I find it fascinating how the decade challenge players are dealing with the war death rolls. (No complain ) All players, I have followed so far, changed especially this part of the original rules. In the first ww not many soldiers have died compared to the 2nd ww, but many were ruined for their rest of their life, many died shortly after the Spanish influenza stepped up in due of poor health conditions and collapsed health system.
@Daravi Well, the original rules were ridiculous. All men go, half of them die???? Seriously, the country would have been entirely crippled if they lost half of its male population in the space of a year and a half! The US male population in 1917 was 52 million, 28 million of those were between the ages of 18-65, imagine if 14 million of those just died! In reality 116 516 men died in war related deaths, and that was enough to put a dent in the population for years to come.
My numbers when I roll are not anywhere near accurate, but as close as you can get with the roll of a dice. I could, of course, use some website and add the 0,02% that was the real death toll of US soldiers (116 516 dead out of 4,2 million soldiers), but in a game that risk is so ridiculously low that it would make no impact on the game. My French roll is much closer to reality, but then their war lasted longer, it was on French soil and the trenches were horrible places where illness and infection killed as indiscriminately as bombs and bullets did.
Speaking of things that makes no sense in the game, I have thought about aging and years. I have aging on long, with slight adjustments, making sure everyone has the same birthday each year. Unfortunately with 5 years/sim year, and birthdays one the same days, kids grow up way too fast. They become children at age 5 which is fine, but then teens at age 10 and YA at 15. It doesn't really make sense. So I've decided that starting now, kids will be kids for two sim years, aka 10 years. It's a bit too long, but that way they still get to keep their birthdays. It means they won't become teens until they're 15, but I can live with that as they definitely do not look younger than that anyway and they start having crushes and think of adult things right off the bat.
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I'm sorry if it sound offensive, it wasn't meant to be, blame my 2nd language English. I know what you mean, I played the DC from the german PoV, and changed this rule too. Even from the german side the rules made no sense, but what I make when it came to the death roll, I made changed the dice to D20 and included the severe injuries and the PoW in this system. It worked well to me. I although adapted the age one year 8 days, which made my game last longer (2 years) because I was more emotional attached to my sims then and couldn't let them die. The rules is more for people who want to be finish fast as possible. I don't need to mention this is already a long challenge.
@Daravi Oh you did not come across as offensive at all, I'm just enough of a history nerd that I love to talk about what I do and why. Seriously I looked up the census information for 1917 because I find these kind of things fun! The D20 dice was a good idea. I have none, so I'll settle for this because it works well enough for me. I like risks, and don't mind hurting my sims' feelings, so I don't mind if the risk is bigger than normal
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I'm just a knowledge seeker too, and curious about everything. I don't have a d20 either, I just take the Google search with roll d20 when needed. But yeah, playing sims means you have to accept compromises.
I am afraid your letter does not find me at my happiest, as Maurice has received his marching papers and has left Glimmerbrook for the time being. have to admit that even if we both knew it was a matter of time, the news hit us both hard. We have been living in a bubble, both knowing what would come but pretending it wouldn't. But now it has and my heart is aching from the loss as acutely as if one of my limbs had been torn away from me. It is fortunate that I have my work, and that it keeps me busy or I'd be lost in the blackest corners of my mind. I can certainly understand the duality in what our sister is feeling, because I feel it too. I would not love Maurice if he was not the man he is, if he was not so brave and not only willing but eager to fight for his country again and return to the front and his fellow soldiers, and yet my heart breaks at the very idea that he is no longer by my side and might never be again, but I cannot think that. I cannot allow myself anything less than hopefullness or I'll perish.
I will instead comfort myself in knowing that there was nothing that wasn't said, done or shared between us. Indeed the last few days we have almost lived as man and wife, well in some ways entirely like man and wife. Oh if mother only knew! But how could I deny him, or myself, the throws of passion when knowing that there might never be a tomorrow? I regret nothing, and if the worst happens, I will know that I for the briefest of moment had everything. Oh, Anna if what you felt for Lizzie was even a sliver of what I feel now then I apologize because I did not understand. Let no one tell you what you feel is wrong, or to be careful, for how can one be careful when one's very soul is on fire?
