#boys making some history

[morgansyorkie]

Welcome to the Big Time Boys

[yeoldenews]

It’s Dear Santa time again!

Every year since 2010, I have spent the month of December posting children's Dear Santa letters.

Publishing letters to Santa in the newspaper first became widely popular in the late-1890s, though scattered newspapers did so as early as the mid-1880s. I believe this sudden explosion in popularity was at least partially the result of the famed "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause" editorial which was published in The New York Sun in September of 1897.

In large cities Dear Santa letters often acted as a method of getting needed clothing and supplies to impoverished children when parents might be ashamed to ask for charity. Subscribers to the newspaper could choose a child’s letter and provide the items they asked for. The most common requests were shoes and coats.

Sometimes newspapers offered prizes for the best letter (which I suspect often acted as another clandestine form of charity as the winners were often letters asking for basic clothing and school supplies.) Though these prizes could range from the ordinary (a sled or a doll) to the extravagant (a $20 gold piece or a live pony.)

Often local stores would enter children in a drawing if they mentioned the store in their letter - which on occasion would result in children hilariously name-dropping every store in town just in case.

Writing Dear Santa letters was also commonly an activity done at school, often following some rough form letter. These letters are fairly easy to spot as they often hype up what a good student the child was and include effusive praise for their teacher (who would likely see the letter before it was sent.)

So why have I spent hundreds of hours of my life over the last decade reading tens of thousands of these letters?

Children's voices are largely absent from the historical record.

Dear Santa letters offer an extremely rare opportunity to see history unfold through children's eyes - in their own (often creatively spelled) words.

1914′s “Remember the children in Belgium” becomes 1918′s “Please visit my brother in France”.

During the Great Depression the very common phrase “I know you’re poor this year too Santa” gives a glimpse into parents' attempts to explain to their children why they might not be getting as much this year.

1939′s “Be careful flying over Europe” becomes 1945′s “Since the war is over you’re making bb-guns again right?”

Requests for toy flying machines become aeroplanes become fighter jets become space shuttles.

Dolls and wagons become Shirley Temple merchandise become Erector Sets become Barbies and Star Wars action figures.

But through all these changes one thing remains clear throughout 130+ years of letters to Santa, despite the rapidly changing world around them - children have always been children.

I hope you enjoy these letters as much as I do! (All decade+ of posts are tagged “Dear Santa” if you’d like to see more than just this year’s selection.)

Hapy Holadays and Marry Crimes!

[2deadboys]

modern/alive au payneland Charles is absolutely the kind of person to eat snacks in bed. Edwin would be livid and would angry vacuum the bed every night with one of those mini handheld ones. Charles insists he brushed the crumbs off, and Edwin would be like, "Oh really? Then why can I feel the crumbs when I lie in our bed Charles!? hm??????" He'd always say he was going to make Charles sleep on the sofa. But he never actually enforces it.

[orangejuice2004]

but i stay silly :3 but i stay silly :3 but i stay silly :3 (more information in the tags) (template by @jimothy-hopkins!!!) (feel free to interact w/ ur own ocs! let's be bully moots ^o^)

png source:

here

here

here

[the-holy-ghosted]

how do you think things started. Did Bridgens or Peglar make the first move? Was it before or after John began tutoring him?

Brought up in the book, actually! He taught Peglar how to read while they were on their Beagle voyage and when they came home, he sought Bridgens out again for more lessons. At some point after finding him again, Peglar made the first move on him.

From chapter 28, the first of a handful of Peglar POV chapters. Despite the book being... the way it is, I do like how it does these two. If you were to read any part of it, read chapters 28 and 50. My suggestion to you heehee

[pit-2-podium]

F2 Sprint highlights

god i love f2 - immediately Joshua Durksen just goes directly into the wall taking two cars out with him

no one knows what just happened - the commentators are trying desperately to try and figure out what just happened

- everyone is okay

I believe it was Enzo Fittpaldi who just swore very loudly?

correction FIVE cars out in one go

five lap safety car with paul aron in the lead - their all chilling

And away they go - paul aron is off into the sunset

overtake from franco colapinto

pepe marti with a 10 second penalty from start of the race issues - a stop start penalty (shameless self-promotion: i've got a post on penalties if your curious)

their playing follow the leader (follow-follow me, in a line, in a line)

there's not a lot to talk about tbh their all playing very nice as of lap 12

shoutout to Ollie Bearman doing better f1 standings than he is in f2

Zane Maloney is coming for third - and does not get it

Franco Colapinto and Paul Aron battling for first - Franco is basically antagonizing Paul

I'm not going to lie, I got distracted looking for this really niche elementary school song/game that i referenced above and only found a really lame version of it where they just pose - that shit was like sudden death when i was a kid.

Anywho in FP3 in f1 the presenters made a really good point that both Zane Maloney and Paul Aron are doing better than Antonelli and Bearman yet were not talking about them for possible seats next year - and that we should talk about them more, so good job dudes

Midfield battle with Kimi Antonelli in the lead

Zane Maloney finally over takes Amaury cordeel in a smart breaking move around the outside

Colapinto chasing down Aron

AND HE DOES IT ON THE LAST LAP - they were so close to contact after Aron has the slighest mistake

Gabriel Bortoleto gives a last ditch attempt at taking p5 from Ollie Bearman and gets blocked

Franco Colapinto will be the first Argentian driver on the f2 podium!!

Paul Aron is not having a good time

The commentators are giving Franco some very sweet notes

a minute of dead silence in the driver cool down room

Lowkey vibing with Argentina national anthem - he looks so proud, as he should be

Damn did Paul Aron really just walk away during the Champaign spraying??

