The Land That Made Me Me

[Billy Beccles]

Originally Posted by snopes

The only prominent "Jean McKinney" I can think of is the Protestant woman who was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972. But I don't see how that event fits the poem, and it seems too late for the timeframe.

- snopes

There was a Catholic woman, I think called Jean McKinney, whose son was murdered by the IRA in 1978 for robbing one of their social clubs (whist drives for Armalites was often a popular night out), but she wasn't herself targeted. And there was Jean MacColvin whom they killed in 1972 because she acted like a Christian and comforted a dying British soldier, the treacherous whore. But I'm pretty sure she was Catholic, since there would have been no point otherwise in killing her (it was a Tragic Necessity in the Struggle Against The Oppressor).

And of course there was Joyce McKinney who enlivened us in 1978 by kidnapping a Mormon missionary. But that was to kill him with pleasure. I would provide cites for all this, but in five minutes I am off to work and once I start googling, I can't stop. As Jules and Sandy would have remarked if they'd lived long enough.

[Chloe]

[hijack] Yay! Billy Beccles! [/hijack]

[RivkahChaya]

http://www.authorsden.com/visit/view...4195&id=170790 If you go here, someone has reprinted the original "Land of Sandra Dee" version of the poem, and in the commentary, someone has written a sort of funny spoof. The spoof might be funnier if the original poem weren't so bad.

The Jean McKinney who was shot in 1972 apparently did wear a flat-top, or at least very short hair, but unless the poem is suggesting that 1) her flat-top days began 20 years before she died, and 2) wearing a flat-top somehow contributed to her demise, the line doesn't make much sense. It also doesn't rhyme very well, though, so I don't think the name was stuck in just to make a rhyme.

Googling "Jean McKinney" mostly produces references to the poem.

[Billy Beccles]

Originally Posted by Chloe

[hijack] Yay! Billy Beccles! [/hijack]

Diolch yn fawr.

When I said Jean MacColvin, I meant Jean McConville. The sharper-eyed will notice that the linked article refers to Mrs McConville's quite possibly being a British agent.

One of these days the whole truth will out and all the Republican leadership will be revealed for the British agents they were, all faithfully serving the zionist entity.

[General Redwood]

With refrences to Boy George and A Fish Called Wanda, I'm think this poem is at least 15 years old.

[General Redwood]

There is always the possibilty that Jean McKinney is a personal reference to someone the supposed author of the poem, Leland Waldrip knew growing up. I doubt its about a woman killed by the IRA, it just doesn't fit the rest of the poem.

[Richard W]

Originally Posted by Billy Beccles

And of course there was Joyce McKinney who enlivened us in 1978 by kidnapping a Mormon missionary. But that was to kill him with pleasure. I would provide cites for all this, but in five minutes I am off to work and once I start googling, I can't stop.

The story is here, complete with a few tabloid nudie bondage pictures featuring Ms McKinney... (eta) And a 30th-anniversary article without the naughty pictures here, for those at work.

When I was 12 or 13 (in the summer of 1985) we went on a family holiday to Dartmoor, and apparently stayed in the very cottage in which Kirk Anderson had been imprisoned, near Okehampton. I don't know whether my parents would have been sleeping in the same bed he was manacled to, or whether they'd have replaced it since then. And to be honest, I don't know how reliable the information was - for all I know, every owner of a remote holiday cottage on Dartmoor makes the same claim. I've never found a way to confirm it, alas. None of the accounts I've found on the internet have enough detail.

[Billy Beccles]

That's the very one, Richard. Do you know, I have been referring to Kirk Anderson as Kirk Elder these ten years. It's a ridiculous thing to do, and if you think I'm going to change now, you're very sadly deluded.

[BrianB]

I got this one from my right wing forward/glurge network a few days ago. Pretty much the same except that the following was appended to the end.

If you didn't grow up in the fifties,
You missed the greatest time in history,
Hope you enjoyed this read as much as I did If So, PLEASE FORWARD to someone who might appreciate

Brian

[Mickey Blue]

Here I thought this was going to be about how Obama was right on with his "you didn't build this" speech. That we are who we in a large part to the place we live and the people around us (which is a slightly expanded version of what he was saying).

I should have known it was yet another love letter to a time that never really existed.

[musicgeek]

Ah yes, the land that made you you... this could just have easily gone something like:

Many years ago now, back when we all "Liked Ike"
And we never ever worried about the n*gger or the k*ke
We wouldn't let them in our clubs, our neighborhoods were free
Of those other races (sissies, too!) in the land that made me me.

There was a lot of cool stuff in the fifties, but a lot of stuff we'd never want to go back to, either.

I wonder what we'll be nostalgic for, fifty years from now, and how much we'll whitewash some of the major issues we face today.

[crocoduck_hunter]

We'll be nostalgic for the lack of media saturation.

[Tom o' Bedlam]

As was touched upon upthread in 2008, it doesn't look like the author is being particularly nostalgic; I think we've just been conditioned to infer nostalgia whenever we see something like this. The statements here all seem to be presented as-is, without any suggestion that things were actually better or worse than they are now.

I've never heard anyone say A Fish Called Wanda marked the downfall of civilized society as we know it, and I don't think many people in the US would've considered Castro's rise to power a good thing. And even the "'gay' meant fancy-free" line isn't inherently judgmental; it's just saying that the word was used to mean something different than it generally is now. The subtext might simply be "We didn't really think or know very much about things beyond our own little bubble."

As to what the author was getting at, the best answer I can come up with is that he's saying "This is what things were like when I was growing up; this is what, for better or worse, made me the person I am today."

Which might've made for a worthwhile theme if the poem wasn't so crappy.

[Brad from Georgia]

It reminds me of Sir's song in Stop the World, I Want to Get Off:

There are so many things I remember
From the deeply revered days of old
When living was gentle and gracious
And working folk did as they're told.

They were wonderful days, I remember,
When a feller could live like a king;
And children were working in coal mines
And life was a beautiful thing.

[snopes]

and 'gay' meant fancy-free

So what? Are we supposed to assume that, in the absence of a common short descriptor, homosexuals simply didn't exist back then?

[Tom o' Bedlam]

My (possibly charitable, I admit) take is that it's simply commentary about how vastly society has changed, for good or ill. Of course they existed, but they were hardly prominent in the "mainstream" public consciousness.

[jimmy101_again]

There are lots of versus that need to be added, like:

When "duck-and-cover" was a euphemism for kiss-your-ass-goodby
because a nuclear weapon was just detonated nearby.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by Tom o' Bedlam

My (possibly charitable, I admit) take is that it's simply commentary about how vastly society has changed, for good or ill. Of course they existed, but they were hardly prominent in the "mainstream" public consciousness.

Perhaps, but the presence or absence of the term "gay" really has no bearing on how prominent homosexuals were in the "mainstream" public consciousness.

[RickK]

Miss Kitty had a heart of gold

Miss Kitty was a prostitute in the early episodes.

[Dasla]

Originally Posted by RickK

Miss Kitty had a heart of gold

Miss Kitty was a prostitute in the early episodes.

They always have hearts of gold