Before you ask we have talked of marriage, and there is a ring on my finger. To be fair I could not have cared less about a ring that might mean nothing in the end, but Maurice did. He said he wanted there to be a ring on my finger, so that I could call him husband should I need to, and I admit we have not been careful. He even gave me the key to his house so that I can live there should I want to (it's beautiful, by the way, absolutely stunning! You'd love the art on his walls.), but I do not know how to stay there without him. It would feel too much like a lie, even though the lie is a small one. In our hearts we are already wed, though in practice we could not be as there is no one in Glimmerbrook left to wed us. Do not tell mother or father, as I have no clue what to tell them yet. I am not ready to face our parents and their questions. Not yet.
On his last night we went out with the others together. To send him off, and celebrate our "marriage". As if not everyone here knows exactly the predicament we are in. To their benefit none of them said a word about it, but pretended along with us. It was a nice night, and yet through it all I could only wish we were not there but alone together. For every hour that passed I knew it was one less we'd spend together. But I will keep my hopes up, and wait for his letters to arrive in hopes that he will return to me.
I am sorry. I notice now that this entire letter has been only about myself. I am happy for you, and the more Del Sol does for the war effort the happier I am. For the first time in my life, however, I feel I cannot room any other feelings than those I am wrapped up in at the moment. It will pass, I am certain, once this too becomes routine or Maurice returns. Hopefully with US in the war, it will not take as long to end. The faster this can end the better. In the meantime, tell me more about you, and the gossip from back home, as I so badly need to hear it right now.
Your loving sister,
Anna
Dreaming of the future and watching the clouds:
Anna sees Maurice's home for the first time:
A special night:
Maurice's last night in Glimmerbrook before returning to the front:
Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
I do not know how to start this letter. I suppose by telling you that I have arrived all right and that I am still in the land of the living. Life in the trenches are what I remember it to be, but so much harder this time as I keep thinking of you. Last time I had no wish for anything but to fight for my land, but now I worry for your safety, and long to be with you again. Conditions are as bad as ever, but we soldier through the best we can. It turns out some of the fellows here are actually quite good story tellers, which help. A fellow named Gaston told such a fantastic horror story that we all went to bed a little more frightened than we probably have ought to be.
Oh! How I love you and as I sit here waiting I wonder what you are doing. I must not do that. It is hard enough sitting waiting for whatever comes next. The bombardment is constant, but then you know that. You can hear it well enough in Glimmerbrook. How hard it is to be so close to you and yet so far away.
The faces here are almost entirely new. Of my own comrades most are gone in one way or another, dead or wounded or sent elsewhere. The fellows are new, some so very young and all terribly frightened. We who have been here before try to calm them, tell them that as long as they keep their heads down they are comparatively safe. Of course some shelling do land in the trench themselves, and it's a matter of time before they, we, are ordered over the top. But enough of that.
How are you, my love? I cannot wait to receive news from you, to hear how you are fairing. I will see you again, and this hope keeps me warm at night. I picture you waiting for me, working as hard and bravely as ever. Now that your fellow countrymen has decided to be as brave as you and join this retched war perhaps this war can finally come to an end and the Germans be pushed back once and for all and France be free again. Then I too will be free. Free to return to you. Then I will come with you to your home, introduce myself to your family properly, and never leave your side again as we explore the world together. Even in the gray dullness of the trenches I see jungle and color wherever I look, because you sold me a dream I cannot shake. I long to see the jungles of Selvadorada, to paint those colors as you discover its secrets. What a life we will lead! I will enclose one of my drawings, bleak in comparison to what I dream of, but something which shares a bit of reality of what I am seeing here. I must draw or I will truly loose my mind, and someone ought to see the reality that is life here.
And now I must sleep. I have the early morning watch, and then drills with the new recruits all day. Know that you are forever in my thoughts, forever in my dreams.
Always your most devoted,
Maurice
Actual artwork from the front:
Death toll by game:
Karl Becker (Ger-military)
Bjorn Bjergsen (Ger-civilian)
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Alice moves up in the world and out of her apartment
In Del Sol Valley, Alice is becoming ever more successful. She moves between parties at Judith Ward's home, to photoshoots, to auditions and roles. As a result of her hard work she is promoted within the production company, and make more money as she's hired.
