Marathons

I just did a marathon.  Not the running kind.  A television replay of the series, Downton Abby, which aired for 6 seasons from 2011-2016 on PBS.  It was a take off on the famous Up Stairs, Down Stairs, a story about how the landed gentry of England lived in contrast to the servants that catered to them. 

Downton Abby depicts the years between 1912 and 1925, years before and after the first world war.  Relationships, behavior and hierarchy delineated what was acceptable and what was not.  Conventions, rigid rules and traditions comprised the structure of society, but the ride of the working class changed the stability of the aristocracy. 

Melodramatic emphasis on weddings and deaths (discord and intrigue in between), elaborate rituals of dining with glittering silver and glistening wine glasses, appropriate attire for men and a stunning array of women's fashion, helped build the theme of Downton Abby.  Written by Julian Fellowes, Downton Abby is not an historical film, but much of the filming was done with an eye to authenticity.  It was amusing when the script introduced 'modern ' conveniences like the telephone and radio, but even during my childhood, those conveniences were still relatively new to our daily lives.

My family had one of he few telephones in town.  Back in those days, it was common for families with a phone to receive calls from people out of the area, or in another state, trying to reach a neighbor with important news. Someone would run to fetch the neighbor and to come as fast as possible.  We also used the phone as a news service. When the town fire whistle sounded at any time other than its usual Friday 12 O'clock test time, we knew there was a fire in town and we used the phone to ask a telephone operator where it was.

Until the invention of automatic toasters, forgetting to turn the slice of bread so it would toast on the other side, always burned the bread and smoked up the place.  One of our earliest radios had a huge horn that funneled the sound.  Then radios became more box like with dials and a built in sound system.  Radios along with newspapers kept us informed of world events.  Today, radios are so common, its hard to imagine an auto without one.