The Box

[Mark Arbour]

So... it's Saturday evening... where's the ch11? Time's running...

 

 

 

 

 

It's late, it's late, for it's very important debut. Sorry. I'll finish it up ASAP.

 

 

[paya]

It's late, it's late, for it's very important debut.

[mmike1969]

Who could appear for the first time in that time... First Steven-JP experience

 

I would hope NOT since JP is like 6! :wacko:

[paya]

I would hope NOT since JP is like 6! :wacko:

 

well if they really at least had jacked off together, they have only one or two years to try that?

[Mark M]

ok one comment. Whens the Next chapteR?

[Mark Arbour]

OK, it's not an earth-shattering debut, I just meant when it appears. And the next chapter has started it's journey on the way to posting.

[rjo]

Reading the last chapter you have the feeling that Steve knows what will happen. His love for Aaron and his promise almost forces him to enlist. It is sad. very sad. You almost hope that something would or could change history and he and Aaron are living someplace in southern France or Canada.

Edited April 11, 2010 by rjo

[Tiger]

Reading the last chapter you have the feeling that Steve knows what will happen. His love for Aaron and his promise almost forces him to enlist. It is sad. very sad. You almost hope that something would or could change history and he and Aaron are living someplace in southern France or Canada.

That would be wrong. Mark would never do that. We already know they both die. It's sad, but those were hard times. I just got to thinking about my grandfather. He and grandma were married in 1940. They actually tried to draft him, but he had a heart murmur, which meant that he was not eligible. It makes you stop and think. Had he went to war, I might not be here today. My eldest uncle would have been the only one born for sure. The eldest of my aunts would definitely not have been born. It's a sobering thought. So many families around the world were torn apart by that war. It really makes me sad to think about it.

[methodwriter85]

Aaron is such an douche. Steven could do so much better than this zealot. I'm praying he finds a real true love in the two years before he dies- 'cause Aaron ain't it. I'm definitely no longer rooting for them as a couple- between this, and Aaron's inability to say the l word, I really can't stand the guy. Unfortunately, most of us are extremely dumb about the guys we fall for when we're 16. Too bad Steven won't live to see his twenties, when he could've been smarter and fell for a guy who was actually right for him.

Edited April 11, 2010 by methodwriter85

[Mark Arbour]

Aaron is such an douche. Steven could do so much better than this zealot. I'm praying he finds a real true love in the two years before he dies- 'cause Aaron ain't it. I'm definitely no longer rooting for them as a couple- between this, and Aaron's inability to say the l word, I really can't stand the guy. Unfortunately, most of us are extremely dumb about the guys we fall for when we're 16. Too bad Steven won't live to see his twenties, when he could've been smarter and fell for a guy who was actually right for him.

 

I think you're looking at Aaron with the mores of the 2000s. He's obviously deeply patriotic and wants to fight for his country. From what I understand, that wasn't uncommon in 1941/2. Plus, think about how hard it is for guys to admit they like other guys NOW. Back in 1942, being gay was a disease. I'm not sure I can fault him for being freaked out. Plus, if I was Aaron, I'd probably figure that Steve knew how I felt without me having to tell him. Guys aren't known for chatting away about their feelings.

[Mark M]

Hmmm Arron=dummy Steven=Dummy but a lil smarter.

 

Ok just as a basis none of my family that i know of was in the war, at least not the last 4 generations (least the ones i know about anyway)

 

So i have no problem when it comes to losing family in the war, i have no experience there. My dad is completly against Canada's Peacekeeping missions. Mainly because my life has been about different sicknesses. He would rather our government put the troops or the funding to be stationed in canada, rather then helping these countries that need to evolve on there own, otherwise it's like:

 

Canada develops a Telekenetic Sheild--> Gives it to the U.S, U.S is now super defencive. China is bombed......Canada helps them by giving them the Sheild Technology----China is again stronger then us. it's like us building up other counties who could in turn attack us to re-pay us.

 

No fun that's where my issues with us supporting hati rather then letting them learn from the earthquake by having hundreds die (sure it's morbid to just let people die) but sometimes for leaders to get the point, they need to witness the hurt and the pain to change their lifestyle (course they may have even though we have helped them, which in turn is a good thing).

 

Anyway Arron wants to run off and die, cool. Steven knows he doesn't want to go, but yet his love for arron is "Bullying" him to go.......WOW is all i have to say. Steven should be realizing that if the war wasn't happening collage would seperate them anyway. oh well whateves let the story continue!! Let them both die, i don't even care this is going to be very depressing to read when they actually join up. Some of it will be cool don't get me wrong.

