Lucy has to attend a meeting of W.R.V.S when she goes home to visit her parents. It stands for Women's Royal Voluntary Service:...it was seen “as the enrollment of women for Air Raid Precaution Services of Local Authorities, to help to bring home to every household what air attack may mean, and to make known to every household [in the country] what it can do to
protect itself and the community...The organization evolved to helping isolated and lonely people, particularly the elderly. They are particularly well known as providers of the Meals on Wheels service which delivers hot meals to the housebound. Their mission is ‘To help people to maintain independence and dignity in their homes and communities, particularly in later life.’At the Dutch hospital ball, Lucy is slightly jealous to notice that Mies looked like 'the front cover of Vogue' but I wonder how on earth The Great Betty would know. This 1978 edition (left) from Paris Vogue seems pretty representative of the era--massive head shots of googly-eyed models with the barest scraps of 'fashion' tucked in around them. I mean, from this I know gobs of eyeliner are 'in' but otherwise...?
The End of the Rainbow:
Waldo drives a Lamborghini Euraco S. (which is actually a misspelling of Urraco). He trades it in for a Rolls Royce Corniche convertible, because it's more of a family car....I remember going car shopping when I was a young child. We bought a bright red Ford Econoline 15-passenger van (just like the one on the right but much redder and more conspicuous. I would be driving it as a teenager on all my dates...). Now that's a family car.
We also get some poetry! Waldo:...it will be something to remember for years...Olympia: the next line goes, "to remember with tears" That's from a poem by William Allingham. Here's the whole thing:
A Memory
William Allingham, 1824-1889
Four ducks on a pond,
A grass-bank beyond,
A blue sky of spring,
White clouds on the wing;
What a little thing
To remember for years-
To remember with tears!:
And now I have Nancy Griffeth singing "Ford Econoline" stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
ReplyDeleteOur family cars were Volkswagon Microbuses. Six kids, ya know. I didn't get my driver's license till I was about 19, drove without one for a while in my wild days.
ReplyDeleteDear Betty Keira,
ReplyDeleteI think you need to do a post about the first extended van...the one BEFORE the red 15 passenger. A picture would be helpful. That's the first van I remember driving. Of course, I drove it in it's pre-extension days. Thankfully. Very thankfully.
Love,
Betty Debbie
That was the old brown beater that Dad cut the back off of and 'extended' by welding on another couple of feet. I think he might have made that a class project for his welding students or something. Real tears were shed when that thing was sold...
ReplyDelete