A British Colonial Service Memory!

David's letter starting my brain ticking over all by itself and last night, just before I fell asleep, I had a sudden flash of memory:

I was about three years old, and at the Suva Sea Baths, eavesdropping on a loud angry conversation among a gaggle of British Colonial Service Wives! Same ol', same ol'! These ladies were perpetually loud and angry. Do you remember?

Mum used to call them "those ghastly women" and cast them as the arch villains in her life, which they were, weren't they! In all our lives? Remember how even sticking a frangipani in your hair would bring down their wrath: "The thin edge of the wedge!", "Going native!", "Bringing down civilisation as we know it!" I've read Indian writers' autobiographies where those woman are called "poison" and "the worst thing ever to happen to India", and "the husbands were all right, but those wives!" Yes, I can endorse that in every possible way. Ghastly, ghastly women!

These days, looking back with a more kindly eye, I think we should blame those stockings and corsets they always wore. They felt they always had to wear them because they represented "the Empire" and "Civilisation" and "the way things should be done!", but, gosh, in places like Fiji and India, it must have given them the most terrible heat rash. And maybe that perpetual sour-faced grimness and those bursts of insane rage were because they were desperately trying not to scratch.

But, anyway, I should save all that for another post, because I just want to talk about that single flash of memory.

That day at the pool, these ladies were all once again in the most monstrous rage and it was all "Filth!", "Disgusting!", "We should have it banned!", "How dare they play it!" "Pornography", "Encouraging filth and promiscuity!", "The thin edge of the wedge!", "It'll bring down civilisation as we know it!" "Filthy! Filthy! Filthy!"

And what they were talking about? Let me see if I can find it:




Isn't it nice to know that these days, all those ghastly ladies would be dead. We can all breathe again, folks ... although I must add I frequently hear those enraged voices again in conversations with "the politically correct"!