The Sunday Post...

The Sunday Post

Yesterday, in a fit of early morning zeal, I got the bike out and cycled around for half an hour.  This was yet another attempt to lose weight and get some degree of fitness.  Today, I cycled the five minutes to church, ten minutes coming back against the wind and traffic, and see myself as ready for a long cycling adventure tomorrow, if the wind drops, it's quite strong at the moment.
Yes indeed I might rise early and race slowly up the old railway until my knees give way.  That should not take long.  The advantage is the Bank Holiday Weekend, this means many people are away and the last dregs of the school holidays begin to come to an end.  This week the schools return to be filled with happy cheery children, and miserable adolescents.  At the museum we have one more week of the kids, two days actually, then it is the grandparents and parents coming in to see what they missed when they came with the kids.  
As I intend to drop one day and work only Tuesday mornings for a while, so I can do the other things for the museum that lie awaiting on this computer, i will also be able to take more time on the bike and on the bus pass.  When the holidays are over I can get a holiday.  Or at least a day out on the bus!  How I need to be out and about a wee bit more, my mind needs refreshment and my body needs the following rest.  Already this week sees an improvement as I eat better and sleep more.  

I do, as some remember, like portraits.  This one here dates from the 1850's and I winder if it is from the USA?  Something about it speaks of east coast wealth, maybe that's just me.   Possibly because of the somewhat long exposure time the lady in the picture cannot avoid offering us a face full of stress.  However I note what looks like two wedding rings on her finger and wonder if she has been bumping off her men?  The outfit looks black, it is of course impossible to tell from the picture what the colour of the dress actually happens to be, but the dark beads round the neck, the crucifix and the general demeanor speaks of sad times.  Her dark bracelets also add to the doom laden image.
She appears to be no more than thirty years of age and it is perfectly possible in the 1850's to lose two husbands in short time, and if in the USA possibly through gunfire of course!  Her men may have gone west to make their fortune and failed to return, it is likely disease carried them away. 
Poor lass, if my guesswork is correct she will have had enough problems and need no more.  I wonder who she was, I wonder if she is just a model, I wonder if her husbands were rich and I wonder where did the money go....?  

Ah, Oor Wullie and the Broons!

I've been doing my teeth no good whatsoever by stuffing, with both hands, into my gob the 'Oor Wullie,' 'Scottish Butter Fudge' that my favourite, best looking and most intelligent niece gave me at Christmas. This combines several Scots habits in one,  there is 'Oor Wullie,' himself, sweets eaten by the ton, and teeth eroding as you eat!  Scots dentists always have work!  The fudge is available in many guises but here is presented as a money maker for D.C. Thomson's, the great Dundee press giant, as they like to be known.  'Oor Wullie,' is a cheeky chappie character developed in the late thirties by the D.C.Thomson Comics editor R.D. Low.  He it was who produced comics such as 'The Hotspur' and 'The Wizard,' in the twenties and thirties.  He also later introduced 'The Dandy,' 'The Beano' and 'The Topper.'  Low introduced an eight page comic section into the 'Sunday Post,' Thomson's 'family paper,' these were the wee rascal 'Oor Wullie,' based on the typical young boy of the day, and the family called 'The Broons.' While 'Wullie stayed with his family in a ground floor of an unidentified town the Broons were tenement dwellers in an industrial city, very like Dundee. The strips began in 1936 and reflected much of Scots life of the day, my family of six emerged from a tenement in 1953 to dwell in a modern flat, allowing me to understand something of the 'Broons' plight.  His cartoonist was a famous man Dudley D. Watkins.   Watkins illustrated and created many strips for the Thomson comics working for them from 1925 until he died from a heart attack at his drawing board in 1969.  His popularity and importance was such that he was one of two only cartoonists allowed to sign their work!   His attitude to Mr Hitler and his expansionist policies were reflected in the strips and it is said he was on Hitler's list of those to be dealt with.  

'The Broons' and 'Oor Wullie,' are part of every Scots kids life, even though most of the other comics have closed down.  As such there is great trade in sending annuals, sometimes facsimiles of old editions, to ex-pat Scots to remind them of home.  Some would say the 'Sunday Post,' is the reason they left in the first place!  These are not cartoons that cause much laughter today for me but the characters enshrined I have known in past times, but the world moves on and the hardships of the pre-war era reflected have been eradicated for the majority.  It could be said many fail to comprehend a family life where both a mum and dad exist, and brothers and sisters dwell in unity, excluding the family feuds!  'Willie,' has parents who care for him and far too many today would not understand this, the majority may but our disjointed and confused society finds happy family life difficult.

My favourite such comic was and remains 'The Beano!'  Their were many others offered to us, the folks encouraged us to read as much as possible, and vast amounts of cash was paid for these.  'The Beano,' is my favourite because of the anarchic outlook and the items at the side.  For example there was the stagnant pond, we knew this because of the broken notice board giving this information and the ducks are all wearing gas masks!  Adverts pinned on the fences in the background told us to "eat more MINCE," and featured a bowl holding mince three foot high! Such absurdity abounded in the past and hopefully still does today, 'The Beano,' appearing to be the only comic left in the UK these days.  Ha! Kids today, they know nothing!

      

Recognise yourself....?

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This is my Sunday Post

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