[Magdalen] Highlander Centerre Fire

[ME Michaud]

Small correction. It was 1936.
The Depression was still on.

As the war ramped up, Boston filled with transient servicemen, all shipping
out somewhere. Men who were new to the city (and sometimes indoor
plumbing). Men under incredible stress.

Mother said she never carried or used her pistol. Kept it locked in the
trunk of the Blue Bomber (her Buick). But girls never left the dormitory
alone, gathering at the doorway until a group of five or six was assembled,
then heading out together. She also said men on the trolley cars were known
to expose themselves to female passengers. She said the adapted reaction
was to point and laugh, all the while shaking the head in mockery.

Not sure why, but missing her lots today.
-M


On Wednesday, April 3, 2019, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:

> A friend sent a link this morning to an article that posited the idea that
> people (men, actually) buy firearms because they believe they and their
> families will be attacked in their homes by some sort of bogeyman (zombie
> undead, Muslim, African-American, whatever). The author was acting like
> this was a revelation, but it's is such an American fear.
>
> I am remembering that when my mother went to college in Boston (in 1940)
> her father thought it prudent to give her a cute little pistol.
>
> I am remembering that my grandmother, whose father was born in 1842, had
> no shame in claiming she was deathly afraid of "wild Indians."
>
> The current administration alternately pricks and massages these fears.
> And I think the NRA has exploited them for decades.
> I pray it will end with the next generation.
> -M
>
>
> On Wednesday, April 3, 2019, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I would say racism and Islamophobia.
>>
>>