h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What have you done or been part of or *been there* for?.

The intention was to collect first person stories relevant to global events and those from people's cultures, nations and countries.

There will also be an article entitled “Things We Remember” for those snippets that didn't fit the description.

----------------



After spending an extra half a year recovering from one copy of *part 1* and two (yes 2) of *part 3*:
- - - - - - - -
In Living Memory:

Part 1, pre 1960s
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A60097962

Part 2, 1960s
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A60699315

Part 3, post 1960s
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A60710861
- - - - - - - -

I'll now try to spend some time with *Things We Remember*

In the meantime... some questions:
. Have I credited you correctly?
. What have I missed out?
. Formatting OK, Layout OK?

. It seems unlikely to get in the EG in it's present form - and I'm reluctant to modify it too much further (I've tried to keep changes to a minimum) as it's your recollections & blandifying / homogenising it would spoil it.
?Yes? ?No?
. So I'm thinking The Post as a fallback...?


- and your comments, please on what we've got so far

Part 1 has a typo in the last paragraph. The word 'and' seems to be repeated for no apparent reason.

In Part 2 my line "In spite of seeing the death on 'film', I cannot forget watching Jack Ruby on live TV shooting..."
The word 'the' before 'death' doesn't make much sense.
I mean that I had seen death on film before, real deaths not just 'movie' deaths, moments captured by film cameras and played on the news. Stories from Korea, Suez, Hungary, all capturing moments of death in a way theu won't show us today. But Jack Ruby killing Lee Harvey Oswald happened on live TV. Millions saw it as it happened.

Anyway...

peace
~jwf~

~ jwf ~ - *and, and* was intended as a conversational emphasis... I've changed it a bit - better?

your *the death* I interpreted as *The Death* of JFK... Changed it a bit - improved?

Incidentally, you father said he'd give you back to the Indians. Back to... Is there another story there?

Hi

I just wonder whether there is a spare 'Post' in this bit Rod?


>>>Part 2: post 1960s – Paradise – In Parts?<<<

The rest is coming on nicely

>> ...said he'd give you back to the Indians. Back to... Is there another story there? <<

Y'mean, was I really some sort of orphaned aboriginal?

No, the expression was a fairly popular one in those days - post WW2 - among the parents of the Baby Boomer generation in North America. Times were pretty good, kids were happy and generally more exuberant than they had been during the Depression and War years. Better fed, better clothed and probably 'spoiled', kids had more energy and were inclined to hyper-activity. They were said to be 'behaving like wild Indians'. And so it followed that parents might threaten to give their kids back to the Indians whenever their activity became too loud, too rambunctious.

Yes it would be considered a racist remark today. But it had a mixed reaction among children, many of whom (like me) used to imagine the possibility that we might really be Indians or that life among the natives might be freer, happier, more liberated and exciting.

I confess that when my father made the threat as I bounced happily and loudly in the back of the car I may have challenged him to actually make good on it. We were on a warm sunny Sunday drive in the country and the highway passed near a very large Indian reservation. To my surprise he pulled over and told me to get out of the car. There was some discussion between my parents and an elderly Indian woman selling woven sweetgrass baskets at the side of the road. And then my parents drove away.

I was only about four, and quite used to being left with strangers as my parents went off to do their own thing (they were still quite young, in their early 20s and often felt the need to 'do their own thing'). How long I actually spent sitting on the stoop of the Indian woman's store I cannot honestly recall - I just remember it was a pleasant experience, I did not feel abandoned or threatened, the smell of sweetgrass has a calming effect, but I do have a sense that I soon got bored because there were no other children to play with and I was pretty much confined to the spot, forbidden to wander off in search of amusement in the Indian village.

The next memory is of being back in the car and much relieved to be there with my mother much concerned and berating my father for his insensitivity. (An ongoing theme in their relationship. .)

Cheers,
~jwf~

lanzababy - ah, thanks - closing ) in the wrong place, now *pre-1960s* & *post-1960s*
(not sure about the hyphens but look better than *pre1960s*.

~jwf~ - got it - similar to *give you to the gypsies* then. Hmm, the intro looks awry now, so, eg

: Being left behind on a Indian reservation and temporarily adopted by them.
->
: A rhetorical threat made good.

(Not good, is it?) any better ideas?

>>...and berating my father for his insensitivity. (An ongoing theme in their relationship. .)<<

An ongoing theme there, down the ages. It lives on.
Hmm, might call it perhaps...... ah yes, a *Meme* & write a book about it.

What I meant was that in part two you have this header
>>>
Part 2: [post] 1960s – Paradise – In Parts?
<<<

I think the word [post] needs to be removed, as part two is the 1960s.

It's just as well I noticed that lanzababy, ain't it?

glad to be of service

Righty Ho.

The four pieces are just about ready, so - the usual...

Please review them for:
1. Missing items,
2. Extra items (eg in more than one article) - and
3. Credits (ie do I have you in the right places?).

- -

Now, assuming what I've done is acceptable to you (at this stage), I propose posting ILM Part 1 to PR, in a few days or a week - to see what happens...
and
...Assuming that we're not acceptable for the EG then I mean to send 'em all to THE POST and see if they're interested.

----

In Living Memory:

Part 1, pre 1960s
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A60097962

Part 2, 1960s
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A60699315

Part 3, post 1960s
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A60710861

----

Things We Remember:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A60098097

---- ----

Rod

Hi Rod, sorry to be so tardy in getting back to you.

I'm sorry to disrupt all your good work at this stage, and as you want to use the dog bite story, that's fine.
However, I'm greatly flattered that you thought to put it in under 1993 - that would make me just a young , but in reality, I'm nearer . It happened in the *cough, cough* seventies. So if you feel it's better to move/remove it, that's .

Anne, Thanks for the correction - it's no problem to get things right - my apologies for the mistaken guess!

You do seem a little nervous about it?
There are less interesting items - including some of mine... You only have to tell me and I'll remove it.
However, if I was to say that it's not the bite itself that caught my attention, but the way you treated the incident, would that ease you?

Part 1 now in PR

Part 1 in PR:

All of you - go to the PR thread, scan it then look at post 14 from Bob Stafford.

What do you think?

Have you got a link to that?

I found A61210559 but there is no thread below it.


~jwf~

In PR - the thread is a link in the right hand side bar of the article. Where it says 'currently in Peer Review'. Click on the Peer Review, and you will go to the conversation thread.

Alternatively, click on the big green banner at the top of each h2g2 page and you will get to the Peer Review page itself. Scroll down until you find the entries. You can read the entries or read the conversations.

Please take a look!

~jwf~

Rod, no problems on my part (I appreciate what you said about my reaction to the bite), & yes, if you feel that's the interesting part, then leave it in.

Happy New Year to you, & all your contributers

As you asked, here is a copy of my post elsewhere.

My dad was in the US Army in WWII. He never talked much about what he did, or how he was injured (he still had shrapnel scars on his back). The only story he told that I remember was his week-long posting as a forward observer in the Pacific. He gathered canned rations for several days (labels washed off due to an earlier flood in the storage area) and took his post in a pineapple plantation overlooking a straight where Japanese ships could pass. He only ran into one problem during his assignment. Nearly every can he opened was pineapple in some form (crushed, sliced, juice). In all the years since he never again ate pineapple.