Another voice is heard from, probably the voice of reason

The Laughing Housewife, who lives in England,  can't post to my blog, but she has sent me this:

Here is the comment I wanted to leave on your latest post:

Trying again to comment.  I do from time to time, because hope is my middle name.

I've never heard of Amazon Instant Video.  Must look it up.

My Mum used to say, 'Read Catherine Cookson and you read my life.'  She was referring to her childhood, which was poor and difficult.  We are from the North West, not the North East, however.

Despite that, I love Downton Abbey and I am a staunch monarchist.  I don't buy into stereotypes and I know many a lower class bigot :)

And I wish it would stop dumping rain here. I'm beginning to feel like Sadie Thompson!

Comments

[Tabor]

Somewhat surprised at how liberal everyone was about homosexuality in that day and age. I thought there was more shock and secrecy.

[Hattie]

Tabor: It was against the law. But there was always a lot of it anyway.
I'm from San Francisco, and even when I was growing up (male) gayness wasn't a big deal, as far as I remember. There were places for gays to go, gay culture was there, so they did not feel as locked out as they might have in other places, plus which gays from all over the country came there to enjoy a more liberal climate.
Not to say that gays didn't get persecuted a lot, even there, especially in their families, and some of them didn't manage to survive, even before the AIDs epidemic. But, as I say, they had places to go.
Lesbians were mostly left alone, as I recall. Dumb bunnies like me did not have much awareness of lesbianism, even though I had a lesbian roommate and was involved in a drama involving a dorm mate who was rejected by her family.

[Rain Trueax]

I grew up knowing about lesbians because my mother and her sisters were in all girl orchestras that traveled around the country in the '30s. There were several women in the band who were gay but didn't hit on my mother or her sisters. They just were and it was a fact not something to disdain. It always just seemed to me like it was just what it was and no big deal. When religion began to overpower politics in this country, that and abortion became a bigger deals as was prayer in schools (which I never had ever) as I was growing up. To gain power religion had to have enemies and causes, I guess. I'd like to think we're past it but about the time I think that some political leader like Ted Cruz arises with the votes of a state and suddenly old issues are being reexamined.

[Hattie]

Rain: An all-girl band! How fascinating! Yes, I too wonder why all these old pots are being stirred up.
Part of it's the desire for money and power, but I also think it's a lot of resentment from people who feel they have been outsmarted by those liberal city slickers who have the secret to success and are not letting them in on it. That would include a good deal of the dear old Southland and the Southwest.

[maria]

Rain Trueax--
Have you written anywhere about your mother's experiences traveling with the orchestra? I would love to read about it.

[Rain Trueax]

I think I had some, Maria, but will have to go looking. I tend to keep photos like that private but since it was so long ago, I might've written some on it. I have some great photos from her albums of the orchestras she played with. All girl orchestras were pretty common in the days of the burlesque halls. She met my father that way. He was a stage hand. Dad also had an unusual life in that he was a carnie. Every year he'd leave whatever job he had to travel for the summer with this big carnival around the NW. He left that year after standing mom up and one of the stage hands told her he was not ever going to be someone she could count on. That fall he came back and never went again. They were married the next May. Mom played bass, one sister played piano. the other drums and they sang trios.