Mary Sisson's Blog, page 37
May 24, 2020
Progress report
Editing up to what used to be chapter 27 but is now just a part of some much-earlier chapter—definitely the shorter-chapter-later-in-the-book thing is not going to survive this pass.
May 22, 2020
Quote of the day
My dear by the time you have this letter you may well have seen L. & possibly W. Q. may show up shorty. I visited Q. on Saturday. You can imagine my surprise when he met me on the train & said “I know you won’t believe me but I’m leaving for home at 4.” Well gee he was as twittering as a June bride. Could scarcely believe it himself. We stopped in town and bought 2 necklaces—amber—for the girls and a cannon for his boy. I bet [Q.’s wife] is mad when he teaches him to fire the thing off and goes away & leaves her with it.
May 20, 2020
Progress report
Read over Trials up until what used to be chapter 18 but is now chapter 17. I cut a hunk that seems like too much of a diversion, but other than that the edits are pretty minor, which is great.
May 19, 2020
Quote of the day
From a letter written to my grandfather by a fellow medical officer. If you’ve ever wondered if doctors gossip about their patients….
Was amused in your whoremaster friend. The situation must have been rough down there. One of my patients (an officer) says that it was so bad that he once sent a squad forward to take a machine gun nest and in half an hour they were back asking for prophylactics. He gave a pro to each one of them and sent them ahead again—in the second attempt they took the machine gun!
May 18, 2020
Quote of the day
Because nothing was scanned in any kind of order, today I was kind of bouncing back and forth between the early years of the war (“Why do I have to do all the boring butt stuff?”) and the later years (“Good thing that shrapnel wasn’t inside the aorta!”).
This is early:
We played softball Saturday p.m. P. has been running the show out there. In warning them how good we are he said, “The officers of the 5th are beating their privates regularly.” That will be wit in the annals of the 5th.
May 17, 2020
Quote of the day
I was planning to work on Trials, but I didn’t get much sleep last night, so instead I typed up World War II letters. In the early years of the war, my grandfather was stationed in Northern Ireland, and things were slow enough that he could go fishing in the country on the weekends, usually getting to good, isolated fishing holes by taking a bicycle on the train. Since he didn’t know the area, he often got a bit lost, or as in this case, he ran afoul of country notions of hospitality.
Having allowed a decent time to get back for the last train and being a little cold & very thirsty as all I had had to drink was a bottle of beer at noon, I accepted Mrs. M’s kind offer of a cup of tea. But damn it all they cooked eggs & biscuits and set up a big Sunday night supper—all on an open peat grate. They had lots of bread and big plates of home made butter & some home made cheese. Gee the butter was good. They kept pressing me and time wore on. By the time I got away I had 45 minutes to make 11 ½ miles and the awful thought that it was the last train home and it was either a hell of a sprint or some 80 miles to pedal home by 7:00 a.m. A hell of a sprint it was. I passed horses, boys on bicycles with gearshifts & handlebars down, and even an occasional small car. Fortunately the train was 4 minutes late & I had a 2 minute wait.
May 16, 2020
Progress report
Edited the first seven chapters of the printout of Trials—caught a lot of little things, but overall I was happy with the pacing and general feel of the book.
The chapters start out fairly long, and then get shorter and shorter as the book progresses, so I’ll have to look at that and decide whether that’s something I want to keep or not.
May 13, 2020
Some advice from my grandfather
Wear
a
fucking
mask.
May 12, 2020
Quote of the day
Typed up more letters—here’s his account of the day he & a group of fellow officers were told that they had been promoted. To celebrate, they went on an epic bender, which began thusly (and continued on):
J. & I each broke out a bottle and with the assistance of surprisingly few friends started relaxing—we finally made up a party & went to town for a few cocktails & lunch.
J., B. & I went to see “Mrs. Miniver.” I would say it was the best picture I’ve ever seen—if you get a chance have a couple, get a supply of handkerchiefs & see it.
All the way home on the train the little men with hammers were very busy & bothered a good deal….
Progress report
Typed up more letters—here’s his account of the day he & a group of fellow officers were told that they had been promoted. To celebrate, they went on an epic bender, which began thusly (and continued on):
J. & I each broke out a bottle and with the assistance of surprisingly few friends started relaxing—we finally made up a party & went to town for a few cocktails & lunch.
J., B. & I went to see “Mrs. Miniver.” I would say it was the best picture I’ve ever seen—if you get a chance have a couple, get a supply of handkerchiefs & see it.
All the way home on the train the little men with hammers were very busy & bothered a good deal….