 

 

Anyone else noticing were getting to a point were HMS and The box are both "In war" with different countries. :S

[methodwriter85]

I guess you're right, Mark, but I don't like Aaron all that much right now. I can't believe Steven is going to give up graduating from high school for this guy. Ugh. One thing I've noticed though- forget the Hayes- you killed off more of the Schluters. Both of Tonto's kids die, plus Bitty. Although the fact that they tend to be fruitful balances it out- Stefan notwithstanding. (I kinda wonder why he and Greg never adopted kids- they seem like they would have liked being parents, but I'm guessing the 1970s weren't condusive to gay adoption.) Brad and his son Will aren't actually Schluters biologically, but they still carry the family name. His nephews-raised-as-sons Darius and JJ actually are bio Schluters. Did Nick have kids? I feel like that's never been answered. And then there are the Cramptons- Jim had two kids, a boy and then a girl named Vanessa, right? Not to mention his 50-something bastard grown child as well as 13-year old JJ. Does JJ have nephews and nieces that are older than he is? Lol.

[mmike1969]

um, I thought JJ was biologically a Crampton...

[Mark Arbour]

um, I thought JJ was biologically a Crampton...

 

He's both. A Schluter through his mother (Bitty) and a Crampton through his father (Jim).

[ricky]

Everybody go easy on Arron. You forget the propaganda machine was running at full throttle. It was thrown at them from every conceivable place. We didn't have CNN, Fox news and all the rest. We had Radio and newspapers and other printed things. Billboards, Movie trailers with news reals. They even used comic books and candy bar wrappers. Every wonder why the little guy on the Cracker Jacks box wore a navy uniform? That uniform that eventually took on the name of the box of caramel corn?

 

Then there was the school system. Imagine the peer pressure when they read off in class every morning who brought what recyclable prize in. And they didn't just say who did, but also who didn't. And they were often asked why not.

 

They coupled that with bringing the fear to your door step. Air raid drills where children learned to dive under their desks and place their hands over their heads as they put their heads to their knees. Even if you were playing outside and the sirens went off you were expected to, and in most cases did, exactly as you had been taught.

 

Almost every classroom had airplane silhouettes of both our planes and the enemy. They did their best to convince every person that unless you did everything you possibly could, they would surely be at your doorstep. You could not even whisper descent as you were admonished, "A slip of the lip, can sink a ship."

 

Later as TV joined in, the cartoons Joined the propaganda machine as did the romance of the screen with audiences packed with indoctrinated junior war hawks waiting to see the next war related film. Even our lighthearted comedies were war related with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

 

It was everywhere. In every church, every grocery store and market, and even hardware and livery. The sides of Barns were even painted with things like, "Kill the japs."

 

So you see, the surprising thing is not that Arron is so gunho But that Stephen is not.

 

A note to Mark. A wonderful meaty chapter. You have captured that fear in the writing and if the reader allows themselves, they will feel the fear and tension of the times. You wrote it with all the emotional feeling that the purported author would have felt missing nothing. Very well done. My admiration.

 

And for the rest of you. I am 53. Born in 1957. But I remember my mom and my grandparents talking about it. I remember that the sentiments caused major prejudices against the Japanese, Germans and the Russians. What really sucked is that society was so uneducated as a whole that they couldn't tell Japanese, Chinese or Korean one from another. Or Russian and check or Bulgarian. In short, if they had an accent of any kind they were enemies. It took a long time to get past that and even today some of it remains.

[paya]

ummm... what was the debut? :? I didn't find anything... the first victories in the war? :?

[methodwriter85]

That's going to be one interesting conversation when Brad tells him- "Hey JJ, you know Grandpa JP? Well, you're really his nephew. Your great-uncle Jim is actually your father. Your grand-aunt Maman was really your grandmother.Your Aunt Claire is really your cousin. And I'm both your uncle and your adopted second cousin." Poor little JJ's mind will explode.LOL. I wonder if this means that JJ will want a GM and a Chrysler.

Edited April 11, 2010 by methodwriter85

[paya]

That's going to be one interesting conversation when Brad tells him- "Hey JJ, you know Grandpa JP? Well, you're really his nephew. Your great-uncle Jim is actually your father. Your grand-aunt Maman was really your grandmother.Your Aunt Claire is really your cousin. And I'm both your uncle and your adopted second cousin." Poor little JJ's mind will explode.LOL. I wonder if this means that JJ will want a GM and a Chrysler.