[b4kuch1n]

fuck it sk8 sketches from da sketchbook. get sk8ed idiot

[fictionadventurer]

Me: Is this Farmer Boy sequel written in 2012 really going to be able to feel like a legitimate follow-up to the style and atmosphere of the original, or is it just another modern cash-grab?

Heather Williams, on page 2: Best of all, he knew that fall meant crispy spareribs and sweet cider and hot roasted potatoes with melting butter and all the pumpkin pie he could eat.

Me: ....it looks like I can trust you. Carry on.

[good-to-drive]

Not to start shit but there's no non-misogynistic explanation for hating Pattie or Jane

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

when u didn't come back after 6 days i was worried this had happened to you

Yeah, it turns out grimace really doesn't like people celebrating his birthday. Yeah, it was a warning shot. Yeah, I won't do it again.

[theoppositeofprofound]

My standing opinion on all the fucky little Finwean cousin sets (Fingon/Maedhros, Aredhel/lads, Finrod/anyone) is that it might not have been romantic but it sure wasn’t normal. People absolutely looked at them and went “huh, something is going on there (none of my business)”. Regardless of your standing on the debate, you’ve got to make the dynamics a little insane.

[jathun]

ngl I have such a love/hate relationship with the fate franchise

[candycryptids]

Hiya! I hope you're doing well today! I love your characters and how you've structered their bios! Since Chuusday is listed first, is she technically your official WOL or is it someone else? Do you canonically have a WOL in the first place?

Also, I find it SO sweet that you and one of your partners both play FFXIV and have characters paired together ;w; Did you meet ingame or long before either of you started playing? Either way I wish you both the best!!! <3 - gardenofballads 🌻

Awaaaah! Im doing pretty ok!!! Taking time to answer this as a wind down from Emerald Weapon Ex Brain Soupage. And I’m so glad! ;W; I think I butchered one of those “Get To Know An OC” thingies- uhh… oh [this one] actually! I chopped a lot out and I think added a couple different thingums instead because there was so much to that that it felt overwhelming to try to look at let alone fill out LOL but it was a really good jumping off point uvu;

And!!! Hilariously Chuu was my First XIV Character, so she’s dear to my heart for being the first one- but she very quickly made it known being the WOL even as an AU was something of a Joke (Her character showed great reluctance and even frustration at having to do So Much World Saving, maybe a side-effect of me rushing through MSQ to catch up with my other spouse [Who plays Talia, though they’ve got less time for XIV these days ;0;] and the rest of my friends who were all EndGame already at the time in Shadowbringers fhdjfjsjfs.) So I made…… many alts. Throwing spaghetti at the wall but I have SEVERE side-character/NPC brain and kept making “supporting cast” types =w=; it actually took me like. 3? Alts before making an ACTUAL WoL with my husband (Ishi’li and Kizuna) (as of Right Meow, they’re in post ARR, but we’ve been working on Keathan and Tuesday together because Keathan was… Keathan’s first character in xiv XD so we’ve been jaunting through the story together and experiencing every inch of it so we can pick and choose what The Boys™ get up to when we wanna focus on them x3)

🥰 I knew both speece during at least high school- but I actually knew Keathan as early as Elementary school hehe 😌 tho the speece didn’t proper marry until… i’unno, 2017? (For frustrating legal reasons, I’m not legally married, but. As it goes. Someday we’ll have money to visit the one state that has legal poly marriages. Also I struggle to remember our wedding year 🫢)

Since managing to make a Co-WoL with my husband I’ve managed to make one other Alt meant to be a Solo-WoL (Mochiie) but I have to really wrinkle my brain to sink time into playing him, since I’m trying to take screenshots throughout the story at what I find to be inspiring beats xD And even still he has an alt-universe where he’s just a side-character for the ‘Main Timeline’ (where there’s a bunch of spaghetti and like 8+ confirmed WoL’s and the Msq entourage looks HILARIOUS in canon, someday I’ll get all the data together and take pictures, but I think it’ll cook what’s left of my brain x’3) [it’s less concrete than anything I’ve posted about before or I’d try to explain it ;v;’ it’s just interesting mostly to see how the story gets stretched to fit around a larger community of heroes than a solo guy shouldering the whole burden lmfao.]

🌸🌸🌸…. I also hope you’re having a lovely week @gardenofballads !!!! I am tossing flower petals into the air around you !!! Thank you for the ask and well wishes n kind words 🥺💖 🌸🌸🌸

[oliwrightofficial]

AOTV spoilers kinda, Oli is legit a funny person in the documentary. Like he's probably more supportive than H when it comes to loving Louis. I wish I have an Oli friend. But yeah, not just that how he speaks about Louis is truly heart warming, also he loves louies sooo much and I think, maybe I'm biased (probably I am) , I think he's kinda annoyed/irritated by #those🍑 people, I dunno, that's what I got from him. Anyways, I hope that docu also diminished the idea that Louis' friends or his relations have no depth cuz some of them are quite interesting and intellectual people.

AOTV spoilers so far: exactly what we would have expected to see of Louis, but OLI REVELATIONS LEFT AND RIGHT! #OliTheseVoices AM I RIGHT?

[venti-tangents]

Thinking about the ikepri boys using French since rhodolite is very heavily based of France (and a little bit of England?)

Like Licht saying « je t’adore » or Clavis calling you « ma douce » or Gilbert calling you « Mademoiselle lapine » with a light German accent

[crispyjenkins]

welcome to cj/crispy's bi-yearly ptsd rant about fireworks, you are all safe and valid here and i am mentally giving out juice boxes and animal crackers