WinterWitch: Control

Chapter 9

James POV

Wanda hadn't been gone for too long, but it was nearly time for our session. While she had been gone, I wrote down things I used to enjoy on the list. I didn't know where to start, most of my memories from that time very faint, so I took to the internet and researched the types of things that occurred in the 1920s.

I clicked on the first article and had to take a breath before reading. The life I was going to read was meant to be behind me. Whenever I was brainwashed, it taught the Soldier to live in the present. I ground my teeth and told myself to stop being so weak.

Economic, political and technological developments heightened the popularity of jazz music in the 1920s, a decade of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity in the United States.

I shut my eyes and did my best to set my mind back. I could hear the faint rhythm of...something. It was a piano and in the background were clarinets. Perhaps I was making the piece of music up...perhaps not. I picked up my pen and wrote 'jazz music' down in a notebook I found in one of my drawers when I got here. I read on.

Professional football and basketball were minor sports. North Carolina followed most of these trends, although professional boxing and horse racing events were not widely held in the state because of their association with gambling. Baseball was very popular in North Carolina in the 1920s.

Even though I wrote 'baseball' and 'boxing' on the notepad, I decided to change my search the 1930s instead of the 1920s. I was born in 1917, but I would've been too young for 1920's trends.

Radio and motion picture technology allowed access to new sources of entertainment. Movies were very popular, often attracting 50 million viewers to theatres per week.

I wondered whether that was what I did each week, go to a cinema with a new dame each week. 'cinema' was the next one on the list.

Listeners enjoyed music, baseball games or other programmes on home radios. More than 12 million households owned a radio by the end of the decade, according to the History channel.

The last radio I listened to recently was I had stolen from the police. Modern music was played frequently on radios and I hated how it sounded. I added 'listen to the radio'.

Telephones also became more readily available in homes across the country, as chatting with friends or family on the phone became a pleasant pastime.

Part of me remembered the way that it sounded, how an old phone would ring in its shrilling bell tone rather than the modern quieter ringtone or song.

The invention of the Model T Ford triggered a car manufacturing boom during the late 1920s, and other models quickly followed. Travel by car quickly became a hobby of the 1920s, as people were able to pursue their own interests in the privacy of their own vehicle. There were more than 23 million cars in America by the end of the 1920s. Most were owned by middle- and upper-class families reports.

There was a faded memory in the back of my mind. I heard the echoing sound of a woman introducing the show.

'Ladies and Gentleman, Mr. Howard Stark!' she announced.

Stark jumped onto the stage, a large smile on his face as he waltzed across the floor. He gave one of the assistants his hat and brought her in for a kiss in front of the whole audience. Some people whooped and the rest applauded louder, his lifestyle being accepted by the world.

He wiped his lips with a handkerchief as the ladies walked across to the side of the stage next to the car.

'Ladies and Gentleman, what if I told you that in a few short years, your automobile won't even have to touch the ground at all.' People gasped as the assistants removed the wheels of the car. 'With Stark Revideent Reversion technology, you'll be able to do just that,' he said as he flicked a switch.