Forties File Friday - Favourite Story or Fairy tale -- Mum

I don’t seem to have many memories here… I really don’t remember being read to as a child… so I don’t have ‘favourites.’ I don’t think I read enough to my own children either……..and don’t have real favouites… from that perspective either… I do regret not having read more to my children……and I’d better pull up my socks and be a better ‘reading grandma’… Perhaps it was because I read to my self at a very early age . When I was six years old I remember being in my mum and dads ‘big’ in their room.. that was just off the kitchen… Whenever I was ill, that’s were I was sequestered… Much more convenient for mum to serve and service me… than to go to the front of the house to my room over the garage…This room was warmer too. I have fond memories of the food trays brought to my bed… and always a glass of juice on the bedside table.. Birthday parties and illness confinement were the only occasions that ‘straws’ would be brought forth. This was a treat… I had the Measles… I remember reading the book Toby Tyler and a touching dog story ‘Lefty’ during this time.. There was no vaccine for measles in the forties.. so I imagine every child had the disease ( along with mumps and chicken pox..) I had those too ).. In fact we were deliberately exposed to others with the disease.. so that we would ‘get it ‘ and ‘get it over with ‘.before we got too old. One of the complications of measles was severe damage to the eyes if not blindness. This caution was stressed and the room was darkened… for at least a period while the ‘spots’ were still ‘coming out’ a sign that the disease was in full blown activity and running its course. I remember the strictness with which the need for ‘dark’ was enforced. I remember being so relieved when I was once again ‘ allowed to read’. The blinds had been pulled as well as an additional precaution of a blanket draped over the window. The confinement time was at least two weeks probably three…. School attendance was out of the question until every sign of ‘the spots’ was gone…. Same with chicken pox…tho I remember children coming back to school when the ‘pox ‘ were still in the ‘scabby’ stage. We all understood having experienced our own anxiousness to get out of bed… Being ill and away from school in those days meant ‘being ‘in’ bed ! no roaming the house, no joining the family for a meal. and rarely a visitor.. You might as well have been confined to a hospital ward. ! Of course no TV… to help while the hours away…even the radio was a fixture in the living room. A ‘chamber pot’ was nicely covered with a towel at the side of your bed so that the trip to the toilet would not have to be made… everything was right there……to keep you in the room and ‘in’ bed.. I remember the brown grocery bag with the top edge carefully folded over for stiffness and the bag being fastened to the side of the mattress with a safety pin.. this was to collect the toilet tissue that was used for a bad cold… Usually we used handkerchiefs…but when ill ‘in bed’ with a cold……an exception was made for hygienic reasons so that the laundry would not be contaminated with the ‘germs’ of the patient. I said we had no visitors, but of course the doctor came to see you… In the beginning, to confirm your mums’ diagnosis, and then the next day or so to quell her worries when you were in the most difficult stages of the disease.. and then again to assess how well you were coping with the condition and the prognosis of the time to return to school…One would never consider ‘taking’ a child to the doctors’ office.when it was ill. With something that required bed rest... Doctors made ‘house calls’. Any time of day or night… I had several bouts of ‘the croup’ as a child…and remember Dr Tyso wearing a pajama top for a shirt in the middle of the night.. It was 3 am and as a little girl, I was impressed that I’d stayed up till that hour. I don’t imagine any one else was ! I’ve digressed from the original question. .about fairy tales and bed time stories.. I can , to this day, remember a wealth of nursery rhymes . So I must have been read to ! my memory just doesn’t ‘t serve me well. I was always disturbed with the Rock a Bye Baby rhyme. The ‘inevitable ‘when’ the bough breaks.. left me envisioning baby after baby falling.. and all the while wondering why such a flimsy branch would be chosen…and what was the baby doing up in a tree in the first place .! Rock a bye baby, on a tree top.. when the wind blows, the cradle will rock When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall and down will come baby cradle and all. Mary mary quite contrary . was a challenge for me to emulate… I would find a little patch of violets or pansies with their ‘faces’…”pretty maids”. Then I’d go to the very back of our property where ‘ blue bells’ grew so thick and broad.. that they were like a sea of blue.. I would dig up a few and plant them in my chosen patch…. They were ‘ blue’ bells not ‘silver’ bells.. but that was ok… Then my collection of shells (cockle or not) would be brought out to put a neat row of them across the flower bed.. Just like the illustration in my little book. I didn’t know the meaning of contrary…. So I never felt a negative in the rhyme . Mary , Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow.. With silver bells an d cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row. A childhood memory that could be included here was a little song on a ‘record’…A record that was a lightly plastized cardboard disc the size of the later 45’s tho it was still a 78 This was played on ‘a record player’ that played only 78 rpm…. This particular child record was just smaller .. it was before the 45 speed or the 33 /3 rpm speeds were popular. This was our ‘new’ player… so this was quite exciting . Up until now we had a ‘gramaphone’…. This was a record player that was non electric and had a hand crank to wind..up the green felt covered platform for the record. I remember this felt clearly , a result of the time that I let the handle that held the needle touch