Vanished Era Christmas' ; Invisible Children Santa Flew Over

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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A wonderful photo ( ebay ), a small boy whose patriotic mother made him a tiny, military inspired outfit, a gifted drum and dear little be-ribboned hat make us 'sigh', how cute. There are several horrifying aspects to this photo- war is blood and death and suffering and mindless horror, not make-believe dress up- we 'sigh' anyway. And we only have images of our ancestors whose childhood was safe from want to 'sigh' over.

Not a long thread- but a reminder and an important one. Our image of " Victorian Christmas ", added to, eras mixed, co-mingled, inexact and wildly inaccurate in spots can indeed be delightful. ' It ' was probably not exactly how we imagine- there's a kinda lace-edged, rose-petaled, pine scented, faded Santa suit nostalgia permeating ' then '. Less commercial, more religious, much more family oriented- and we gloss over the crazy disparity which existed between rich and poor 100% of the time. Well, it was ugly, why ruin Christmas?

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One of our papers complaining about the awful child labor practices in the UK.

Would like us to remember the photos we have were comparatively expensive for a household. Not out of sight; you sure did not own photographs at the expense of eating. Or wearing clothing. More well-heeled members of population tend to represented, not the majority- so it's a little mistaken on our part to assume all these charming, ringletted toddlers had the same experiences.

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First ' overhaul' had to do with education- and created a huge uproar. 1868, I think.

Child labor laws were not passed in the US until NINETEEN THIRTY SIX. Then you had to make them stick.
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America looked down its nose, in the press at England's barbaric laws but we'd throw a kid into juvenile detention ( in those days ' jail ' ) and work him, as in work, to pay his ' fines '. Labor. As in 9 years old or 8- who knows what ages may be on he books?

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Child labor inside the court system was indeed ( thankfully ) fought- it was thought shocking. Took decades to eradicate. We just have no photos of what occurred. It was far, far to ugly.

'Our ' era, during the war, immigrants populations were especially vulnerable. Heck, LoC contains photos from oyster canning warehouses where this ' tradition ', laid down in the mid to late 1800's continued into the 1930's and 40's- a mother shucking oysters, her small daughter working next to her. Been at it awhile.

The day after Christmas, we really, really should remember. Please. Like I said, short thread, no intention of arguing the point. It's a reminder amidst out slightly erroneous view of the 1860's, our ancestors and their Christmas. And these poor kids vanished into Time.
 
Poor babe... still in his nappies and playing war. One hopes he never lived to see action.


I always feel guilty offering up one-sided images of ' Victorian ' anything. Sure, our ancestors experienced some of that, too. Even the Victorians weren't as ' Victorian ' as they get portrayed. Level of poverty was dreadful, hygiene in areas worse than abysmal, baby selling was quite openly carried on and the rich-poor gap really warming up towards the Gilded Age- that did not occur in a vacuum or overnight.

Plus, ' we ' tend to get entire decades wrong. " Victorian ' means the era when Queen Victoria was Britain's monarch- that was just over six decades, 63 years! Think where we were in 1955 until now- and try stuffing American culture into one era, spanning all those years?
 
Poor babe... still in his nappies and playing war. One hopes he never lived to see action.

On the face of it, there's nothing here beyond the image of a toddler in marching regalia. There's actually nothing martial in the image. It could well be the son (or daughter I suppose) of someone in the town marching society, those being common. It's only our jaded view that will have this a "war" image.
 
Ah, there I was a toddler on Christmas morning being ushered into a church seat, wearing a brand new cowboy suit with a two-gun holster, and a ten-gallon hat; by cowboy boots clicking the tiles. I was not yet 5 years old, and the most daring of all in that congregation!
Lubliner.
 
Not sure I see what the problem is.
Has no one here played war when they were children or pretended to be Soldiers, Marines, or Sailors?
 
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