My main activity is the recreation of past experience, experience which has the force of a prescient reality during which there is no awareness of time in its scientific measurement. It is a Time machine of the mind, a Tardis of opportunity without the apparent randomness experienced by my mother and others in a similar condition who see objects as people from their past, debate which relatives are appearing on the Television and in constant call for parents, loved ones, their brothers and sisters long departed, but who appear to still exist in the form of others.
My mother was born in 1907, her eldest sister in 1893 and her youngest in 1914 over two decades which saw the end of the reign of Queen Victoria and the birth of the twentieth century with both parents and six of her elder sisters and brothers. 100 years later my mother and two of her sisters witnessed the commencement of the third millennium since the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
My mother's parents married in 1892 the same year as General Franco, Paul Getty and J R Tolkein. Keir Hardy was elected the first Socialist to the British Parliament while Gladstone had his fourth term. Paul Gauguin married a 13 year old Tahitian while in Italy a law was made which forbade girls under 12 to marry if they were fat, and also in that year the tube of toothpaste first went on the market!
As a child brought up by three sisters of five sisters, sharing a house with a six and her family, the eldest who slept at the end of in a household of five, the eldest who slept at end of a double bed opposite to me was born in 1893, the year of birth of Mao Tse-tung and Herman Goering, Cole Porter, Wilfred Owen and Vera Brittain, and with Mae West, Mary Pickford, and Jimmy Durante. The first motion picture studio was created and Henry Ford produced a working gas motor. Beatrix Potter created her first Peter Rabbit Story and Keir Hardie formed the Independent Labour Party in the UK at a time when Liberals William Gladstone and Lord Rosebery were Prime Ministers. Shredded Wheat was also patented and cannibals ran amok in the Congo with horrific consequences.
The first son was born in 1895, the day before W G Grace completed his 100 100's. Among those born in the year were J Edgar Hoover and Groucho Marx, Anna Freud, Jack Dempsey and Oscar Hammerstein. 1895 saw the start of the Cuban war of independence, Italy invaded Abyssinia and the Sino Japanese war ended. Conservative Lord Salisbury became Prime Minister. The Spanish Cruiser Reina Regenta sank off Gibraltar with the loss of some 400 lives.
My mother's second eldest who after adolescent meningitis became deaf, dumb, blind and bed ridden was born 1896 the year of Wallis Simpson, also shared with writer Scott Fitzgerald, song writer Ira Gershwin and film actress Lilian Gish. It was also a year when x ray machines were first invented and Henry demonstrated his first Ford petrol engine motorcar. Cecil Rhodes resigned in South Africa, 80000 Ethiopians destroyed 20000 Italians and General Kitchener's Army was in the Sudan and the Klondike Gold Rush commenced. The first modern Olympics were held in Athens.
The third daughter and her husband provided my home for the first eight to years of my experience was born in same year as the deaths of Otto von Bismarck, Gladstone and Lewis Carrol, and the births of Alec Waugh, Bertolt Brecht, C S Lewis, Golda Meir, Henry Moore, Paul Robson, and Peggy Guggenheim. Emile Zola was imprisoned in Paris for writing a letter and Don Quixote premiered. The Spanish American War began between Spain and the US over Cuba and China leased Hong to the UK for 99 years. The US attacked the Spanish in Guantanamo Bay and also annexed Hawaii, Mr Kellog invented Corn Flakes and a car set a world record of 39 MPH. A machine gun was first used and Russia expelled its Jews.
The second son and fifth child were born in the year of the last UK census to be published, on the 31st March 1901. The year of his birth was interesting coinciding with those of Emperor Herohito and Salvatore Quasimodo, Marlene Dietrich, Clark Cable, Gary Cooper, Walt Disney and Louis Armstrong, the writers Barbara Cartland and Andre Malraux, together with Enrico Fermi, Margaret Mead and Linus Pauling. 1901 was also significant because of the death of Queen Victoria and the succession of Edward Vll. Oil was discovered in Texas and Australia declared its Independence of the UK. Pablo Picasso aged 19 held his first exhibition. The first vacuum cleaner was patented along with the disposal razor.