But in all the glamour there is also time for every day life, and living alone Alice gets to learn all about the kind of chores she never had to do back home. Cleaning, washing up, cooking (she quite enjoys that one) and washing clothes (she definitely does not enjoy that one). She also makes new friends. One in particular, Cora is someone who she can actually relax with and whose company she can enjoy not as a part of promoting her career, but relaxing with.
After her last promotion and rent payment, it's time - or so says Judith Ward - to move into a more respectable apartment. Somewhere she can entertain, and as an apartment has been made available in the Mirage... well of course she wants to move there!
She spends the next few days buying and arranging furniture, spending more money than she really thinks is wise, but which leaves her with an apartment that fits the very latest of trends.
She arranges a phone call with her parents from the phone in the hallway, informing them of her new address and number. "No, daddy, I am not being wasteful, I promise," she assures Joseph. "This is a safer, cleaner place. Without mice."
Later, she writes to her sister:
How wasteful all this must seem to you, being where you are and doing what you do. Yet Judith assures me that this is necessary if I want to move up in my career. That I need to start throwing parties of my own and not just attend hers. I do not know if she's right or not, but so far listening to her has done wonders for my career. Did you know I got to play opposite her last time? It was such an honor! But I cannot help but to think of you in all of this, and of what you are going through. I cannot believe it's been three years since I went off to uni and you to France. To me so much has changed, but for you time must seem frozen. How can this war not be over yet? Perhaps soon. You are in my thoughts constantly.
Your loving sister,
Alice
Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
The Spanish Flu comes to Willow Creek - the calm before the storm
While Maurice is fighting in the trenches and Anna is fighting in the hospital, the reality of war is far away from Willow Creek. It may be in the news, charity organisations are working overtime and the young men's absence is surely felt, but it is still a far way off and as of yet no one the town people know has died in the war. Instead, matters closer at hand worry the people of Willow Creek. Like the new "sneeze malady" that the papers write about. Especially in the national papers that Joseph sometimes brings home from the club.
The news is of course worrying, and rumors have it that two women who were ill might have had this discase, though it is of course too early to tell. In the Whittaker household, Abigail has set Dolly to clean everything in the house extra carefully, but otherwise try to keep things as normal as possible. After all, the local newspapers urges calm, and writes that "Influenza does not spread, or become severe in warm, sunny weather, such as prevails during the greater part of the year in New Orleans." (Times-Picayune, October 1, 1918). As such she does not think it will be necessary to alter their lives too much. She can still see her charity group, go to WW1-relief rallies and see their extended family.
Which is why when it's time for Harold to age up, the entire family (and the Duncans) gather at Frank and Emily's to celebrate this:
Emily in turn has her own problems. With the war going on, more and more women join the work force, and less and less women are interested in domestic work. After all, it's poorly paid with horrible working hours and virtually no time off. Even on Sundays, though you were supposed to be off, most domestic workers were expected to carry on working. Emily was no different in this respect from any other employer. No better, no worse, but Virginia is young, and with so many other job offers out there she now has options. After yet another evening of fighting and drinking in the household, she decides she has had enough.
Dressing in something that is not a servants uniform, Virginia packs her bag and informs Emily she is leaving. There is no pleading Emily can do to persuade her to stay, and Emily is stuck with the house work she has never had to do before, like cleaning the dishes and picking up all the children's clothes.
Back at the senior Whittaker household, Josephine is bored and definitely not worrying about some silly sickness. With no school (she has no interest in university), and Nash being off fighting a war instead of marrying her, she has very little things to keep herself occupied. She's not one for sporting activities, and while she does know how to knit she thinks her mother's constant knitting is enough for the both of them. In fact, Josephine has very few real interests that can occupy her time, nor did she ever think she'd need them. At this point of life she had imagined she would be setting up a home of her own, planning and hosting dinner parties and meeting and greeting her husband's coworkers, possibly planning for her first child. Things that would be keeping her busy on its own. She had not counted on her life being on hold until a idiotic war in Europe was over. What does it has to do with them anyhow?
At least she's not the only one. With virtually no young men left in town, all young adult women are left to do nothing but wait and work for charity organisations. Gathering, they talk of the rapid changes in fashion, of what to do when the men return, and gossip about the people in town.
