I decided I need to do some more reading on the 1930s, as I work to revise and polish Part Two of Ned. So when I was at the library, earlier today, I did a search in the library catalog and found something that looks like exactly what I had in mind: Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940: How Americans Lived Through the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, by David E. Kyvig. Timelines of Big Historical Events are easy enough to find, but when writing a story centered around the mundane daily lives of a couple over the years, I really want a history that focuses on mundane daily life during an era. Of course a few Big Historical Events punctuate the story--it'd be lame as all hell to ignore them altogether--but they're not the focus.

And yes, I know, Frederick and Ned are Englishmen, not Americans, but they live in America from the 1920s onwards, so, blee. To borrow a favorite expression of jemby. I'm still trying to figure out if they eventually became citizens or would have lived their whole lives as resident aliens. I don't know if it's really important to figure it out, so for now I won't.

By the way, is anyone out there enjoying the posts about Bing Crosby and his music? It's not like I'm an obsessive fan of Bing or anything, but he's one of those nostalgia figures, even if I prefer Tropicana or Florida's Natural orange juice rather than Minute Maid. I realize they aren't really the kind of posts that invite real discussion, or even inspire comments, but I'm curious whether my f-list is enjoying them or hating them or just thinks they're boring as all f**k.

Whatever the case, I'll still write whatever rambles across my mind on a given day. I'm just curious. ;-)