Ludwig Zamenhof's Apostle to Surrey
Jan. 6th, 2013 04:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steepholmMy mother once told me that when she first met her in-laws she was amazed and a little shocked to hear how disrespectfully my grandfather was addressed by his children. I don't suppose they called him a silly old fool except in a jocular/affectionate way, but she couldn't imagine talking to her father like that at all. But then, one grandfather was a vegetarian, pacifist Esperantist and the other a professional sailor from Wrexham who'd spent much of his youth on down-and-dirty cargo runs.
One of the documents I've been looking through recently is a scrapbook, maintained by my Esperanto grandfather, with photos and various childish sketches by his own offspring. Amongst the rest, there is evidence that the father-mocking spirit set in as early as the 1920s. Here, for example, is a (presumably imaginary) scene of domestic violence, as he punishes my grandmother for burning the Yorkshire pudding. It also gives an insight into the English-Esperanto pidgin that was being spoken in Kingston upon Thames at that date:
That was by my aunt Myfy, the eldest child. A little later, there are renditions by both her and her brother James of my grandfather on a missionary trip to Guildford, trying to convert the townsfolk to the glories of Esperanto. (One gathers it wasn't a great success.) First James:
Then Myfy, not to be outdone:
It's quite interesting to see so many of the graphic techniques later utilized by The Beano already in common currency. Either way, I think we can say from the fact that my grandfather carefully pasted these scurrilous pictures into the family scrapbook that he wasn't too offended.
One of the documents I've been looking through recently is a scrapbook, maintained by my Esperanto grandfather, with photos and various childish sketches by his own offspring. Amongst the rest, there is evidence that the father-mocking spirit set in as early as the 1920s. Here, for example, is a (presumably imaginary) scene of domestic violence, as he punishes my grandmother for burning the Yorkshire pudding. It also gives an insight into the English-Esperanto pidgin that was being spoken in Kingston upon Thames at that date:
That was by my aunt Myfy, the eldest child. A little later, there are renditions by both her and her brother James of my grandfather on a missionary trip to Guildford, trying to convert the townsfolk to the glories of Esperanto. (One gathers it wasn't a great success.) First James:
Then Myfy, not to be outdone:
It's quite interesting to see so many of the graphic techniques later utilized by The Beano already in common currency. Either way, I think we can say from the fact that my grandfather carefully pasted these scurrilous pictures into the family scrapbook that he wasn't too offended.