WWII London Blitz Diary, vol. II
Sep. 4th, 2012 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chocolatepotThis is an excellent historical document I found on Amazon while browsing for free stuff - I should get the rest. They're the actual, extensive diaries of Ruby Side Thompson, of her life during the war, put into book form by her great-granddaughter (this volume is just 1941). I don't really understand the people who hated it in the reviews - of course it's not as gripping as a novel, it's not written with that kind of structure, or even for an audience. There are several commenters who complain about the author and "protagonist" and "diary concept" who didn't get the memo. (The reviews are interesting. I think if I hadn't been looking at the book as a record rather than complete entertainment I might have been as annoyed with her constant venting about her husband, but man, the judginess about her not leaving him, and the outrage that she dared to cry in the Blitz!)
Often what I was the most interested in was not about her life in the war, but her memories of her younger years, such as:
and our parents were contemporaries. He and I lived in the same world at the same time and I say he doesn't know what he is talking about. I say that in those days children were regarded as disasters, practically the greatest disasters that could befall a woman. I say that when fathers were unjustly angry with the mothers, and the mothers were fretful and snappy with the father, it was mainly and hugely because of the incessant child bearing and child supporting they were involved in, and had brought upon themselves. I say, most deliberately, that the knowledge of birth control has been the greatest boon to women (and to men) since time began.
It is true that when we were children large families were the rule, but it was because nobody knew how not to have large families. Nobody wanted them, I am quite sure of that. The average number of children in a family seemed to be eight, but many families had nine or ten living children, even more. My mother brought ten children to birth, of which only six of us survived infancy. Ted's mother gave birth to seventeen children, of whom only six grew to be adult, whilst of those six three died before the age of forty, and one at forty four. Of those seventeen children only two survive today, Bert and Ted. I do not know if Mrs. Thompson had any miscarriages, but I presume she did, as all the women I ever heard of had miscarriages. More often than not these were not miscarriages at all, but direct or induced abortions. They used to call them "misses", and would speak openly of them. "Oh Yes! I've had another "miss" Thank God!" or "I've had nine and five misses." Or "How many children have you? Any misses?"
If I do read the other volumes, I hope somewhere she explains what the deal was with moving to America when they were married and then they left suddenly because of Reasons and left all their grown children behind.
Her husband really does sound pretty awful, even if she is just blowing off steam and you need to dial it back. "Ted, who told Joan, he would greatly sacrifice the boys, and me, would gladly see us die lingering and cruel deaths, if by doing so we could defeat Hitler. Yes, he'd applaud the sacrifice." Um, dude, how about yourself?
Her contradictions are also interesting, in terms of a view of her as a real person. On the one hand, "the blatant assumptions that Britain and America are wholly virtuous whilst Germany is wholly vile ... makes me sick", and there are constant vents about how war is all men's doing and if women were in charge we wouldn't have any and it's all so stupid. On the other, when Ireland is neutral she's all "Have they ever been any good in the world? Have they ever cooperated with anyone? ... Well, if the Germans invade Ireland, nobody will be sorry for the Irish." Another stunning hypocrisy is that she complains often about Ted's "bigotry" because he's a convert to Catholicism and disparages Protestantism, while being somewhat bigoted herself against Catholicism and - much worse - she goes into this rant after reading a book, The South African, which says things like (paraphrasing) "it would be beyond wrong for the most intelligent black man to try to be superior to the stupidest white man"; her rant includes "Haven't I always said, '[um]s haven't souls?' Don't I suspect in Edna Renacre (this girl who kept trying to get married to her son, bought herself an engagement ring and said it was from him etc.) a touch of the tar-brush? And that is the reason why I never will accept that girl as one of the family? Her looks are to me anathema." And in general she's horribly classist about Ted's working class background.
There are some good dressmaking portions I need to type out.
Often what I was the most interested in was not about her life in the war, but her memories of her younger years, such as:
and our parents were contemporaries. He and I lived in the same world at the same time and I say he doesn't know what he is talking about. I say that in those days children were regarded as disasters, practically the greatest disasters that could befall a woman. I say that when fathers were unjustly angry with the mothers, and the mothers were fretful and snappy with the father, it was mainly and hugely because of the incessant child bearing and child supporting they were involved in, and had brought upon themselves. I say, most deliberately, that the knowledge of birth control has been the greatest boon to women (and to men) since time began.
It is true that when we were children large families were the rule, but it was because nobody knew how not to have large families. Nobody wanted them, I am quite sure of that. The average number of children in a family seemed to be eight, but many families had nine or ten living children, even more. My mother brought ten children to birth, of which only six of us survived infancy. Ted's mother gave birth to seventeen children, of whom only six grew to be adult, whilst of those six three died before the age of forty, and one at forty four. Of those seventeen children only two survive today, Bert and Ted. I do not know if Mrs. Thompson had any miscarriages, but I presume she did, as all the women I ever heard of had miscarriages. More often than not these were not miscarriages at all, but direct or induced abortions. They used to call them "misses", and would speak openly of them. "Oh Yes! I've had another "miss" Thank God!" or "I've had nine and five misses." Or "How many children have you? Any misses?"
If I do read the other volumes, I hope somewhere she explains what the deal was with moving to America when they were married and then they left suddenly because of Reasons and left all their grown children behind.
Her husband really does sound pretty awful, even if she is just blowing off steam and you need to dial it back. "Ted, who told Joan, he would greatly sacrifice the boys, and me, would gladly see us die lingering and cruel deaths, if by doing so we could defeat Hitler. Yes, he'd applaud the sacrifice." Um, dude, how about yourself?
Her contradictions are also interesting, in terms of a view of her as a real person. On the one hand, "the blatant assumptions that Britain and America are wholly virtuous whilst Germany is wholly vile ... makes me sick", and there are constant vents about how war is all men's doing and if women were in charge we wouldn't have any and it's all so stupid. On the other, when Ireland is neutral she's all "Have they ever been any good in the world? Have they ever cooperated with anyone? ... Well, if the Germans invade Ireland, nobody will be sorry for the Irish." Another stunning hypocrisy is that she complains often about Ted's "bigotry" because he's a convert to Catholicism and disparages Protestantism, while being somewhat bigoted herself against Catholicism and - much worse - she goes into this rant after reading a book, The South African, which says things like (paraphrasing) "it would be beyond wrong for the most intelligent black man to try to be superior to the stupidest white man"; her rant includes "Haven't I always said, '[um]s haven't souls?' Don't I suspect in Edna Renacre (this girl who kept trying to get married to her son, bought herself an engagement ring and said it was from him etc.) a touch of the tar-brush? And that is the reason why I never will accept that girl as one of the family? Her looks are to me anathema." And in general she's horribly classist about Ted's working class background.
There are some good dressmaking portions I need to type out.
