Posted by Robert Dilley on May 08, 2003 at 03:33:14 from 206.186.168.112 user rdilley.
I have been catching up on the last few days' postings, having finally rid myself of an enormous pile of (mostly) semi-literate essays (would my students could write as well as Ed Kiser, never mind AR). Some odd thoughts:
Orphans. On my first day at boarding school (age 11) one of my new dorm-mates claimed to be an orphan and later referred to a still-living father. He was challenged, and replied -- as others have noted -- that loss of one parent entitled one to that status.
Farmers. My suggestion that Bob Blackett may have been a farmer seems to have been dismissed with scorn and contumely. However, the "Gentleman Farmer" was not unknown in the North -- I wrote my PhD thesis on farming in Cumberland in the 18th and 19th centuries, and could bore you for pages on this. He need not have spent his days muckin' oot t'byre; more likely strolling around in leggings supervising the farm workers. Never said he was a farmer: just could have been.
Officer class. Not all public-school/university types became officers. Remember Kipling:
"Gentlemen-rankers out on a spree,
Damned from here to eternity...."
Age difference. I should hope an 8-year difference in age would not be unmanageable. That is how much my wife is younger than me, and we are just approaching our 24th anniversary.... I had always thought Timothy rather more than that older than Nancy -- mid thirties, perhaps. Twenty years is a more serious gap. A couple of days ago there was an advice column on MSN where the writer was a 20-year-old dating a 40-year-old man and the advice was "enjoy the attention for a while then look for someone younger". However, maybe a harum-scarum like Nancy would be contemptuous of boys her age and might be attracted to the steadiness of an older man. Dunno. My daughters (16 to 23) are vociferously horrified at the thought of ever marrying someone more than a year or two older. Maybe having such a decrepit old fogey of a father puts them off.
I had better stop musing before I get castigated for posting too long a post. Just wondered -- if it is too long, why read it?