questions about the 1920s

RHQ · Sep 11, 2009

I am writing a novel where most of the action takes place in the 1920s. I'll probably have various questions so I'll try to put them under this thread as they come up.

First question: In 1920, if a girl from a fairly well-off family from Georgia was going to go to college, would it be reasonable for her to go to Wellesley in Massachusetts?

Second question: If she did go to MA, would she have come home for the Thanksgiving holiday? Was Thanksgiving as big a deal back then as it is now? If so, how would she have traveled (train?) and how long would it take?

If you can point me to online sources that would be wonderful!

Thanks!

Kelly Smith

Puma · Sep 11, 2009

Hi Kelly - Not sure if I can give you too much help. Wellesley would not have been out of the question (but don't forget Vassar). Second part of this and I don't know the answer - were/are there any prestige women's schools south of the Mason Dixon line? If there are, I think a southern school would have been just as likely if not more so.

In the late 40's Thanksgiving was a big deal and family members from out of state traveled to parents' homes to celebrate it.

Going home for Thanksgiving from Wellesley to Georgia is questionable. I attended school in the early 60's in Indiana and some of the kids from New England did not go home for Thanksgiving - too far for the short period of time even though there was the option of flying. The ones who stayed on campus congregated (by school dictate) in one particular dorm for each sex and had their Thanksgiving dinner with one of the faculty families.

If she did go to Wellesley and did go home for Thanksgiving she would have traveled by train or possibly Greyhound bus. And let me tell you, long trips on the greydog were something (six hours to home for me - there were no trains close to my college. And I either had to walk most of a mile carrying my suitcase or take a cab to and from the greyhound stop.).

So the availability of train service is something you definitely need to look into. Hope that helps. Puma

RHQ · Sep 11, 2009

Hi Puma,

Thanks for the info. I may just move her to a school closer to home! Luckily it's early enough in the process to do that.

Kelly

SirOtter · Sep 11, 2009

RHQ said:
First question: In 1920, if a girl from a fairly well-off family from Georgia was going to go to college, would it be reasonable for her to go to Wellesley in Massachusetts?

Possibly, but I'd suspect Wesleyan College in Macon would've been more preferable to her family. Less chance of having their Flower of the South begrimed by contact with those Yankee persons. And she definitely would have traveled home for Thanksgiving on a train. No well-off person of that era would deign stoop to bus travel. Nor would she go by Pullman car. A private compartment was the standard for long-distance travel for the upper classes, if a private car wasn't available or practical.

Oh, and it would have taken at least two or three days to get from Massachusetts to even the northernmost part of Georgia by train, not leaving much time in between trips for screaming hissy fits, conniptions and family dramatics, so you might want to move her closer on that account, as well.

RHQ · Sep 11, 2009

Well, I do need her family to hate her new boyfriend, so if he was a Yankee that might do it! Although she probably doesn't have to go quite so far north.

Now I have to figure out if train travel would have been fast enough for her to bother going home for Thanksgiving. If not, I can always move the scene to Christmas time when she would have had a longer break.

Thanks!

SirOtter · Sep 11, 2009

RHQ said:
Well, I do need her family to hate her new boyfriend, so if he was a Yankee that might do it! Although she probably doesn't have to go quite so far north.

Now I have to figure out if train travel would have been fast enough for her to bother going home for Thanksgiving. If not, I can always move the scene to Christmas time when she would have had a longer break.

Thanks!

If the congenital Yankeehood of the paramour is a requirement, but a closer school is called for perhaps Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania might do.

RHQ · Sep 12, 2009

Oh it isn't required. I hadn't even thought of it until you said it. It would just give me an easy reason. They're going to dislike him no matter where he comes from because under his charming surface he's just disagreeable in many ways and downright in evil in ways they can't even guess at.

Kelly

Stlight · Sep 13, 2009

I wouldn’t confuse the issue with the cliché ‘hating the yankee’ thing. Possible certainly, but it might appear that you’re being a bit lazy as a writer.

Just a thought.

RHQ · Sep 13, 2009

Yeah. Like I said that wasn't in my original plan at all (they'll have other reasons to dislike him), but it certainly won't help him any in their eyes.

Kelly

Stlight said:
I wouldn’t confuse the issue with the cliché ‘hating the yankee’ thing. Possible certainly, but it might appear that you’re being a bit lazy as a writer.

Just a thought.

History_Chick · Sep 14, 2009

RHQ said:
Well, I do need her family to hate her new boyfriend, so if he was a Yankee that might do it! Although she probably doesn't have to go quite so far north.

Now I have to figure out if train travel would have been fast enough for her to bother going home for Thanksgiving. If not, I can always move the scene to Christmas time when she would have had a longer break.

Thanks!

X mas would work. I'm sure they would close the dorms down.

BTW love the 1920s and wish I could find more books set during that time

RHQ · Sep 14, 2009

I'll do my best to get it published.

Kelly

History_Chick said:
BTW love the 1920s and wish I could find more books set during that time

SirOtter · Sep 16, 2009

I'm not sure I'd be so quick to dismiss antipathy for the Northern Aggressors as too cliched. In 1920, someone my age would still remember Reconstruction, which was considered just as shameful or more so than the failure of the Glorious Cause to prevail. There would still be Confederate veterans gathered about the courthouse in most small towns, whittling and showing off their scars to small boys. Even that late, and beyond into the time of my own memory in the 1960s, anyone who moved from the North into the Deep South was referred to as a Carpetbagger. The hate still runs deep, if subcutaneously, as the current state of Southern politics should make clear. 'Any new policy some damned Yankee comes up with is no damn good, and we're agin it!' pretty much sums up the bulk of what passes for southern political philosophy in vast areas of Those States Formerly in Rebellion Against the Union During the Recent Unpleasantness. And yes, I still have relatives who call the Civil War the Recent Unpleasantness, or the War of Yankee Aggression. Never underestimate the ability of the seed of Scots-Irish immigrants to hold a grudge. I would hesitate to cast aside so useful a tool, much less so accurate a one. Besides, handled right, no plot point however so familiar can offend as cliched. Handled wrong, the most innovative seems trite. It's all in how you do it.

RHQ · Sep 16, 2009

Thanks for that POV, Sir Otter. My husband is from the south and he still refers to it as War of Northern Aggression. I think it's tongue-in-cheek, but with him it's hard to tell!

I come from a Canadian line of Scots-Irish so I know how stubborn we can be.

Kelly

SirOtter said:
I'm not sure I'd be so quick to dismiss antipathy for the Northern Aggressors as too cliched. In 1920, someone my age would still remember Reconstruction, which was considered just as shameful or more so than the failure of the Glorious Cause to prevail. There would still be Confederate veterans gathered about the courthouse in most small towns, whittling and showing off their scars to small boys. Even that late, and beyond into the time of my own memory in the 1960s, anyone who moved from the North into the Deep South was referred to as a Carpetbagger. The hate still runs deep, if subcutaneously, as the current state of Southern politics should make clear. 'Any new policy some damned Yankee comes up with is no damn good, and we're agin it!' pretty much sums up the bulk of what passes for southern political philosophy in vast areas of Those States Formerly in Rebellion Against the Union During the Recent Unpleasantness. And yes, I still have relatives who call the Civil War the Recent Unpleasantness, or the War of Yankee Aggression. Never underestimate the ability of the seed of Scots-Irish immigrants to hold a grudge. I would hesitate to cast aside so useful a tool, much less so accurate a one. Besides, handled right, no plot point however so familiar can offend as cliched. Handled wrong, the most innovative seems trite. It's all in how you do it.

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