Posted by Jock on June 06, 2006 at 11:44:36 from 86.135.184.34 user Jock.
In Reply to: The Way We Were - Ambleside Oral History Group posted by Ian E-N on June 06, 2006 at 11:15:08:
A great resource! There is much fascinating stuff about the lives of ordinary folk. But I would particularly draw the attention of Blackett hunters to this piece.
Oddly enough, the demands of social convention could be far more irksome for a young woman in a working family than for her more unconventional, even outrageous sister from a well-to-do background. Working families always risked the disapproval of their "betters"; and the sort of criticism meted out to a working girl who donned knickerbockers and nailed boots to climb crags could only be imagined.But for a young lady brought up by unconventional parents, rock-climbing was second nature:
"We just walked and we climbed..there were plenty of trees in the wood at the back of our house and we just climbed... we just climbed for the sheer joy of it and naturally set each other impossible things to do, supposedly, but nobody ever got much hurt or fell off or anything like that."
Encouraged by her father in a climbing family, the girl progressed from trees to boulders:
"If we were out for a walk on the fells and saw some likely looking boulder, father would say, 'Go on, get up it', you see; but the time I started climbing on Castle Head I imagine I must have been about ten or eleven. I was never frightened."
Despite a young lady being brought up in such an unconventional way, it never dawned on her for years that her childhood was anything unusual:
"... dear, it was all such fun! I never thought till recent years my life was any different from anyone else in that sense."
I have had a theory for a long time that the Nancy and Peggy prototypes came from a 'well to do background' and had a strong father who encouraged their character development.