|
|
Post by malcolm on Sept 12, 2018 17:48:28 GMT -5
Of course I'm biased having grown up in the War Years, but I have tried to imagine all kinds of alternatives, that is other eras where everyone was drawn together. WW1 wasn't the same as it destroyed people everywhere, if not physically then mentally and the aftermath was also horrific. My Grandad often spoke about the Boer War and that time during the last decade of Victoria may have had the same kind of atmosphere. It was certainly more colourful when Empire uniforms were so widely different. It didn't impinge upon Britons at home though in the same way and yet it was in everyone's mind all the time, not only down in South Africa fighting the Boers but Sudan and the Zulu's were still very much in everyone's memory. Some of that has lasted the years with phrases such as "They Don't like it up 'em" in Dad's Army. We have already seen a little of what it was like when Gary slipped back a bit too far and landed up in a Music Hall Royal Oak. My sequel, It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow - blitzandpieces.proboards.com/thread/136/lovely-day-tomorrow ventured even farther back. However if we could have a New Series much along the same lines, but at a different time, what would you like to see? The clothes and hats of Victorian Days were often so decorative with much jewellery and feathers, and I know from experience what homes were like. I had a good taste of the Blitz in 1940 in Pinner, when I was just 7 years old, and then suddenly I was in another world, going back in time in a way, to the house where I was born in Geordie Land, full of Victorian furniture and Great Aunt Emma still wearing the same long dresses and neck high collars. The question then is if there were to be a similar 'time travel' series, could it, should it, be moved to another time? |
|
|
|
Post by jr866gooner on Sept 21, 2018 16:47:15 GMT -5
I couldn’t imagine another time.
The 40’s were a time for support and togetherness during the war and GNS captured this very well.
|
|
|
|
Post by malcolm on Sept 21, 2018 21:05:40 GMT -5
I couldn’t imagine another time. The 40’s were a time for support and togetherness during the war and GNS captured this very well. That is so true. How many people today know just about everybody else in their street and everyone they met doing the daily shopping? We didn't even use the shelters in Durley Avenue, Pinner which is how many others got together. But they were there until many weeks after it all ended. Attachments:
|
|
|
|
Post by jr866gooner on Sept 22, 2018 1:48:20 GMT -5
I couldn’t imagine another time. The 40’s were a time for support and togetherness during the war and GNS captured this very well. That is so true. How many people today know just about everybody else in their street and everyone they met doing the daily shopping? We didn't even use the shelters in Durley Avenue, Pinner which is how many others got together. But they were there until many weeks after it all ended. It’s pictures that show the togetherness and spirit that makes me smile. To divert in a different direction. How many 18 year olds in today’s society would be brave enough to go into war? Especially those on street corners being a pest to the society! It was a completely different Britain. One that I would love to have seen and experienced for real but only as Gary does in Goodnight sweetheart! |
|
|
|
Post by malcolm on Sept 23, 2018 0:22:45 GMT -5
It’s pictures that show the togetherness and spirit that makes me smile. To divert in a different direction. How many 18 year olds in today’s society would be brave enough to go into war? Especially those on street corners being a pest to the society! It was a completely different Britain. One that I would love to have seen and experienced for real but only as Gary does in Goodnight sweetheart! We really didn't things out when I was 18. All of us in the early Fifties were probably no different to those who rushed to volunteer in the two world wars. When I had to register I thought it was going to be a big adventure. The first two months put an end to that idea, but only for a while. Recruit training was sheer hell but it did change a lot of the rougher ones. When trade training - 3 months - was coming to an end, Fogaty pointed out to me how all previous courses had just about all been posted to the Middle East and that meant the Canal Zone. His suggestion was that we should go to the Orderly Office and volunteer for the Far East and could then end up somewhere like Japan, Hong Kong of Singapore. So we did and I was quite thrilled about it when I 'phoned home to let Mum and Dad know. The reaction was not what I expected. Had I forgotten that there was still a War on in Korea, and jungle fighting terrorists in Malaysia and Borneo? Hadn't even given that a thought, but it did have me thinking a bit more carefully. Anyway it was too late, we had done the deed and volunteered. Odd thing is that it probably saved our lives. The whole typist training course was drafted to the Middle East, yet when we arrived at RAF Lytham for kitting out and jabs for the East, one of our course was missing - a guy who was the son of a well known jockey. Then after a week at Lytham it was back on trains and trucks to RAF Hendon to wait for a flight which was delayed and delayed - so got home again for one night. Following evening we took off in a York landing briefly at Malta on the way and then landed at RAF Fayid and more trucks down the Canal Zone to El Hamra. A most unpleasant ten days waiting for a posting. When postings were announced there were only two of us posted to stations outside of Egypt, Fogaty to RAF Habbaniya near Baghdad and myself to RAF Hospital No. 7, in Aden. My work then for the next two years was very much the same as Radar's - often waiting for an ambulance and going on stretcher parties etc. Best part was the 4 day cruise down the Red Sea in a Stateroom as the troop decks had been condemned by the MO before embarking after they had disembarked a horde of Kings African Rifles from Mombasa. Then R & R in Asmara and then Nairobi - the Mau Mau business at that time caused more restrictions though when going around the City. So yes we were and did silly things without thinking in our youth, but perhaps were just lucky. Back in Egypt unfriendly people were taking pot shots at Camp Sentries every night.  Attachments:
