Comments on: Engaging in a little time travel

By: Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Time Travel

Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Time Travel — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:00:36 +0000

[...] post reminded me of a post from a couple of months ago by Bookworm, about finding a book in which her grandmother’s friends at her finishing school in [...]

By: Earl

Earl — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 06:13:27 +0000

BW: Two people have mentioned what popped into my mind as soon as you mentioned the photos your mother is keeping…..have them scanned.

From a high-quality scan, you can make yourself a photograph that is more-or-less indistinguishable from the original…except that the scan will probably be “cleaned up” so that scratches, specks, etc. will have disappeared.

Before sending my grandfather’s rather large British medical and surgical licenses (from 1920) over to the hospital he founded in Penang, Malaysia, I had them scanned – we now have framed copies instead of originals, but you can’t really tell. Furthermore, all my siblings and cousins now have electronic copies, which they can use, should they choose, to make their own full-size (or larger or smaller) copies suitable for framing.

Have them scanned before something happens to them – and so that you can enjoy them right along with your mother.

GREAT story, by the way….loved it.

By: Caped Crusader

Caped Crusader — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 23:14:19 +0000

A query from Obama:

Seems strange to me nothing was written in the Swiss or Austrian language. Wa she not an inclusive type person practicing diversity?

By: Bookworm

Bookworm — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 21:27:57 +0000

An excellent question, Alix, but I don't know the answer. That's been lost in the mists of time.

By: Alix

Alix — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 20:06:35 +0000

Fricki was brought back?! It is fascinating that the army would be able to manage that after all the chaos of war. Is there a story behind how the dog was returned?

By: Jose

Jose — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:17:35 +0000

What a treasure!

Recently I was able to scan some photographs of my Grandfather taken when he returned stateside after WW1. His sister met him at Camp Dix and they did a lot of sight seeing until he was discharged in Philadelphia. Great photos and I wish I knew the stories behind them.

By: David Foster

David Foster — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 13:07:38 +0000

Danny/JKB...and this devastation of a generation of men happened in ALL the First World War European belligerent countries. I discussed the impact of WWI on Western civilization, here.

By: Old Buckeye

Old Buckeye — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 12:57:18 +0000

What a wonderful keepsake to have from your grandmother. You might try getting your mom to release some of those photos long enough to get copies made…just in case!

By: JKB

JKB — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 05:35:40 +0000

This reminded me a story I read in an English paper, the Daily Mail, I think, on one of the WWI anniversaries. It was different in that it told a story by a woman who was graduating school in England at the end of the war. It hasn’t left me, what she had to say. She said before graduation, as the war was ending, the headmistress brought the girls together in an assembly. The headmistress told them, quite bluntly, “Most of you will never marry.” The war had taken to many men.

It is odd, you can read about battles, about campaigns, with horrific casualty reports, but one small announcement to a group of young ladies is what brings the losses into your senses.

By: Danny Lemieux

Danny Lemieux — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 05:06:01 +0000

I recall my French grandmother’s haunting recollection, “after the war (WWI) ended, all the young men were gone”. France lost about 4% of her population, mostly men of military age. In today’s terms for our country, that would mean a loss of about 12 million young men…gone! Compare that to how traumatized our population at home has been by the few thousand deaths suffered in our recent wars and you get a sense of the scale of their personal losses.
When I was young, I could not understand why I had so many great aunts that lived out their lives together as spinsters. Later, when I was older, I understood.
May we as a nation never have to go through what they did.