It’s been a long time since we’ve had a long conversation involving many “members.” But I ran into a questiion on a genealogy group’s page that might get the ball rolling. The question had to do with who you’ve met that was born longest ago — not who lived the longest. They continued, “What are your memories of them? Wondering what it’s like to have actually met Victorians and what you learned from them?”
Many of you aren’t old enough to have met Victorians (I met a lot), But everyone has met someone “born the longest ago.” Who has a comment to make or a comment on someone else’ comment?
OK, I’ll get the ball rolling. Queen Victoria’s reign was from 1837 to1901, so anyone born between those dates would qualify as a “Victorian.” And remember the question was about who was born the earliest, not who lived the longest. Two that come to mind as the oldest I met would be my grandmother, Frances GOODRICH Hoyt and Oliver Benjamin “Ben” Blanchard both born in 1871. Another contender would be a mounted park policeman who was a veteran of the Spanish-American War. Possibly he was older. One thing that immediately comes to mind about Victorians is their focus on propriety and on public behavior/image. What went on behind closed doors was no one’s business, but public behavior reflected on the family’s reputation. Propriety involved a long list of how you behaved and what could or couldn’t be mentioned. Ladies were supposed to always sit very erect, with a visible airspace between their back and the back of the chair. Men should stand when a woman entered the room. Women should wear gloves and hats in public and elbow-length gloves on formal occasions. Widows had to be “in mourning” for a full year – wearing black and not engaging in any activity that might be construed as “having fun.” There were all sorts of things that shouldn’t be mentioned in public, not only body functions, but many body parts — ‘leg’ was not socially acceptable, ‘limb’ should be used instead. Which led to a large repertoire of circumlocutions and euphemisms.