 

Jeremy I think you should lay it off a bit!

[ricky]

That's going to be one interesting conversation when Brad tells him- "Hey JJ, you know Grandpa JP? Well, you're really his nephew. Your great-uncle Jim is actually your father. Your grand-aunt Maman was really your grandmother.Your Aunt Claire is really your cousin. And I'm both your uncle and your adopted second cousin." Poor little JJ's mind will explode.LOL. I wonder if this means that JJ will want a GM and a Chrysler.

 

Well it's all quite queer clear to me. And the answer is a simple one. A Ford.

[Enric]

ch11: wartime. the thing.

people living today, hear about wartime. but those who actually remember anything about living that, are about 70 or more....

 

 

(I presume the americans either were not actually living a wartime as to persian gulf, viet and korea things... they being more or less isolates far away and no threat of invasion to home country was imminent)

 

in our Europe, most countries were not touched by war after wwII. 1945.

so, there's not really alive that much of those who have first-hand experience of rationing, or of air-raid alarms, such

As I recall, none alive in my family, experienced that.

 

Literature is a different thing: there's some generations who have now had even an overabundance of both autobiographies and fiction about men who were at war, wwII.

 

-------

 

makes me to think: how soon will the situation be that next to no one recalls a life without internet and email...

for literature, that would have some consequences: there could be fiction where 1950s protagonists wage cold war using email contacts and internet material...

 

-------

 

as to confusing kinships: I really do not believe that it would explode a kid's head.

my experiences are that nobody gets the particular problem of not sliding in with an unusual genealogical structure, as opposed to not sliding in with a more usual.

Whatever was in the previous generations, it's not something a descendant can do anything about. The descendant simply is there, as outcome of whatever it was. I really cannot see a feeling of doing suicide or somesuch just because the birth or ancestry may be odd.

When I have explained usual and unusual genealogical vicissitudes to kids (mostly, at their teenages) in my family circle, they have merely listened to with some, but limited, interest. Nothing in that upset them. They are kids. They take it as a given - after all, it was parents, grandparents, and other ancestors, who did whatever was done.

Sometimes, perfectly usual structures of genealogical roots are not that easy to gather by a kid. The structure might often become a bit too heavy, seeing that the number of names easily get big and their relations a heavy package of info.

Unusual roots - pretty much the same phenomenon. When there are complications, the amount of info is generally somewhat boig at that stage, and the kid does not usually get what is so unusual in what it was.

Besides, a kid of these decades, when parents often are divorced and having second and third families, step-siblings - and kids thenselves or at least some of their pals, are in custody of some other relative than biological parent, do not take it too seriously if they get explained that the family they live, actually is a biological relative's family and not the biological parent's. It is not like JJ would not have an inkling that he is not really a biological sibling of Will...

It might actually be a relief to a kid that he gets to know that on both sides, he belongs to the family/families of the foster home. *Insecuroties being what they are, fostered kids often have some fear of not being fully of the family.

Edited April 12, 2010 by Enric

[Mark Arbour]

 

in our Europe, most countries were not touched by war after wwII. 1945.

so, there's not really alive that much of those who have first-hand experience of rationing, or of air-raid alarms, such

As I recall, none alive in my family, experienced that.

 

 

 

 

Wait a minute. Didn't rationing in the UK only just end, like, two years ago?

[Enric]

Wait a minute. Didn't rationing in the UK only just end, like, two years ago?

 

whaat!!!!

 

I didn't know the brits would have been so benighted.... come on, perhaps this is just a recent occurrence, transmitted from the Blair's close ally the big USA who had some air raid alarm like things there a few years back

 

certainly I saw no rationing in London when I visited that smutty town a few times back before 2001

I have always preferred going to paris anyway

[Mark Arbour]

whaat!!!!

 

I didn't know the brits would have been so benighted.... come on, perhaps this is just a recent occurrence, transmitted from the Blair's close ally the big USA who had some air raid alarm like things there a few years back

 

certainly I saw no rationing in London when I visited that smutty town a few times back before 2001

I have always preferred going to paris anyway

 

I was joking. I know they were on rationing after the war too, though.

 

Paris is my favorite city.

[methodwriter85]

Mark, Enric is our real-life Benjamin Whist. He takes things literally.

[Tiger]

Mark, Enric is our real-life Benjamin Whist. He takes things literally.

Oh talk about a slam! You have a pretty good point though. I think the rationing would have totally sucked, but it was necessary. I think eating horse meat would have been one of the worst parts of the whole deal though. It does not strike me as something that would be tasty.