Posted by Laurence Monkhouse on July 25, 2003 at 06:09:39 from 217.137.106.23 user Laurence_.
In Reply to: "Kids of that time and place" (was Broadening one's horizons) posted by Jim McDowell on July 24, 2003 at 20:01:13:
Unless Ransome and every other childrens'author of the period was living in and writing about an entirely fantasy world the "local folks" weren't imbued with Marxist nonsense and didn't get hung up about children "priviledged beyond belief" or feelings that the stories "basically exposed and exploited their backyard"
Consider the generous way in which "working class" people (if we have to use that expression) helped the twins in the chase after the Teasel in CC. This sort of thing repeats itself gain and again in books by other authors - local people letting children sleep in barns and getting them out of scrapes.
The only book of the time that I can think of about "economically disadvantaged" children is 'The Family from One End Street' - these certainly weren't hung up about their situation - they got out and found adventures - and they too got helped by strangers when needed.
My father, living in Workington, Cumberland, in the 20's and 30's - and you would have been pushed to find a place worse hit by the Depression -used to get by one means or another to the Lake District ten miles away and camp or find shelter from the farming community. Alistair Borthwick 'Always a Little Further' writing about "economically disadvantaged" young people from Glasgow hitch hiking to the mountains for extreme climbing at weekends gives much the same picture.
I think Ransome's picture is probably broadly accurate. I'm not saying that those were the good old days - far from it - but, just as we were writing in Tarboard some time ago about young people and sailing without cost and restrictions, there were at that time opportunities for adventure, and not just for the well off, which are not available in our modern regulated rip-off culture.