Posted by Ed Kiser on October 22, 2006 at 21:28:17 from 64.12.116.6 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Re: Beckfoot refrigeration system (was "ices"; Unfrozen ice; Windermere Railway Steamers) posted by PeterH on October 22, 2006 at 20:18:56:
"overseas reaction to period Britishness"
Perhaps my picture I get from reading Ransome as to just what "Britishness" is has an error, it that I am apt to think that this is the current way of doing things without realizing that things are that much different now. Ransome gives me a view of '30's customs, habits, modes of speech, which is the only image I have. So I'm sure my picture of "Britishness" is way out of date and according to the current mode, totally incorrect, but it is the best I can do. I am apt to not recognize that certain language usages are local to a specific area, and are not common across the country.
I suppose if one sees the USA by only viewing movies out of Hollywood, then one gets a rather distorted and frankly an unrealistic view of what life is like here. It is a slice of life, of some other time, in some imaginary situation, that no longer exists - and in fact probably never did exist exactly as shown on the silver screen. Living here in Kentucky is not exactly like the "Beverly Hillbillies" (TV show of some years back.)
So I get the wrong ideas about the aspects of current "Britishness". I think everyone starts a sentence from time to time with "I say." Everyone there knows what a beck and tarn are, and always have milk in their tea, and can dip drinking water out of a lake (after boiling.) Everyone in a small boat can sail or row, but nobody uses any outboard motor, and as for watersking - it is not done. There are no jetskis either. So somewhere in that description, the TODAY version of Britishness must have its differences somewhere.
Things change. To appreciate those changes, it is good to know what it was like, back then.
It is like seeing the rooftops, just loaded with chimney pots, many on each chimney, that I saw as I was landing at Heathrow Airport back in '83. They seemed to be a vestige of a bygone age, as there was no smoke coming from any of them at that time (early March.) That is just another aspect of the way life is there that has changed in time.
I am grateful to Ransome, and to the members of the TarBoard that have given me these mental images of that place, of that time, without me having the ability to actually BE there to experience it for myself. You Board'ers have been very helpful in answering my many questions, to give me the broadness to my experience with All Things Ransome.
There is still much to learn...
Ed Kiser, Kentucky, where "I'm TARRED" means "I am tired."