The third son was born in 1901 but it was the next sister who I came to know well, and visited her with my mother and a younger sister in hospital in 2002 when she was 98. She was born in the year of Cary Grant, Christopher Isherwood, Eddie Condon, Graham Green, Robert Oppenheimer, Joan Crawford, John Gielgud, Salvador Dali, Anton Chekhov and Johnny Weissmuller. The first aeroplane flight lasting five minutes took place. The Trans Siberian railway was completed and the US subway system was created together with the building of the Grand Central Station in New York. The ice cream cone was invented. Japan and Russia went to war just before the first performance of Madam Butterfly. The US Government acquired control of the Panama Canal. In The UK the Daily Mirror was first printed and the daily forecasting of weather commenced.
My mother was born in 1907, her eldest sister in 1893 and her youngest in 1914 over two decades which saw the end of the reign of Queen Victoria and the birth of the twentieth century with both parents and six of her elder sisters and brothers. 100 years later my mother and two of her sisters witnessed the commencement of the third millennium since the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
My mother's parents married in 1892 the same year as General Franco, Paul Getty and J R Tolkein. Keir Hardy was elected the first Socialist to the British Parliament while Gladstone had his fourth term. Paul Gauguin married a 13 year old Tahitian while in Italy a law was made which forbade girls under 12 to marry if they were fat, and also in that year the tube of toothpaste first went on the market!
As a child brought up by three sisters of five sisters, sharing a house with a six and her family, the eldest who slept at the end of in a household of five, the eldest who slept at end of a double bed opposite to me was born in 1893, the year of birth of Mao Tse-tung and Herman Goering, Cole Porter, Wilfred Owen and Vera Brittain, and with Mae West, Mary Pickford, and Jimmy Durante. The first motion picture studio was created and Henry Ford produced a working gas motor. Beatrix Potter created her first Peter Rabbit Story and Keir Hardie formed the Independent Labour Party in the UK at a time when Liberals William Gladstone and Lord Rosebery were Prime Ministers. Shredded Wheat was also patented and cannibals ran amok in the Congo with horrific consequences.
The first son was born in 1895, the day before W G Grace completed his 100 100's. Among those born in the year were J Edgar Hoover and Groucho Marx, Anna Freud, Jack Dempsey and Oscar Hammerstein. 1895 saw the start of the Cuban war of independence, Italy invaded Abyssinia and the Sino Japanese war ended. Conservative Lord Salisbury became Prime Minister. The Spanish Cruiser Reina Regenta sank off Gibraltar with the loss of some 400 lives.
My mother's second eldest who after adolescent meningitis became deaf, dumb, blind and bed ridden was born 1896 the year of Wallis Simpson, also shared with writer Scott Fitzgerald, song writer Ira Gershwin and film actress Lilian Gish. It was also a year when x ray machines were first invented and Henry demonstrated his first Ford petrol engine motorcar. Cecil Rhodes resigned in South Africa, 80000 Ethiopians destroyed 20000 Italians and General Kitchener's Army was in the Sudan and the Klondike Gold Rush commenced. The first modern Olympics were held in Athens.
The third daughter and her husband provided my home for the first eight to years of my experience was born in same year as the deaths of Otto von Bismarck, Gladstone and Lewis Carrol, and the births of Alec Waugh, Bertolt Brecht, C S Lewis, Golda Meir, Henry Moore, Paul Robson, and Peggy Guggenheim. Emile Zola was imprisoned in Paris for writing a letter and Don Quixote premiered. The Spanish American War began between Spain and the US over Cuba and China leased Hong to the UK for 99 years. The US attacked the Spanish in Guantanamo Bay and also annexed Hawaii, Mr Kellog invented Corn Flakes and a car set a world record of 39 MPH. A machine gun was first used and Russia expelled its Jews.
The second son and fifth child were born in the year of the last UK census to be published, on the 31st March 1901. The year of his birth was interesting coinciding with those of Emperor Herohito and Salvatore Quasimodo, Marlene Dietrich, Clark Cable, Gary Cooper, Walt Disney and Louis Armstrong, the writers Barbara Cartland and Andre Malraux, together with Enrico Fermi, Margaret Mead and Linus Pauling. 1901 was also significant because of the death of Queen Victoria and the succession of Edward Vll. Oil was discovered in Texas and Australia declared its Independence of the UK. Pablo Picasso aged 19 held his first exhibition. The first vacuum cleaner was patented along with the disposal razor.