For Abigail, the war takes up quite a lot of her mind. After all, nothing can be seen as more important than bringing Anna back home again, and to do so the war needs to end. Therefore, Abigail has very much taken Anna's urges for more supplies and the government's sale of war bonds to heart. She has never knitted more in her life, and with the Willow Creek charity group, she arranges for war rallys and charity gatherings to raise money for the cause. She is not entirely indifferent to the spread of the new illness, so she makes sure the latest party is hosted outdoors, in the park. It's a resounding success for such a small town, though of course nothing like the rallys they have in the bigger cities. In the paper she can read that a war rally in Lafayette Square attracted 50,000 people on October 5. In New Orleans, as in Willow Creek, the unfortunate downside is the massive spike in flu cases that results from this.
Of course this is nothing Abigail knows anything about yet, nor does anyone else. Fall has just started for real, and no one they know has fallen ill yet. That is about to change, and in game that will look like this:
A mod that reduces sickness has been removed. Anyone who gets sick will be assumed to have the Spanish flu, and a dice will be rolled for their survival (see the last point).
Accidental death has been turned on for all families. Any non-military death will be accounted to the flu.
If at the end of 1918 (roughly around Thanksgiving in game) a dice will be rolled for everyone who has not been made sick by the game itself. 1-2 the sim gets sick with the flu as about 1/3 of the world's population fell ill from the flu.
Another roll but will determine if someone who is ill lives or dies. This time I have decided to play it close to the actual number of a fatality rate of 2,5 %, which is roughly the equivalent of getting 2 in a roll of two dice.
Spanish flu death toll so far:
Anna Villareal (Windenburg)
Kaitlyn Templeton (Willow Creek)
Christine Bradshaw (Willow Creek)
War death toll so far this week:
Isaias Fletcher (US-soldier)
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Emily gets used to a new lifestyle, and sees her children fall ill
For Emily life has not been very easy since marrying, but one thing she hasn't had to deal with is housework. Without Virginia, and unable to find a new housemaid, she has to. Of course, not only is it hard to learn things that you've never done before, but for someone like Emily who is both high maintenance and lazy... well it's a challenge. She starts by complaining to her sister-in-law:
Who then takes her shopping for some more practical home dresses. Emily is sceptical, but she does she the point and finds a new dress that she can dress herself in easily and that has a hemline more productive to working around the house.
Her first challenge is to pick up all the clothing piles around the house, as no one knows how to hit a hamper, and then washing said clothes. She manages to make a mess of the entire floor in the process and so have to mop everything up for quite a while. How did Virginia manage not to get the entire floor wet?
She then needs to try her hand at cooking. Something she realises she has never done - not once - in her entire life. She bought bass while out on the town, but realises soon that she has no clue what to make with a bass. Or with anything. She ends up making mac and cheese, poorly. Cooking is not a favourite hobby.
Nevertheless, by the time the kids and Frank returns home from school, dinner is on the table. Not that Frank appreciates her effort. Instead he complains about the poor quality of the food. More importantly, Harold, Emily's baby, does not seem well. He has a fever!
Emily sends him to bed straight after dinner. Is it this thing they've been talking about around town? This sneeze malady? She cannot help but to worry. So many people have been reported sick lately, and they've started dying!
The next day, Harold does seem better, but then Beatrice complains about a headache that later turns into a fever. Saturday is spent mostly in bed sleeping for poor Beatrice, with her mother hovering and worrying about her as the fever runs through her system.
Luckily, by the end of the day, she seems better. She manages to eat a little (a feat, considering who made the dinner and what it tastes like), and she even has enough energy to play for a while before her mother sends her right back into bed again, this time for the night. No need to take chances.
But just as Beatrice is improving, Harold takes a turn for the worse! Emily had been so sure he was fine she didn't even think to check him before he went to bed but now he is ill again! Emily feels helpless! There is nothing to do but rest and hope it passes. No medicine works on the flu, and no the hospitals are overrun as it is. All she can hope for is that her baby boy will pull through on his own.