|
|
|
|
Post by jr866gooner on Sept 23, 2018 3:39:13 GMT -5
It’s pictures that show the togetherness and spirit that makes me smile. To divert in a different direction. How many 18 year olds in today’s society would be brave enough to go into war? Especially those on street corners being a pest to the society! It was a completely different Britain. One that I would love to have seen and experienced for real but only as Gary does in Goodnight sweetheart! We really didn't things out when I was 18. All of us in the early Fifties were probably no different to those who rushed to volunteer in the two world wars. When I had to register I thought it was going to be a big adventure. The first two months put an end to that idea, but only for a while. Recruit training was sheer hell but it did change a lot of the rougher ones. When trade training - 3 months - was coming to an end, Fogaty pointed out to me how all previous courses had just about all been posted to the Middle East and that meant the Canal Zone. His suggestion was that we should go to the Orderly Office and volunteer for the Far East and could then end up somewhere like Japan, Hong Kong of Singapore. So we did and I was quite thrilled about it when I 'phoned home to let Mum and Dad know. The reaction was not what I expected. Had I forgotten that there was still a War on in Korea, and jungle fighting terrorists in Malaysia and Borneo? Hadn't even given that a thought, but it did have me thinking a bit more carefully. Anyway it was too late, we had done the deed and volunteered. Odd thing is that it probably saved our lives. The whole typist training course was drafted to the Middle East, yet when we arrived at RAF Lytham for kitting out and jabs for the East, one of our course was missing - a guy who was the son of a well known jockey. Then after a week at Lytham it was back on trains and trucks to RAF Hendon to wait for a flight which was delayed and delayed - so got home again for one night. Following evening we took off in a York landing briefly at Malta on the way and then landed at RAF Fayid and more trucks down the Canal Zone to El Hamra. A most unpleasant ten days waiting for a posting. When postings were announced there were only two of us posted to stations outside of Egypt, Fogaty to RAF Habbaniya near Baghdad and myself to RAF Hospital No. 7, in Aden. My work then for the next two years was very much the same as Radar's - often waiting for an ambulance and going on stretcher parties etc. Best part was the 4 day cruise down the Red Sea in a Stateroom as the troop decks had been condemned by the MO before embarking after they had disembarked a horde of Kings African Rifles from Mombasa. Then R & R in Asmara and then Nairobi - the Mau Mau business at that time caused more restrictions though when going around the City. So yes we were and did silly things without thinking in our youth, but perhaps were just lucky. Back in Egypt unfriendly people were taking pot shots at Camp Sentries every night. View AttachmentCool pictures! I imagine the wartime experience was daunting at times. This is something tv etc just cannot capture. I admire the furniture, the building design in that era. This I believe GNS captures very well. I google on a regular basis wartime pictures of my favourite places and where I grew up. I find those pictures very interesting. |
|
|
|
Post by tabs on Sept 27, 2018 18:44:46 GMT -5
I do think a GNS set in the 20s would be fun, lots happening and an innovative time in fashio music architecture etc
|
|
|
|
Post by jr866gooner on Oct 5, 2018 15:35:04 GMT -5
I do think a GNS set in the 20s would be fun, lots happening and an innovative time in fashio music architecture etc Would be nice Yes. Still a nice time captured regardless.. |
|
|
|
Post by malcolm on Nov 17, 2018 14:58:39 GMT -5
I do think a GNS set in the 20s would be fun, lots happening and an innovative time in fashio music architecture etc With Family History Research I frequently find myself back in other time slots - well the mind takes me back and mostly before to periods before I was born. To understand ancestors one has to get into their minds somehow. Only within the last couple of months I was taken back to the 20's trying to understand all that went on with my second cousin, once removed, Harold Teale Berry. My gt.grandmother was Elizabeth Berry and her brother and his family migrated to Lawrence Massachusetts in 1886 with their then 13 children, and more arrived afterwards including at least one adoption. So there are many descendants who just had to be investigated. However it isn't always a happy picture. Harold turned out to be a Commercial Artist in LA and then a Production Manager, but he was also the abusive step father of a little boy in his second marriage. That 10 year old grew up to be very well known - Steve McQueen ... Great Escape 1963, Bullitt, Papillon, and loads of other movies some may be familiar with. Harold's first marriage was secretive and to Henrietta 'Tedi' Strashun whose father Leon Strashun was a Russian Migrant in America and a very well known Orchestral conductor who had studied with Tchaikovsky. At one time he conducted the Metropolitan in New York. Anyway myself and one of the James Berry descendants I found on the net, tried to understand Harold. Had he really been abusive, a drunk and so on? We soon found a grand-daughter of Tedi's by her second marriage, and her mother, confirmed that Tedi's first husband had been very abusive and was so drunk one time she learned to drive getting them home one night. The attached photo may give a glimpse back to 1925 and what Harold and Tedi looked like. Attachments:
|
|
|
|
Post by tabs on Feb 1, 2019 12:00:53 GMT -5
I've also done some family history research and turned up some very interestng stuff on my maternal grandad, I already knew he was a bit of a rotter but his life story would make a great book or film as I just couldn't believe some of the stuff he got upto.
|
|