the surface…… and the tear that it made…the needle that it broke. I felt very very badly … Maybe worse than I needed to , all was soon repaired.. and we played once more… But my little record disk … was such a treat to have. My very own record with a sweet picture of a kitten. But most of all the song! ! ! . I remember it 60 years later… I plyed it and sang it until I’d driven the family crazy, especially a time when Auntie Eileen was looking after us. I can hear it now.. Kitty Kat, Kitty Kat …Meow Meow …I want to be your kitty.. I am so soft and pretty.. I am as soft as silk.. because I always drink my milk. All day I can be seen, licking my self to keep real clean… Kitty Kat Kitty Kat, meow meow I want to be your kitty, Oh my just think of that.. I’d love to be your kitty kat. Meeee oowww. The Hansel and Gretel story worried me as a small child, but redeemed itself when Inglebert Humperdink provided the music for the ‘record’ version that was made in Jill’s era Jill never stopped singing the song.. and I sang along . Fairy tales, Bedtime stories, Nursery rhymes…..they don’t stand very tall in my memory…..it seems.. Currently , I’m collecting stories and movies, that are soft and touching…love stories, not romance… but those about warm and tender relationships.. Among my favourites are Lost for Words ( about a middle aged son and his Mum) Good night Mr. Tom ( an elderly man giving a home, to a little boy evacuated during the bombing of London.) In the Company of Strangers ( an unusual mix of ladies stranded together after their bus broke down on an ‘outing’ ) On Golden Pond ( a grandpa and a grandson becoming friends.. (wish I could take out the foul language tho:) I welcome any suggestions and titles for ones that I might look into . I’m also enjoying collecting stories for grandchildren, that are sweet and tender, that emphasize compassion, empathy, honesty, selflessness, generosity, perseverance, fairness, endurance, tolerance, kindness ….and a whole host of virtues. Stories , nice stories are stories at any time… for little girls….or Grandmas who are just little girls grown older… FOOTNOTES The gramophone pictured below is a replica ‘small’ verson. Ours was the same ‘workings’ but in a large dome lidded heavy wooden cabinet that was over 4 feet tall and 2+ feet square from bottom to top… Emile Berliner (1851-1929 ) patented the gramophone. Early attempts to design a consumer sound or music playing gadget began in 1877 when Thomas Edison invented his tin-foil phonograph. The word "phonograph" was Edison's trade name for his device, which played recorded sounds from round cylinders. The sound quality on the phonograph was bad and each recording lasted for one only play. Edison's phonograph was followed by Alexander Graham Bell's graphophone. The graphophone used wax cylinders which could be played many times, however, each cylinder had to be recorded separately making the mass reproduction of the same music or sounds impossible with the graphophone. 1887 - Emile Berliner Invents The Gramophone And Records On November 8 1887, Emile Berliner, a German immigrant working in Washington D.C., patented a successful system of sound recording. Berliner was the first inventor to stop recording on cylinders and start recording on flat disks or records. The first records were made of glass, later zinc, and eventually plastic. A spiral groove with sound information was etched into the flat record. The record was rotated on the gramophone. The "arm" of the gramophone held a needle that read the grooves in the record by vibration and transmitting the information to the gramophone speaker. Berliner's disks (records) were the first sound recordings that could be mass-produced by creating master recordings from which molds were made. From each mold, hundreds of disks were pressed. The Gramophone Company Emile Berliner founded "The Gramophone Company" to mass manufacture his sound disks (records) and the gramophone that played them. To help promote his gramophone system Berliner did two things, he persuaded popular artists to record their music using his system. Two famous artists who signed early on with Berliner's company were Enrico Caruso and Dame Nellie Melba. The second smart marketing move Berliner made came in 1908, when he used Francis Barraud's painting of 'His Master's Voice' as his company's official trademark. Emile Berliner sold the licensing rights to his patent for the gramophone and method of making records to the Victor Talking Machine Company (RCA) who made the gramophone a successful product in the United States. Berliner continued doing business in other countries. He founded the Berliner Gram-o-phone Company in Montreal, Canada, the Deutsche Grammophon in Germany, and the U.K based Gramophone Co., Ltd. Trademark Question - Who Was Nipper? Berliner's legacy also lives on in his trademark, a picture of a dog listening to his master's voice being played from a gramophone. The dog's name was Nipper. Elridge Johnson Emile Berliner worked on improving the playback machine with Elridge Johnson. Elridge Johnson patented a spring motor for the Berliner gramophone. The motor made the turntable revolve at an even speed and there was no more hand cranking of the gramophone. The trademark His Master's Voice was passed on to Eldridge Johnson by Emile Berliner. Johnson began to print it on his Victor record catalogs and then on the paper labels of the disks. Soon, "His Master's Voice" became one of the best-known trademarks in the world, still in use today. Work on the Telephone and the Microphone (1876-84) In 1876, Emile Berliner invented a microphone used as a telephone speech transmitter. At the U.S. Centennial Exposition, Emile Berliner had seen a Bell Company telephone demonstrated and was inspired to find ways to improve the newly invented telephone. The Bell Telephone Company was impressed with what the inventor came up with and bought Berliner's microphone patent for $50,000. Emile Berliner - Other Inventions 1908 - radial aircraft engine 1919 - a helicopter 1920s - acoustical tiles