1912

When my children were young, around age 4, I began noticing my daughter Jamie was completely obsessed with the year 1912.  She talked about how 1912 was her favorite year.  She was fascinated with anything from that time period.  The clothes women wore, furniture from that time period and she loved antique cars and started collecting matchbox cars that were replicas of early cars.  She could tell me the names of each car and sometimes some fact about the car that I had no idea whether was accurate or not. 

A few blocks from our house is a home built about that time and is now a museum.  Jamie would beg to go to the "hysterical" museum.  Every time we went she walked about talking about everything as if she were the museum curator.  She would explain how this item was used or that item.

Another time we were in an antique store and she spotted two pictures.  They were magazine covers that had been framed and were dated 1912.  She was about seven years old and she begged and begged for me to buy the pictures.  I did and gave them to her for her birthday.  

As she got older her fascination lessened but she always had an interest in that period.  She has purchased vintage clothing and even had some pieces made for herself.  And then the movie Titanic was made.  I think she saw the movie at least 10 times.  She watched every documentary about the Titanic on tv.  The first time they broadcast film taken by the submarine as it crept through the ship she just sat and cried.  She was really disturbed by the fact that they were bringing artifacts up from the wreckage saying they were just modern day grave robbers.

When she was in college we took a trip to Memphis to see the Titanic exhibition.  Jamie kept saying she wasn't going with us but finally relinquished.  Now, lots of people were teary eyed as they walked through the exhibit looking at the little shoes of children on board the ship but no one was as visibly shaken as my daughter.  Finally she had to leave and wait for us outside.

Now, I have never given any mystical meaning to my daughter's fascination with 1912.  I thought it was a little odd for a four-year old.  For some reason I never thought about the date of the sinking of Titanic until now.  I saw on tv this morning that it will be 100 years on April 14, 2012......oh my...she sank in 1912.