Not a disaster (I tell myself)

[OC Richard]

That's so interesting! I had to look up "Border Morris", I'd never heard of it.

I looked over numerous photos of people in top hats (most a lot shorter than the "top hats" people think of here in the US) and ribbons.

Some groups were colourful, others all black. I saw ladies in rather short skirts.

The all-black outfits, the top hats, the black face, and the swinging around of sticks suggested chimney sweeps but I went down the rabbit-hole reading about the origins of it all and it has nothing to do with chimney sweeps. Beyond that, seems that nobody knows for sure the origin of it all (there are competing theories, like in many things being in two main camps, the "splitters" and the "lumpers").