border-weave docu

[ThistleDown]

This a lovely little documentary about a very small but important portion of life as it was lived in the Borders in the early 1940s. It's not about discrimination or industrial safety, or even about how the English language was spoken by narrators of the day. It's not about longevity, either, because most of those textile mills are hulking ruins or have been put to other uses today.

[freddie]

What wonderful film. My Mother and Aunt, in fact all the women in my family, worked at Ballantines mill at this time (my Mother was an 'invisible mender' - a skill shown in close-up during the film). I'm on holiday right now, but when I get home I'll show it to them. They may well know the people in the film, or even be featured themselves, I can't wait to show them.

[Mike_Oettle]

I don’t dispute that this is a lovely little documentary. I found it quite delightful myself, albeit quite definitely a period piece.
I missed the date of its making because the file took so long to load and, even after loading, paused several times. I consequently skipped the opening titles.
I commented on the aspect of sexism because it reflected the aged of the film. I would not have made a further point of it had two members not been at pains to deny this aspect.
The stilted style of the commentator is also of a piece with the period when the film was made.
And I also feel it a great pity that many such mills are no longer in production.
In fact, the textile industry in my own country has suffered immensely because of the way in which cheaper imports were allowed to flood the market – cheaper imports produced largely by slave labour in countries my country’s government does not wish to upset with inquiries into labour conditions.
I wonder to what extent the British textile industry has suffered similarly due to political insensitivity.
Regards,
Mike

[ThistleDown]

For more information on the linen and jute industry in Scotland -- its rise and its fall -- you might want to visit http://scottishtextileheritage.org.u...p?articleno=36. You will note that much of the flax and jute used in Scotland for textile manufacturing came from elsewhere. In the case of wool, the great labour required to turn it into tweed and tartan was replaced by machinery housed in those big, cold hulks of buildings. In their turn man-made fabrics were developed and they took a further chunk out of labour needs, with the result that many more folk emigrated and what was left of the original tweed, linen, jute and tartan industry pretty much went with them.

Not to belabour any point you made, Mike, but just to clarify how things were, "sexism" did not exist in the Borders in the war years; women stepped into roles formerly occupied by their men-folk now away somewhere in Europe, North Africa or the Far East, for the second time in less than fifty years. Men who were not overseas were employed for the muscle jobs of the mills and farms and women were employed for the fine work such as that of Freddie's mother and aunt. As a word "sexism" did not exist until it was coined in the 1960s, when it was defined as judging people by their sex when sex doesn’t matter. But it did matter in the early forties, at least in the Scottish countryside and wee towns and villages. It was reality and not to be confused with attitudes, occupations and pay-scales of the 21st century. It is simply not true that women in the Borders (or in the Highlands) lived lives of lesser quality than men. There are some of us on this forum who know that from personal experience. Life was hard for both sexes. Perhaps even harder for the men who died relatively young and very broken down by the relentless need to place bread on the table.

[Mike_Oettle]

While I sincerely do not wish to cause offence to anyone and am well aware that I have already trodden quite heavily on some painful corns, I feel obliged to point out that even though the term sexism was only coined in the 1960s, that does not mean it did not exist before that time.
I speak as someone who has at times been accused quite nastily by women as being a sexist, but also one who has been attacked by men who disapprove of my defence of women’s rights.
I worked for 18 years under a boss who called me the only male feminist he had ever met, but that did not clear me of accusations from women who mistook my attempts to be gallant as rudeness.
Nuff said.
Over and out.
Regards,
Mike

[ThistleDown]

All that's very sad, Mike, and we sympathise in your experiences, but all we are talking about here is a little 1942 documentary about life in a tweed mill in the Borders. These folk lived good, productive lives, taking each day as it came along and trying their best to be happy. A war was being fought on three continents and many of the girls in this film stepped away from their homes and families to fill enormous gaps in the labour force. Some Saturday afternoons they went to the cinema and loved the shorts that accompanied the main flic. Shorts just like this one. Freddie's mum and aunt were probably among them.

[Tartan Tess]

That was great. Thanks slowburn!

[Jock Scot]

I don't remember the dark days of early WW2, but I do remember being taken to "the pictures" later in the war and saw many "wee films" like that and even at my grand old age of five it was nice to see what "normality" was, instead of uniforms everywhere, marching servicemen, endless convoys of trucks, blackouts, air raids, the noise of, even in the skies of the Highlands of "ours" as opposed to "theirs" aero engines, making and mending, being ever hungry, rationing (that continued well after the war was over), whispered conversations about some-one's nearest and dearest having been taken prisoner, killed, burnt, lost a leg, tears of anguish, ships lost, howls of despair, or whatever. Learning to never complain, as there were ALWAYS some unfortunate that was worse off than us----- and sadly there ALWAYS was. For my brother and me, we were so lucky in many ways and I have always been very glad that I was too young to really understand what was going on. No, normality was what everyone craved for, even as a wee lad born into a war and who knew no different, it struck me that I was living in unreal times, although as I grew older after the war and started to understand just how "lucky" we were in Britain compared with others in Europe and other parts of the world where life was all too real for so many and for so long. Yes, very cleaver thinking went into making those wee films.

[Mike_Oettle]

The war was something that was already in the past when I was born. I certainly heard about it from my parents, who had both been in uniform, and from many others who had lived through it.
When my father-in-law arrived in South Africa from Britain (his previous station was Arbroath) as a member of the Fleet Air Arm he was amazed to see how easy it was to buy good food, and lots of it. There was no rationing of food (petrol [gasoline] was rationed), although people were made aware through government campaigns that they should work sparingly.
My family was not keen on regular movie-going, but I got to see a good number of movies, many with war themes. And of course there was always a short, at least one newsreel and a cartoon or two before the main feature.
It is a pity that that format has long since fallen away. All we get now is a bombardment of trailers (which were of course around in the old days, too, but there weren’t as many), and then the main feature.
Television was responsible to a large extent for the shift in the fare presented to moviegoers.
And while there is a definite downside to TV, with dreck ranging from soapies to “reality” and tell-it-all shows, there is also some wonderful stuff like the History channel and series like Downton Abbey.
I wonder if X Marks members could raise enough of a demand for a channel that focuses on Scottish and Irish culture, especially kilts, tartans, bagpipes and ceilidhs.
Just imagine if we could follow a weekly series on textile mills that make tartan?
Regards,
Mike