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My mum talks to pupils about The Blitz!
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Message 1.Β
Posted by Stephen Beat (U14388797) on Monday, 7th November 2011
My old Mum (85) was asked by her local primary school to give a talk to a group of 9 year olds. She served in the ATS on anti-aircraft gun sites in London during the Blitz and as part of their history studies and the Remembrance Day activities the pupils were to meet my Mum and quiz her about her role in the Army during WW2.
Poor old Ma got herself into such a fluster wondering what to tell them, so she practised her speech on me to see what I thought. I had to stop her when she was explaining her job on early radar as I had to explain to her that kids these days might not know what a CATHODE RAY TUBE was!
I could imagine the blank stares from little 9 year olds as the magic of this technology went right over their heads! The modern abbreviation of 'TV' just doesn't have the same ring to it!
PS - I phoned my mum at lunchtime (her talk was this morning) to find out how things went. "Oh, very well." She said. And so I asked her if they had asked her many questions. "Yes...One girl asked me 'Mrs. Beat - do you knit?'" :D -
Message 2
Posted by northeastsmooth (U13386777) on Monday, 7th November 2011
thats what history is all about. This is a great way to talk about history and instill some respect. Mrs Beat is living history. Lovely. I am 43 and still love to listen to their stories.
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Message 3
Posted by raundsgirl (U2992430) on Monday, 7th November 2011
If one of my children dared to describe me as "my old mum", they had better not do so in my hearing, or I would do my best to demonstrate that old or not, I could still administer a clip round the ear! -
Message 4
Posted by Sambista (U4068266) on Monday, 7th November 2011
My elder son was tasked to "Ask your grandparents what it was like to be at school in the war". The teacher called me in to query what his grandad had told him - about writing on slates, and the zeppelin raid. I'm sure she thought he had made it all up, and I had to explain his grandfather was talking about WWI.
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Message 5
Posted by Caro (U1691443) on Monday, 7th November 2011
The trouble with nine-year-olds is that they are likely to get onto a thread of questions, and I wouldn't be surprised if your mother was also asked if she sewed, read, ate breakfast, etc. But sometimes they can also be very astute in their questions. Cathode ray tube wouldn't mean much to me either! I ignore technical things. But I don't think it hurts to put into speeches like that the odd thing that is foreign to your audience.
Our school brings in people from the community quite a bit for their expertise, though often in more practical fields (the community garden, the swimming pool swimathon, etc), but once I heard a returned serviceman talk of his experiences in WWII. I don't know what the kids thought but I was stunned by some of his memories - especially the amount of water they were allowed to carry on long marches in blazing sun. I have found something I wrote for the newspaper about this at the time:
"Students and staff were amazed and horrified by his account of the difficulties caused by a lack of water. He spoke of not being able to drink from their water bottle at all during the day-time, since once they started drinking they couldnβt stop and of using the same couple of inches of water for cleaning their teeth, shaving and then washing their bodies. βI didnβt have a shower or bath for three months.β
He recalled a battle in 1942 at Mingar Quam, a trig point on the Libyan border near the town of Marsa Matruh, where the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Wallis Simpson) had their honeymoon. There, two New Zealand brigades were pitted against German troops in a delaying tactic."
I mentioned this battle to people who were interested in war and it meant nothing to them so must have been a smallish thing. definitely happened though.
Cheers, Caro. (off the track as usual) -
Message 6
Posted by CASSEROLEON (U11049737) on Monday, 7th November 2011
Not that I really know what is "in", but I gathered last year perhaps (?) that hand-knitting was "all the rage" once more with young females, and is quite possibly one of the lost arts of a generation that such children can "rate" most highly. They probably can see that most of their own parents are "rubbish" at this lost art. Parents in changing times are just so useless.
Cass -
Message 7
Posted by Caro (U1691443) on Monday, 7th November 2011
On that note, Cass, I heard on our radio just a few minutes ago that embroidery has become very fashionable in NZ's Christchurch recently, with people joining classes to make embroideries of fallen buildings and probably to join societies after others have disappeared.
The trouble with hand-knitting is that you want someone to wear it at the end, and people don't necessarily want to. My grandson wore the little jersey I knitted him. Once, for the photo. It won't stop me knitting another one for other grandchildren; it's what grandmothers do! (Though this grandmother hasn't knitted anything else for at least 15 years. My daughter-in-law does, though and my son can.) -
Message 8
Posted by Jak (U1158529) on Tuesday, 8th November 2011
Congrats to your Mum, Stephen. Whatever she told those kids will have an effect, maybe many years from now.
When I was 9, during the War, I was in hospital. A neighbour's son, home on leave from the RAF, paid me a surprise visit (with a pile of comics -the 'Hotspur', 'Wizard' etc). He told me what he was doing in the Airforce - very hush-hush stuff, don't say a word! - about being able to 'see' Gerry planes approaching, long before they were actually in sight - even at night. Wow!
Can't recall how he described it, but I don't think he could have mentioned cathode-ray tubes. For years I had this mental picture of him looking at a row of glass bottles with the planes like flies buzzing inside. And of course I never said a word to anybody, until now. When (much later) I heard about radar, I realised he must have been a radar-op.
It's weird, the things you remember from nearly 70 years ago. -
Message 9
Posted by CASSEROLEON (U11049737) on Tuesday, 8th November 2011
Caro
Re knitting in NZ-
Perhaps there has historically been just too much wool in modern times for young people to think of it as "cool"?
Cass -
Message 10
Posted by Patrick Wallace (U196685) on Wednesday, 9th November 2011
<quote postid='110812903'>The trouble with hand-knitting is that you want someone to wear it at the end, and people don't necessarily want to.</quote
You could always follow my mother's example, and unravel the knitting and use the wool for something else. Thrifty, as well as extending the joy (if such it be) of knitting.
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