Eye - 30 August 2019
From Quaker aunts to Godzilla
Twists and turns in the story of the ‘Quaker Aunts’
A story of unearthing family legends and tracing the tale of a formidable trio of ‘Quaker Aunts’ caught Eye’s eye on Autostraddle.com in June.
‘On the Trail of the Quaker Aunts’ begins with a striking image:
‘A small woman in heavy boots is striding across the Swiss Alps in a thick, woolen skirt suit. Children scramble to keep up. It’s 1938.
‘The Quaker Youth Club has come from sooty Manchester for an invigorating hiking holiday, under the stern watch of my great-great Aunty Benia. They climb up close to the German border.
‘By the time they’ve scrambled back down into the valley, their group has grown – and now, not all of the children speak English, nor will all of them be returning home to their parents. Nevertheless, Benia shepherds them all to Manchester, to safety.’
The writer, Elinor Rooks, wanted to learn more about this family legend.
She reflects on the first time she heard it: ‘All at once the family eccentric, the butt of so many jokes, subject of so many funny stories, shone forth heroic. It seemed impossible. It possibly was.’
She relates the twists and turns she took in tracking down the source of the tale, finding many more along the way.
The notorious ‘Quaker Aunts’ – Benia, Lucy and Margaret – often hiked around Manchester and the Lake District, and they were known in the family as: ‘Fearsome women, sternly silent, difficult and uncompromising.
‘They tromped through family stories in their sensible shoes, wreaking havoc on the ordinary and conventional.’
The Quaker connection came via Margaret: ‘Her father had been a strict Baptist who wore a tall hat and marched them miles to chapel twice every Sunday. When they turned sixteen, they were free to choose their church… Margaret chose the Quakers, who were still very far away, and in the strength of her conviction, she brought her mother and her aunt along with her.’
But was the story of the Swiss Alps true?
Eye will leave that for readers to discover, as the saga unfolds at http://bit.ly/QuakerAunts.
A Friendly presence in Godzilla
Godzilla: King of the Monsters might not be the place you would expect to do Quaker spotting, but one of the actors playing a lead human character in this action fantasy movie has spoken about his Quaker background in GQ magazine.
Bradley Whitford, best known for his role as Josh Lyman in The West Wing, plays Rick Stanton in the latest installment of the Godzilla film franchise.
He was interviewed by Joshua Rivera in May, who wrote that ‘one of the most striking things’ about the actor was his ‘knack for playing characters that understand their power and privilege, and aren’t afraid to put them to use’.
The piece continues: ‘Whitford grew up Quaker, his early life split between Madison, Wisconsin, and southeastern Pennsylvania… The actor frequently cites his Quaker upbringing as the root cause of his civic engagement, believing he would be politically active even if he didn’t act for a living, and mentions his time on The West Wing as instrumental in his decision to remain vocal in public life.’
