Stories of my youth

[fbhjr]

A couple of folks on my friends list have pointed people over to someone they know doing a thesis on princesses.
My wife and I had both answered the questions on our own and today got to talking about what we had said.
I told her how my mother disapproved of Disney products in general, and their animated products in particular. So, although I had been allowed to see some live action Disney movies, I never saw any of their animated movies. (Aladdin was the first Disney animated movie I ever saw on the big screen.*)
I have never seen the Disney Snow White and the 7 dwarves or Cinderella. I only saw Sleeping Beauty a couple of years ago when my wife got a copy on DVD.

That’s not to say I didn’t know the stories. My mother’s mother used to tell two of those, and others, to me when I was young. But, it is only now that I’m in forties that I realize those are not versions anyone else seems to know.
I don’t know if my grandmother made them up, or if they are just the way her family used to tell them. As my grandmother and her family did their best to bury the family heritage, I doubt I’ll ever know.**

It’s not that the story elements have changed that much, although they are changed, it is the focus that changed. Sadly, it’s been 40 years since I was told them, and I don’t remember them all that well.

In my grandmother’s version of Cinderella, the main point was that Cinderella fought back against her siblings and evil stepmother. They were unfairly making her suffer, and she did what she did to show them to be wrong and make them repent of their evil ways.
Having her two daughters shown up publicly made the evil stepmother have a heart attack and die. But, on her deathbed, she repented of her sins and went to Purgatory, not Hell.

With Sleeping Beauty, the princess refused the offer of marriage from an evil prince. He poisoned her and her family, making them fall into a deep sleep. He locked them all up in a tower to hide the evidence. But, eventually, repented of his sins and went back and rescued them, becoming the good prince in the end. Because he repented…Purgatory when he died, not Hell.

The other thing that was different for me, is these tales didn’t take place in some far off land for me. They took place just off of route 24 in Fall River, Massachusetts.
My Aunt had a cottage on a river one town over from there that we spent most of our summers at while I was growing up. My grandmother would often tell these tales in the car on the way there.
Along route 24 there is an old reservoir. On the shore of it is an old pumping station. This was back when they were big stone buildings that look, sort of, like castles.
That was the castle where all these stories took place.
Just up the hill from there are water towers. Those were the towers in question.
(The towers also featured in her version of Bluebeard. He repented too. Back in the 60’s, Purgatory was pretty crowded…)
So, to me, these were local stories. I could point to where they took place. I drove past them on the way to and from the cottage.

My mother used to tell me stories as well. But, I know hers were created by her for my brother and me.
I remember her recording some of them on my father’s old reel to reel tape recorder to keep them. But, the tapes got lost about the time Nixon resigned. (Go figure.)
Her tales were often train related as my father had an extensive electric train set up in the basement.
Bouncing Bernie, the steam locomotive who bent his smokestack while dancing on the tracks through a tunnel.
I don’t remember how the story was resolved.
There was another one about a diesel engine I don’t remember at all.
My wife says she finds those stories to be quite phallic. That’s not how I remember them as a kid, but I guess I see her point now.
I think she just used the source material at hand, which was a basement of electric trains.

I will just point out that when I finally did see a Disney movie in the theater, it ended with the bad guy being sorry and getting locked up in the cave of mystery for a long, long time. Maybe not Purgatory, but it wasn’t all that far off…

The "castle" and "towers" are still there:


*I had seen several hybrid movies like Mary Poppins and Song of the South that had both elements in them.

** When they reached the US from Ireland in the late 1800’s, they changed their name and banned anyone in the family from using the old Irish name. No one in my generation knows what the family’s name was just 2 generations ago. One of my aunts heard it once. She has said she doesn’t consider it a big secret. She hasn’t told me what it is.

Comments

[kismets-kiss.livejournal.com]

But it's not a big secret... lol

Very cool! I love stories (I know, you are shocked) and I love hearing about people who make up their own for their kids, very cool!

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

The strange part is that aunt is married to a genealogy nut.
He's traced every ancestor I had on the Mayflower (6 of them), which kings of England were my ancestors (Edward, the bad guy in Braveheart), and how my father's family ended up in Vermont. (Moved up there after the revolution from CT.)
But, he doesn't know his wife's mother's maiden name...

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

wow, locally based stories...

So, A not-so long time ago, in a Galaxy that wasn't all that far away then...

still no lightsabres...sorry