How the fuck did they get through the war??

[ssd]

If it was 6 years...

This hasn't been a year yet and were all losing the will.....

I think the only benefits people in 1939 had were no 24/7 telly and no social media

But 6 years....OMG

Sorry to mention to reply to you @thecountessoffitzdotterel, will look that recommendation up, thanks.

‘But, they didn't have a constant newsfeed going on. No social media, no tv. Just the radio. They were quite literally in the dark. ‘

No tv but cinema newsreels, and people went to the cinema a lot, some people multiple times a week. And many got daily newspapers. So it wasn’t constant but nor was it a news free environment.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

Ok, people weren’t always together with their families, that is a fair point, but they were allowed to be together with other human beings and to do things communally. The people I know who are struggling now are mainly people who live alone or in difficult family circumstances (eg friend with mentally ill husband) and wfh so they are simply not getting human contact and support. You could have a cup of tea and a hug with a friend. I am not saying the war was easier at all but there are elements of this that are particularly difficult.

But you are very much allowed to see other people now. Maybe not within close range indoorsmbut no one is stopping anyone going for a SD walk.

Plus there us any number of social media or live video platforms.

If you had no friends before it surely makes little difference this year. In fact you may be better off with local communities all providing volunteers for isolating people.

I can't imagine living in any country where war and conflict has bought destruction.

Where people turn against each other. Report people who are then murdered. Where houses and towns are destroyed. Where you never know if tomorrow will be your last day.

But humans experience that.

If you had no friends before it surely makes little difference this year. In fact you may be better off with local communities all providing volunteers for isolating people

Being lonely is good practise for being lonely. I have had practise at that for many years - and was just starting to develop a good social life when this happened.

Now it's a case of grabbing the chance for adult conversation when I can.

@scrivette

When children study 'history' in many years to come and look at 'The Pandemic of 2020' they will probably read about how people came together on Thursdays and clapped the NHS, how the teachers did a great job of continuing with their roles, how people adapted and worked from home... Probably not so much about how people struggled in isolation and not seeing their loved ones etc.

God yes and that shitty fucking Kitty O’Meara poem

“ But you are very much allowed to see other people now. Maybe not within close range indoorsmbut no one is stopping anyone going for a SD walk.”

Quite hard for the 80+.

‘If you had no friends before it surely makes little difference this year.‘

I think on the contrary, people already isolated who rely on groups for their normal social contact are struggling much more because the groups aren’t happening- I met with a friend the other week who normally volunteers with Sight Support, an old people’s singing club and a craft group popular with isolated people reported that clients of all 3 services are struggling without the weekly things to go to even though they are doing phone support for Sight Support and have done musical stuff online (but only a small number of their singers can access that).

Spanish flu was horrific after WW1.
It killed millions, often people in their prime,Especially during it's mutated second wave.. The older people had an immunity of sorts, it seemed.

Reading nurses' experiences of 1918 pandemic was shocking at times..Covid seems 'minor' in comparison of number of deaths from Spanish Flu.

50 Million compared to 1.66 Million

It must have been horrendous for them. But every one of us today had ancestors who survived that era.

My granny and grandad shared a birthday. They got married on their joint 16th birthday on Valentines Day 1914. Grandad went straight off to war. My mum was born in January 1929 and was evacuated. She later lied about her age to join the Land Army in 1944 at the very end of war.

Grandad never ever talked about the 1st world war, but often had shaky nervous men in the house... 'he's an old soldier' he would say. Often they slept on the floor or sofa for weeks on end.

I suspect if he could see us now, he would scoff at people cowering indoors in the face of a virus. Soft buggers he would say.

@Jenny4235

I’ve thought this a lot OP. We do live in a very spoilt generation. Young’ens back then would fake there age just so they could sign up and fight for their country. Not a chance in hell you’d get that now, they’d run the other way. Yes of course they complained, just as they do now, but they got on with it, they didn’t bend the rules and put lives at risk just to go out on a bender

What I heard from male relatives who were called up at the start of WWII was that all the recruits were livid about it, sounding off about politicians messing it all up and forcing working class youth to risk their lives as a consequence. But six weeks of hard training knocked it out of them.

@Horehound

I thought more people have died in the UK from covid than from the war. So one year if covid surpassing 6 years of war..

I believe about half a million British people died in WW2, compared to 66,000 “with” Covid.

They had sensible people in charge for a start. That made good decisions. Unlike this present shambolic mess.

Erm well a lot of them didn’t..

@thenightsky

My granny and grandad shared a birthday. They got married on their joint 16th birthday on Valentines Day 1914. Grandad went straight off to war. My mum was born in January 1929 and was evacuated. She later lied about her age to join the Land Army in 1944 at the very end of war.

Grandad never ever talked about the 1st world war, but often had shaky nervous men in the house... 'he's an old soldier' he would say. Often they slept on the floor or sofa for weeks on end.

I suspect if he could see us now, he would scoff at people cowering indoors in the face of a virus. Soft buggers he would say.

Yup.

Agree 100%.

WW1 and 2 were horrendous.

Because they had something that seems to be lacking today. Stamina.

Because civil liberties were not being curtailed and more jobs were being created.

Now civil freedoms are being paralysed and hi s are being decimated.

Re British deaths WW2 450,700 Deaths. {Military and Civilian}

Covid is paltry compared to that.

• jobs are being decimated

My elderly nan says this is worse than the war, because at least back then she could go to the pub

Even in WW2 people could go out to the cinema or dancing, meet with friends.
While this most certainly could not compensate for the loss, devastation, hunger and fear, people could still socialise with each other.

I re-watched Blitz Street recently. My great aunt was killed in one of the Birmingham Air Raids, the same raids where my nan would take my newly born uncle down the air raid shelter in the night. They must have been petrified. Hard times, but friends and families could still meet in part.

Six years blows my mind though.

Likewise, there are many suffering now and comparisons to WW2 don't help the lonely tonight.

With difficulty. My mother was evacuated at the age of 10 from Coventry that was being heavily bombed and went to stay in the country returning at the age of 13. Her father died on her return. My father, being older, was in the RAF flying Lancaster bombers and was shot down over Germany. Two bailed out of the plane alive the others perished. He spent two years as a POW in a German Prisoner of War camp.

As a child we had to finish what was on our plates as they hated food waste but they never really dwelled on what had happened and were remarkably stoic. Very occasionally in older age my father spoke about the atrocities he experienced but in a very low key way.

It is sobering reflecting upon what previous generations have also lived through.

people could still socialise with each other

With the risk of having bombs dropped on their heads

I do think that having some perspective helps - people are definitely suffering now and there are lots of heart-breaking choices. But being aware that In the past and even currently in places that don’t have universal healthcare - things are/were worse, can help us to appreciate some of the things we do have.

For all that people are complaining I think it's unfair to say we aren't "getting through it". NHS staff are going to work every day, so are teachers, shop workers, other key workers.

I don't have the option to "cower indoors", so I'll quite happily complain online as much as I like as it allows me to put a good face on for the kids in school.

And of course people complained during WW2. I remember a friend's granny telling me about having no shoes to fit so she had to wear a pair of army boots. She was still complaining about the boots in her 80s!