Kicking it with Napoleon.
January 4, 2025 1:53 PM Subscribe
'Life in the 1800s' is a YouTube
channel that "focuses on life in the 1800s: people who lived during that time and have stories to tell, living conditions and ways of life back then, historical elements of the 1800s, etc."
'My Grandfather met Napoleon: Bertrand Russell interview, 1952.' (slyt. 4:28)
'I was born in a cave in the 1896'
I suppose our generation is left with this type of thing.
posted by clavdivs at 2:35 PM on January 4 [2 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 2:35 PM on January 4 [2 favorites]
I like descriptions of daily life, they help round out the stories that we might only know from broad outlines.
I'm another person who got "handed down" stories from a couple of great-grandparents about life in the 1880s and 1890s. I'm also the person in the family who's done a bit of the online sleuthing to counter some of the family legends with bits and pieces of surviving documentation. I feel like I need both of those sources to get a grasp of the actual experiences people had.
The late 1800s in much of the rural U.S. was still a pretty remote existence. Families had to sustain themselves in isolation. Shopping trips "to town" were a big deal, both in cost and in the time they could take away from essential farm work. A working postal service was probably the most recognizably modern aspect of life that they had. My great-grandmother and her siblings were home-schooled from a set of books that were saved up for and ordered through the mail.
posted by gimonca at 4:53 AM on January 5 [1 favorite]
I'm another person who got "handed down" stories from a couple of great-grandparents about life in the 1880s and 1890s. I'm also the person in the family who's done a bit of the online sleuthing to counter some of the family legends with bits and pieces of surviving documentation. I feel like I need both of those sources to get a grasp of the actual experiences people had.
The late 1800s in much of the rural U.S. was still a pretty remote existence. Families had to sustain themselves in isolation. Shopping trips "to town" were a big deal, both in cost and in the time they could take away from essential farm work. A working postal service was probably the most recognizably modern aspect of life that they had. My great-grandmother and her siblings were home-schooled from a set of books that were saved up for and ordered through the mail.
posted by gimonca at 4:53 AM on January 5 [1 favorite]
I danced with a man who danced with a girl who daaanced with the Prince of Wales?
My granny was born in Dover UK in 1892 and lived on and on through the whole 20thC dying in 2001. As I teen she saw the plane in which Louis Blériot had just flown the English channel. Lots of aerospace change in that interval.
otoh, before I started college in Ireland in 1973, I spent a week with an elderly relative in Co Wexford. She could remember as a child talking to an old man who had habitually crossed the nearest river by stepping stones. The bridge there was constructed in 1815. So I'm just two conversations from Napoleon['s era]. I remember Napoleon Solo on the telly, too.
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:02 AM on January 5 [2 favorites]
My granny was born in Dover UK in 1892 and lived on and on through the whole 20thC dying in 2001. As I teen she saw the plane in which Louis Blériot had just flown the English channel. Lots of aerospace change in that interval.
otoh, before I started college in Ireland in 1973, I spent a week with an elderly relative in Co Wexford. She could remember as a child talking to an old man who had habitually crossed the nearest river by stepping stones. The bridge there was constructed in 1815. So I'm just two conversations from Napoleon['s era]. I remember Napoleon Solo on the telly, too.
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:02 AM on January 5 [2 favorites]
My wife's grandfather was born on the Isle of Wight in 1889. As a young boy he was in the St Mildred's Church Choir. After one service, Queen Victoria (1819-1901) wanted a few words with the boys. They all scarpered and hid in the graveyard.
posted by BWA at 4:35 PM on January 5 [2 favorites]
posted by BWA at 4:35 PM on January 5 [2 favorites]
St Mildred's is an excellent church, BWA.
posted by paduasoy at 5:49 PM on January 5 [1 favorite]
posted by paduasoy at 5:49 PM on January 5 [1 favorite]
It is now on the bucket list, thank you.
Now that I think on it, my own grandmother (1887-1980) was a child when Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) came calling at the house of her parents (her mother being a voice and piano teacher.).
posted by BWA at 5:33 AM on January 6
Now that I think on it, my own grandmother (1887-1980) was a child when Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) came calling at the house of her parents (her mother being a voice and piano teacher.).
posted by BWA at 5:33 AM on January 6
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posted by taz at 2:03 PM on January 4 [3 favorites]