Just as I threatened to, I've finally gotten around to going through my stash of magazines. The thing is that I've discovered other caches of them on the different floors of my living space. But I spent good money for these publications so I'm giving them a once over if they look interesting and most of them do. My tastes haven't changed that much.
An article in an old issue of Harper's made me think. It was the June 2014 edition which isn't that old considering that I still have barely touched magazines with bonus CDs attached. Remember those? But I digress, the Harper's article was an account from their archive which had been written 70 years prior, in August 1944. Their correspondent, Vernon Bartlett, had written about the non-event that D Day had been from the point of view of someone on the ground just getting on with their daily tasks with the, by then, accustomed complications that being in England in the middle of the war added.
In a way the feeling the article conveyed was similar to the text I received from someone in Nova Scotia asking me if the wild fires in BC were affecting me. In return, I asked her if she had been flooded out by the torrential rains in Halifax in July. The answer was no in both cases. Because that's the thing, when something momentous happens, the immediate thought is that it is widespread affecting everybody in the area. But that is not always the case.
It's nice to include historic events in our ancestor's stories but are they as all-encompassing as we think? Unless there is written proof, perhaps it is best to look at the people known to have been affected and see if there is any link with our past relatives. It could be that nothing changed for them after the event so maybe that piece of history was not noteworthy in their lives.
Sources:
“Invasion
Diary” by Vernon Bartlett. Harper’s
Magazine. Harper’s Magazine Foundation, New York, New York, June 2014.
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