain will surely follow."

Surely the more logical reason for the phrase was when men were working outside and were paid "by the day" so if it was raining and they were "rained off" they didn't get paid therefore they should have saved a bit for such a day?

What's your take on the saying?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42719824

Re: A Rainy Day?

bidicus*maximus — Sat, 22 Sep 2018 21:07:59 GMT

Your, "more logical reason" does seem... logical.

For me, it would boil down to doing a bit more research, before I could determine which explanation was the more correct. If philosopher Abraham Tucker is said to have "summed it up" during the 1700's, I'd want to know when it became customary to pay, "by the day" and to not pay at all when "rained off".

I can envision a time when falling rain wouldn't have meant an extra day off... just working while being wet...

More research should provide the answer.

Re: A Rainy Day?

cee-dee — Sat, 22 Sep 2018 21:28:59 GMT

Well I've not done any research but my first guess would be the building trade.

It doesn't make much sense to be building in the rain? It wouldn't be a very good wall (for instance) when using mortar out in the rain? In times past that would be Lime mortar?

Re: A Rainy Day?

joe_bloggs* — Sat, 22 Sep 2018 22:23:28 GMT

Reminds me when I was serving my time as a bricklayer,we were building a large practice hall for an orchestra,

It started chucking it down,so we all decided to have an early dinner at the boozer opposite,after about an hour and a couple of pints one of the bricklayers said Joe nip to the door and see if it’s stopped raining,had a look out and sure enough the rain had stopped

,went back in to face everyone looking at me ,Well? It’s still chucking it down I said.so another round of drinks was ordered,after about half an hour the foreman bursts into the bar shouting what the ****ing hell are you doing,the rain stopped ages ago !