when I was little I wanted to be a nun, largely (although not entirely) because of the sound of music
And I’m watching the bbc adaptation of Les Mis and like…. there’s another Reverend Mother whos stand her ground in the face of intimidation by members of law enforcement and lies through her teeth that they aren’t harbouring fugitives and apparently there is still a part of me that wants to be a nun but only if I get to do that
What appear to be tear stains on a letter which was written by Rachel to her cousin (and best friend) Will after learning that Will intended to secretly enlist to fight in the Spanish-American War.
The letter is dated April 28th, 1898.
So it turns out after receiving Rachel’s tear-stained letter, and another one spilling out her fears and worries for him the next day, Will came clean. He wasn’t actually enlisting. He had sent the letter as a joke.
The next letter Rachel sent him is entirely normal in tone but ends with “By the way, it is very pleasant to tell anyone all that’s in your heart and then have that person tell you the cause of your suffering was all a “joke”.”
Rachel normally signed off her letters something along the lines of “Your loving ‘sister’” or “Lots of love” and then one of her nicknames.
This letter (and one from the following week) is signed with her full name (first, middle and last) and a period.
In an unexpected update to this subplot… In February of 1900, Rachel was going through and getting rid of some of her old letters and wrote this to Will…
“But one letter I found which I thought was destroyed long ago and that was that horrid lying one about enlisting. It made me furious to read it again & I tore it into a million pieces and burned it.”
This incidence has once again popped up with a mention in a letter from Rachel’s roommate Peggy (one of the “two Margarets”) in December of 1901, after Peggy had found some old letters she had sent her mother while at school…
“In one letter written during my last year I said, “Rae’s cousin Will is going to the war and poor Rat is too distressed for any use.” Do you remember that time?”
Here’s a (not really that) brief rundown of the most frequently appearing “characters” in the Rachel saga, a collection of several hundred letters written between 1895 and 1902 that I am currently reading/transcribing.
This post will focus exclusively on the “main characters” and their families. I’ll have another post for friends, etc. which I will link to when it is finished.
Ages given are as of the time of Rachel’s first letters in the Fall of 1895…
The Main “Characters”
Rachel (aka Rat, Sis, Daught) - Age 17. A wealthy teenage girl attending boarding school in Boston and Philadelphia at the turn of the century.
Not a terribly dedicated student.
Rachel likes sarcasm, candy, getting mail and the theatre. She is very close to her cousins Will and Jack.
Will (aka Icky) - Age 18. Rachel’s cousin and the recipient of most of the letters. He’s pre-Law at Yale, and later at Harvard Law School. Very considerate and genuinely interested in other people’s lives. Takes being a big brother very seriously. Gives so much advice and encouragement to his younger siblings/cousins that it often crosses the line into lecturing/nagging territory.
Jack - Age 16. Rachel’s cousin and Will’s younger brother. Attending prep-school and later pre-Med at Yale. Has atrocious handwriting and never answers his mail. Actively tries to prevent people from writing him so he won’t have to write back. Hilariously blunt to the point where sometimes I’m honestly not sure if he’s being sarcastic or just mean. Calls his parents by their first names. I get the idea he doesn’t really like people that much.
Rachel’s Family
Dad (N.P.) - Owns a large and
successful lumber company. Is attempting to
build his dream house in the middle of nowhere near one of his lumber yards. The rest of the extended family are not terribly enthusiastic
about this endeavor.
Mom (Rachel #1) - Very involved in welfare work for her husband’s employees. Is
a bit of a hypochondriac (somewhat justified as she had a daughter who
died of diphtheria.)
Mary (aka Fraul) - Age 29. A young woman Rachel’s parents took in when she was a child. Very much a part of the
family and Rachel’s big sister in all but name. Travels a lot. Often
acts as a chaperon for Rachel and her friends on trips.
Nelson
- Age 10. As of now the letters have told me literally nothing about
Nelson other than the fact he exists. Probably because teenage girls
don’t tend to talk in detail about their 10-year-old brothers.
The Twins (Rex and Roy)
- Age 6. Taught at home by their governess Nell. Roy draws, owns a Kodak camera, likes hiking and is apparently a geography wiz. I think Rex may have had
some health problems as he is often sick and misses school.
Will & Jack’s Family
Dad (Eb) - Owns a tannery and is a member of the New York State Legislature. Travels quite a bit for business.
Mom (Allie) - Very devoted mother. At first seemed to be a pretty typical 19th century mom, but as I read more of her letters I’m starting to suspect she was a rather feisty under her proper Victorian veneer.
Tiger (née
Eleanor) - Age 9. Will and Jack’s little sister. Tom-boy. Loves horses. Seems to have very little filter and occasionally makes slightly macabre non-sequiturs. Likes to write about what local people are sick or dying. At some point manages to either lose or cut off all of her hair.
Biff (né Lawrence, aka John Brown) - Age 7. Possible cryptid. Roams the woods of western New York. Occasionally emerges with stories of the animals he’s either befriended or killed.
The Extended Family
Grandma - The step-mother of Eb & N.P. and mother of Lilla. Incredibly socially active. Always attending groups and clubs and running charity events. History buff. College football fan. I have suspicions she may have been an old-school abolitionist in the 1840s and 50s.
Lilla - Age 36. Grandma’s daughter and younger half-sister of Eb & N.P. Unabashed spinster. Lives with and takes care of grandma in between jaunts to NYC and DC to hang out with her wide circle of artist and literary friends. Highly opinionated. Wonderful storyteller. Very close to her nephews.
Flora (aka Flo)- Age 20. A cousin who is going to college at Wellesley. She’s very involved in theatre. Rachel doesn’t like her very much early on, but she seems to warm up to her as the letters progress. She and Will seem to be fairly close.
Aunt Gussie - Flora’s mother. Very religious. Opinions of her seem to vary greatly from family member to family member.
There are various other aunts/uncles/cousins, but they generally aren’t mentioned enough for me to really get a read on their personalities.
Chances are I’m going to be updating/editing this post to add links/details as the project continues.
I’ve had so many new followers in the last few months that I thought it would be a good idea to
reblog this for all the new people and for any other people who need a
refresher.
casual intimacy kills me every time. grand gestures are cute and all but seeing two people who are just totally comfortable with having each other in their space, who dont think twice about leaning into each other and thoughtlessly holding each other while doing unrelated things….. thats love
I have a lot of questions about The Lion King. Did Simba experience culture shock when he went back to his pride? Like, did the other lions think it was super weird that he had never learned how to hunt and spent most of his life exclusively eating bugs? Could he even digest fresh meat after that or did he end up having weird dietary restrictions? How many bugs did he have to eat per day to sustain himself? As the king, did he have to continue foraging for his own bugs, or were they gathered and brought to him? Did entomophagy catch on as trendy new thing among the other lions? If the other non-lion animals recognize Simba as king, are they his subjects? Is it weird that their king hunts and eats them? Is there civil unrest among the herbivores who resent the tyranny of a ruling class that literally feasts upon their flesh?
Armageddon is one of the few DVDs I didn’t sell because Ben Affleck on the commentary track is relentless. Below is the clip of the commentary from where this tidbit of trivia came from. Please take a moment to witness the magic.
