March meeting : notes

March meeting and discussion notes

Title: The life and times of the Thunderbolt Kid
Author: Bill Bryson

Synopsis: Bill Bryson on his most personal journey yet: into his own childhood in America's Mid-West. In his deeply funny new memoir, he travels back in time to explore the ordinary kid he once was, and the curious world of 1950s America. It was a happy time, when almost everything was good for you, including DDT, cigarettes and nuclear fallout. This is a book about growing up in a specific time and place. But in Bryson's hands, it becomes everyone's story, one that will speak volumes - especially to anyone who has ever been young.

Present: Merrin, Leslie, Vanessa, Nola, Joy, Megan, Diane, Gail, Pauline, Adele, Jan, Tosca

1. Why do we find Bryson’s writing so funny – his descriptions of e.g. poor Milton Milton, the toity jar! And the descriptions of the inhibitions towards eating anything slightly unusual at that time?

He writes so humorously; he’s just a good writer; e.g. Milton Milton – some of that laughter was cruel but I still laughed; the delivery of it was so funny; it was so true of kids (the cruelty that was also funny); like when somebody trips up and you know it’s awful and you all sort of titter; some of his descriptions were quite unkind and wondered if the people would be able to recognise themselves; it makes you think about your own childhood and how there was somebody I’m embarrassed at how we treated at the time; the toity jar (much laughter); the descriptions can make you picture the actual event; we’ve all seen people like that; the way he writes is so descriptive

2. Had anyone heard of, or used any of, the words that Bill described as being delightful Fifties words? E.g. mimeograph, rotisserie, ice box, bobby sox, etc.

Have heard nearly all of them; there are a lot that aren’t used nowadays; such as mimeograph; we didn’t use the term mimeograph in New Zealand but the idea of it is familiar; some of the words he uses are ones I would only recognise from watching American films or tv series; an ice box used to be a hole in the ground where the ice man would place the ice

3. How did he get to be so successful when he missed so much school?
He knuckled down in high school – only just; was obviously very smart; parents were very clever; so much of what he wrote was very exaggerated in the typical way we exaggerate things in childhood (remembering how things were so enormous when little and yet so small when big) so it’s possible he didn’t miss as much school as he thought he did; his mother says her cooking was nothing like that (but of course she would say that wouldn’t she?); he was just good at what he did; he must have had the most enriched childhood for the time – the way his parents were always sharing things and taking him places; his father only wanted to take him to places that were educational and cheap; there weren’t so many places to go to either so perhaps that made it easier

4. How do you pronounce Des Moines? I’ll bet it’s not like the original French?
Da Moine; if you don’t know how to pronounce a place or a character name it can sometimes interrupt the flow of the story

5. How’s your memory? Could you remember so much of your childhood?
No; reading this reminded me of bits of my childhood – some of his reminiscences would jog my memory; reminded me of a time when my father made my sidecar and the three of us squashed into it and we went all over the place, mum would sit on the back with no helmet; that’d be highly illegal now; he split this up into different chapters recalling different parts of his life; he probably talked to his family about things to refresh his memory; in his acknowledgements and preface he says a lot about who helped him; also he’s probably a very observant person which is possibly something within you when you’re quite young and so you may remember things maybe others ordinarily wouldn’t; I found it fascinating that he could detail so much and thought that perhaps my own childhood wasn’t quite exciting – growing up in smalltown New Zealand; having other siblings can help flesh out the details; he probably exaggerated things a bit – took something little and made it big; each chapter would end with the comment that the Thunderbolt Kid got them in the end; if you see Boy it will remind you of this book

6. Chaise longue – I’ve always thought it was spelt lounge and, even when reading it in the book, saw it as lounge, and took a while to realise the point the father was making. Anyone else like that?
Pronounced shayce long although now it is spelt chaise lounge and pronounced shayce lounge

7. What aspects of Bill’s childhood can you relate to?
The food – what types of food we didn’t eat (pasta, cornbeef etc.) – in our household the only pasta we had was macaroni cheese, the only spices we used were salt and pepper, the only takeaways we had were if we were lucky and even then it was once a month and it was fish and chips; universally food has become more international; they wouldn’t have been exposed to so much in the cosmopolitan way like New York would have been as they were in the middle of the country; such a good story with the father off the diving board; as a kid he thought it was terribly high but maybe it wasn’t; I remember reading it and going ‘Oohh’; it would have been like hitting a brick wall; the descriptions were so awfully funny

8. Was there more freedom for kids in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s than there is now? And if so, what has changed?
Nothing was dangerous, everything was inviting; nowadays everybody is so afraid that people would get hurt; sugar gave us anything; we’re a lot more pc and cautious now; common sense went out the doors in the 1980s; some places, like the US for example, are slightly more litigious than say New Zealand; we’re overcautious and we believe germs etc. will hurt our children; my mother worked when I was a child and we grew up very community-minded and knowing our neighbours, nowadays we’re too busy with extra-curricular activities for kids that we don’t just let them play with each other and get to know each other; television has taken away that option to learn to play with each other; perhaps kids have too many options to just want to be kids and enjoy the freedom of it; when we were younger we lived in state houses everyone had a garden and we all swapped vegetables with each other and knew each other – there’s not so much of that now

9. Is the past always seen as being better? And, if so, why do we look back and think about the ‘good old days’?
This book made me nostalgic and it made me reflect on the good times I’d had as a child; kids still play jump rope today and elastics if they’re given a chance

10. What toys do you remember from your childhood?
Elastics, knucklebones, skipping, marbles, rubik’s cube, gutterboard, roller skates, handball, foursquare, lego, Tupperware toy (round ball with shapes), jack-in-the-box, monopoly, cards (snap, last card, fish, old maid, crib, 500, canasta); I’ve always enjoyed reading but what I think is better now is that children’s books are so much more enjoyable – they’re in colour, they’re exciting and full of adventure and they’re just fantastic; now there’s graphic novels

11. Did you learn anything from Bill’s informative narration of the 1950s American that you didn’t know before?
Polio epidemic, that America did not have to wait as long as Europe and the UK to recover after the war; parents would stand on stepladders and talk to each other over hedges; thought they were very cutthroat with their nuclear bomb blasts and atomic cafes and that the Americans were interfering in other people’s government (funding rebel movements etc.); people never understood the effects of radiation (think Christmas Island) or Agent Orange; communism scare during the McCarthy-era that was tantamount to a witch hunt

12. Did the ending satisfy you?
Can’t remember the ending; he just moved on; I didn’t want it to end; his visit back there showed that a lot of things had gone or moved, e.g. Yonkers department store no longer there reminded me of trips to Farmers Department store and the whole experience of it all; some of the pictures had been destroyed so all of that good history was all gone; made me feel sad and nostalgic for things that had gone or closed now; his visit back reminded me of things that had changed now here: Hector the Parrot was alive during Leslie’s day and stuffed during Merrin’s day; photographers would wander around and snap pics of people and you could order prints;

Rating:
5, 5, 5, 4, 5, 4, 5, 3, 3, 4 and a half, 4 - average = 4

Please note: Our next meeting is Saturday 17th April 2010 here at Manurewa Library. Our next book is 'The Denniston Rose' by NZ author Jenny Pattrick. Nat/Merrin have requested copies for the group which should have arrived or is still to arrive. See you all next month :)