“Simon Goze and his comrades were shot by the Germans at the
age of 27 in the courtyard of the Sainte-Ménehould Hospital on 30 August 1944;
the town was liberated in the evening " wrote his great-niece, Martine
Lambard.
“The sisters occupying the hospital begged the Germans. They
were ready to give their lives in exchange for those of the young people.
Nothing could be done: the Germans murdered them, a bullet in the head for my
great-uncle. Today, nothing remains of this barbaric act. The place is deserted
and forgotten. Tribute to all these young people who died for France and for
our freedom. Simon, we send you all our love."
Gullegem is a town in the Belgian province of West Flanders.
The territory of Gullegem was already inhabited in the Neolithic,
from which time several arrowheads of flint were found. A cremation grave dates
from the Celtic period. In 1976 Roman wells were also found from the 1st
century AD, in which some jewelry and coins were found.
The flax industry became very important for Gullegem from
the 15th century onwards. Around 1838, several inventions were made in the
region that greatly improved linen weaving. In the 19th century, the
industrialisation of the flax and linen industry emerged, although there were
still many home weavers for a long time.
On October 19, 1914, German troops caused great damage to
the village.
After the Second World War Gullegem expanded rapidly.
The video paints a beautiful portrait of what life was like
in 1958 Gullegem. There is some flickering due to the editing in Photoshop, but
it produces beautiful images and shows how common berets (and flat caps) were
in those days.
Les 7 Familles is a card game with simple rules, involving
memory and observation. It is played with a deck of forty-two special cards,
divided into seven families of six cards each, originally the grandfather (the great-grandfather
in the oldest games), the grandmother (great-grandmother), the father, the
mother, the son and the daughter.
I was delighted to discover this old box of 7 Families Pyrenean
edition designed by my friend Jean-Claude Pertuzé (RIP).
Fascinating documentary on the tough life of farm workers in 1969, including some prominent berets.
"It's back-breaking work, just one of the difficulties
of living under conditions that have hardly changed since medieval times."
Most people have a view of life in the country that doesn't
match reality. One farmworker in four earns less than £13 a week - the minimum
wage is only £12.8s - while a peculiar wages permit system allows some farmers
to have their workers' downgraded and pay them even less than this.
One-quarter of general farm workers with more than three
children live below the official poverty level. Because of the 'tied' cottage
system, some farm workers do not even have complete job security and freedom -
if they lose their job they can lose their home, too. 35,000 men a year are
getting out of farm work, leaving these conditions for jobs in the cities. The
National Union of Agricultural Workers frequently has its hands tied and seems
helpless, partly because it has so few members and partly because its members
are so scattered.
Man Alive reports from the Old Crown Court, Dorchester, in
which, 135 years ago, six men of the land who became known as the 'Tolpuddle
Martyrs' were convicted for trying to organise a protest against farm workers'
pay and conditions. Their sentence, then, was transportation to Australia, are
farm workers still an oppressed minority a century and a half later?
Clip taken from Man Alive: Everyday Story of Country Folk,
originally broadcast on BBC Two, 4 June, 1969.
Daan Kolthoff is a writer, living between the hills of Wellington, New Zealand and, when not writing, meditating or walking the hills, he is usually researching, reading about or ordering berets from around the world.
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