The third son was born in 1901 but it was the next sister who I came to know well, and visited her with my mother and a younger sister in hospital in 2002 when she was 98. She was born in the year of Cary Grant, Christopher Isherwood, Eddie Condon, Graham Green, Robert Oppenheimer, Joan Crawford, John Gielgud, Salvador Dali, Anton Chekhov and Johnny Weissmuller. The first aeroplane flight lasting five minutes took place. The Trans Siberian railway was completed and the US subway system was created together with the building of the Grand Central Station in New York. The ice cream cone was invented. Japan and Russia went to war just before the first performance of Madam Butterfly. The US Government acquired control of the Panama Canal. In The UK the Daily Mirror was first printed and the daily forecasting of weather commenced.
My mother was born in 1907 and the sister who provided mothering during my childhood in 1909, and their younger brother in 1911, the same birth year as Ronald Regan, Hubert Humphrey, and Georges Pompidou, Roy Rogers, Jean Harlow, Lucille Ball and Mitch Millar. There was also the birth of Tennessee Williams and the death of Mahler and Pulitzer. Aeroplane bombing with explosives was developed as was the sea plane, while the Zeppelin Deutschland was wrecked and the air speed record reached of 83 mph. A great fire destroyed Constantinople/Istanbul and later in year Italy declared war on Turkey and occupied Tripoli. The Portuguese expelled the Jesuits, there was a failed attempt to assassinate the French Prime Minister, the President of Honduras was overthrown with US help, the French moved into Morocco, there was revolution in Mexico, the Shah of Persia was overthrown, France and Germany signed Treaty over Morocco and the Congo, the Chinese Imperial army recaptured Nanking in a blood bath and King George V was crowned. Amundsen reached the South Pole and Scott died on the way home, while S F Barnes took five Australian wickets for six runs at Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The youngest sister was born in 1914 the year when Austria invaded Siberia, Germany offered her support, and in the same month Mahatma Ghandi was first arrested in South Africa. There was armed resistance against British rule in Ulster. On July 29 Austria Hungry bombed Belgrade. The German Emperor then declared war on his nephew Tsar Nicholas II. Germany overthrew Luxembourg, Russian troops invaded Prussia. Germany invaded Belgium and declared war on France. Great Britain declared war on Germany. The United States declared its neutrality followed by a number of central and southern American countries. Serbia and Montenegro declared war on Germany. Great Britain declared war on Austria Hungry, followed by France. Japan joined the allies against German-Austrian Hungarian alliance. Zapata and Pancho Villa overran Mexico.
There were the bloody battles of Charleroi, the Ardennes, Mons, Tannerberg, Helgoland, the Marne, Ypres, and Warsaw. Russia, Britain and France declared war on Turkey. The British and German fleets battled at Falkland Island. Great Britain declared Egypt a protectorate. German planes dropped bombs on Dover and the United States contributed the first silent feature, a comedy staring Charlie Chaplin. The world then changed for ever and again when the great economic crash occurred, when the Spanish Civil War produced the bombing of civilians, the Nazi planned and carried out the executions of millions of its own citizens because of race, deformity or political and social viewpoint as well as of many other nations who were not in armed service.
Another way of understanding what time means to my mother is to consider the different individuals who serviced as Prime Minister, forming government over a gradually diminishing empire :- Herbert Henry Asquith 1908-16 Liberal; David Lloyd George 1916-22 Liberal; Andrew Bonar Law 1922-3 Conservative; Stanley Baldwin 1923, 1924-9, 1935-7 Conservative; James Ramsay MacDonald 1924 and 1929-35 Labour; Arthur Neville Chamberlain 1937-40 Conservative; Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill 1940-5 and 1951-5 Conservative; Clement Richard Attlee 1945-51 Labour; Anthony Eden 1955-7 Conservative; Harold Macmillan 1957-63 Conservative; Sir Alec Douglas-Home 1963-4 Conservative; Harold Wilson 1964-70 and 1974-6 Labour; Edward Heath 1970-4 Conservative; James Callaghan 1976-9 Labour; Margaret Thatcher 1979-1990 Conservative; John Major 1990-97 Conservative, and presently Tony Blair 1997-2007 Labour, after which and if she continues she will have a vote at the General Election which she will exercise. In England and Wales there will be over 11000 others aged 100 and more able to say we remember, we were there. It was in our time.
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