Vauxhall Road

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 87040

> Geoff:
> > > > > Which raises the additional point of how Tom got hold 
of a  diary from Vauxhall Road in 1942.
> 
<snip>
> Shaun:
> > A paid job, maybe not... although I wouldn't rule it out 
> > completely. 
> 
> <Snipped>
> 
> Geoff:
> Although, Carolyn has already told us that the orphanage at 
Stockwell  had evacuated its children away from London, so that 
still raises the  point that if TR was pottering around Vauxhall 
Road, where was he  coming from? If the orphanage had 
remained evacuated, then the  children would be well out of 
London. Agreed, a lot of family  evacuees returned to London for 
a variety of reasons but the orphans  presumably wouldn't 
although the bombing threat was well reduced by 
> this time until the next problem, the V1 "Doodlebugs" but 
(without  looking things up) I think they started about 1944.<<
> 

The orphanage  wouldn't necessarily keep its teenage charges 
all together in an institution but would place them out into 
boarding houses or families. It was considered a positive social 
good for teenagers  to work and teenage orphans might be 
expected to hold down jobs in the summer -- domestic service 
for girls and agricultural or  factory jobs for boys.

These jobs were often dangerous in their own right, worker 
safety laws being still in their infancy. Tom would have been 
risking damage to his wand arm as well as hours of  stultifying 
backbreaking repititious labor in the factories or fields. 

 It would be a bit complicated for Tom to explain all that to Dippet, 
who presumably knows very little about Muggle ways.


Pippin