So, I’m back from the booktown with bags full of bargains, must-haves and curiosities. It was a grey, damp kind of Sunday, but once we got to Clunes, there were happy book folk everywhere muttering things like "But then I got to chapter 10 and lost interest", music from a bandstand and zippy tunes from the restored Australia Fair Grand Concert Street Organ, and a Punch and Judy show that was a huge hit with the kids. As we ducked in an out of buildings scavenging for goodies, you could hear the littlies in the background laughing their heads off and yelling advice to the puppets. Amazingly, some things never change. However, at one point while we were passing, a concerned parent did object to the needless violence, but was instantly dismissed with a loudly broadcast “Well, what do you expect? This is a Punch and Judy Show”. Many passers-by nodded.
Apart from books, both old and new, there were many old newspapers and magazines. I nabbed a Life Magazine from Dec 27, 1943 that caught my attention, first because of the Xmas / WW2-far-from-over-yet juxtaposition, then because of a certain article inside. Now that I’ve Googled a bit, it turns out to be quite a famous issue for the exact reason that I took it – the piece on Mrs Helen Dortch Longstreet, the 80+ year old widow of Confederate Army General James Longstreet (who became a character in Harry Turtledove’s 1997 alternate history novel How Few Remain) doing a Rosie the Riveter turn at the Bell Aircraft plant in Atlanta. The article tells how she commuted daily in her Nash coupe from the trailer she lived in alone near Atlanta to the plant where she was a regular on the 8 to 4.45 shift.
This picture, and the following quote sold me on the issue. She said, "I am going to assist in building a plane to bomb Hitler and the Son of Heaven to the Judgment Seat of God." She also informed the reporter that, "I was at the head of my riveting class. In fact, I was the only one in it." which, I've discovered, is constantly repeated in all her biographies.Anyway, I’m glad I got it, because somewhere in the back of my mind, there’s a story bubbling about a Confederate widow, WW2 and...
2 comments:
What a find! I'm in an online writing group and in an on-and-off way, we've been watching 34 hours of real-time writing by Robert Olen Butler. He wrote a short story from scratch, and - here's the connection of ideas to your find - he based it on a postcard he found (a photo of a plane crashing).
I hope your story bubbles successfully onto the paper, eventually.
Old photos, old books, magazines and postcards - I love 'em.
I hope the story struggles into existence too, but it's not given. Unfortunately, or I should say fortunately, there are too many ideas and not enough time to develop them all. It's survival of the fittest!
The online writing group sounds good.
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