Peyton Place Main Discussion

[Melody]

This is the main thread for discussing Peyton Place,once everyone has finished.

[Jenn]

Here are some of my thoughts:

I enjoyed the little details of the book that really set it in the time period. We don't use the word "gay" in our society ... not to mean "happy" as its original definition was, now only in terms of "homosexual" . There were other words used, such as anathema (something evil or wicked) and antimacassars (small cloth placed over backs or arms of chairs to prevent soiling). Interesting to read a novel with expanded vocabulary than what we commonly use today. A telephone party line or an operator who can listen in on conversations. There also is the idea of living without plumbing (in the shack houses) and people reading actual newspapers and listening to the radio for news ... now we scan our phone for news & music.

Allison and her mother discuss whether it is Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner or Breakfast, Dinner, Supper -- I grew up with Breakfast, Dinner & Supper... I realize its more of a rural/olden thing.

The season/weather almost seem to be a character all themselves... Indian Summer, Winter (it's a northern thing to know about it being "too cold" to snow... its either below zero and cold but dry, or a raging blizzard, but not below zero cold), The drought/wildfires .. etc... Do you think this added another element to the book? I do because I feel like I do things according to weather as well ... many events in my life I equate with how the weather was ... For example on my 18th birthday there was a bad set of storms that went through the area of SD I lived in. Lots of property damage from straight line winds and a tornado that didn't touch all the way down. I was a smoker and when I would go buy cigarettes and a local person would check my ID they would see my birthday, June 24th and say, Oh that was the night of the storm...

Along those lines ... small rural towns. This is something I can really relate to. Ms. Thornton looks over her 8th grade class and knows the families of the children. You will be a farmer like your father before you and his father before him ... that is very much how it was where I grew up. The town sign says the population is 3675 -- Armour, SD was about 850 people. The 8th grade class & senior class of 1937 have 32 girls & 40 boys total... that's about 36 kids in each grade. I graduated with a class of 29 including me. It's hard for city kids to image a town this size, a class that small, and how it changes life. I really couldn't wear something silly and walk down the street, someone would see me and tell someone else who would then tell another person, and in less than six degrees of separation it would get to a family member, who would then tell my parents. It's a very different way to grow up and much as both Constance and Allison "escape" to NYC, I needed to escape as well... but going back there does give me a different feeling now, a sense of calm and peace.