Meanwhile, back in Del Sol Valley, Alice is spending her 25th birthday alone in her apartment. She had imagined a party, perhaps a great meet-and-greet gathering, but Del Sol Valley has acted swiftly and resolutely against the spread of the Spanish Flu, and all bars, restaurants, bowling alleys or movie theatres are closed down. Large parties or gatherings are not forbidden but frowned upon. So Alice is alone, in an apartment she rented to be able to host parties in. But it could be worse. As she writes to her sister:
This might not have been how I imagined my birthday, but at least I am comfortable, working regularly, and have my health. On my 26th birthday, I hope the war and flu are both over, and the we can be together again. Perhaps even at home for a few days, the whole family, including your Maurice. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
Your loving sister,
Alice
Death toll Spanish Flu:
Landon Alacorn (Newcrest)
Charles Ashley (Del Sol Valley)
Elliott Stewart (Newcrest)
Death toll WW1:
Charles Edwardson (US)
Matty Downs (US)
Francois Gaston (Fr)
Algot Lundgreen (Ger)
Lucas Munch (Ger)
Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
November 11, 1918 - Armistice day and celebrations!
As William and Edward turns 10, midway through his childhood years, it's a quiet day in the junior Whittaker household. Harold is sick, and there is no birthday celebration for the boys. Grandpa and Abigail comes by to say hi and give gifts, before returning home to William and Josephine. All that marks the day is a quiet family dinner, with mum's cooking. That does not bode well. It's in all account a fairly awful birthday as far as Edward is concerned.
But as sad as this is for Edward (and he's sure bestie William is feeling the same), Emily is relieved, because by nightfall her youngest recovers from his second turn with the flu. So far, and she's keeping her fingers crossed, no one else seems to have caught the illness either.
That night, there is more news, as she recognise the symptoms of yet another pregnancy. Her fifth. Does she really want another child? Of course she does. How silly of her to think otherwise. Even if it does mean loosing her sewing room to make another nursery. Then again, that does give her an excuse to do something other than chores. How she will manage without a maid in the house when the baby comes she has no idea, but perhaps by then they will have found a new one? She can always hope, even if she has read in the paper that the entire country is in a national domestic worker crisis. At least the new nursery looks good:
The next morning the news is all over the newspaper. An armistice has been signed - the war is finally over!
In spite of the ongoing pandemic, spontaneous celebrations break out in the streets at the news spread from household to household. The young men will return! All is well. Some, like the Edwardsons, cannot share in the celebrations, having lost their only boy to the war, but others rejoice at the return to normal.
Emily, Frank and the kids rush over to the senior Whittaker family, where Josephine is especially elated at the news. Nash is coming home! They can set a date, get married, get on with life. She is jubilant. So is Abigail and Joseph. Anna can return home again! Finally! After more than three years, they will at long last see their beloved daughter again.
Meanwhile in France, Anna and the others are celebrating with the rest of the town in the bar. Racheal is playing the piano, people are drinking, hugging, kissing and dancing. There has probably never been so many people in the bar at all as nurses and soldiers come from nearby towns to celebrate the news. Some soldiers has already started returning, others are still in need of care and it will be a while before they can all go home, but for Anna tonight is especially joyful. Soon. Soon. She will see her beloved Maurice again! He might not have returned at once, but the front is long and she knows that she will need to wait. Tonight nothing can diminish the joy she is feeling. The war is over! Tomorrow they can start patching up the last wounded soldiers. Tonight they will celebrate!
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November 12, 1918: Celebrations turn into despair:
The next morning, Anna is up at the crack of dawn in spite celebrating most of the evening the night before, rushing to the field hospital. She knows that it is a slim chance that Maurice will have returned from the front so soon, but she cannot help but to hope, a hope that is only bigger when she sees those from the same company there. She asks where Maurice is, if the soldier knows when he will return, but in stead of answering, the soldier pulls her away from the others.
Once alone he tells her the heartbreaking truth. That Maurice won't be returning at all. He shares a story of a gas attack on one of the last nights of the war. Of how Maurice did not get his gasmask on in time, how death came to the trenches that night and brought three men with him when he left, Maurice among them.
Consoling her, he promises her that she was the last thing on Maurice's mind, shows her his hurried grave among the others next to the field hospital and hands her his final letter:
My dearest beloved!
If you read this letter, then I am no more and I will have been forced to leave you. Try not to be too sad, for if death takes me; the country demanded my blood; which I voluntarily gave, after so many others. I have done my duty courageously, you can be proud of me, I have not failed at my task of being a good soldier. My last kiss, my last thoughts will be for you, my dearest. I welcomed your friendship that has only grown during the long and cruel separation that this war has imposed on us and is forever grateful for the short time we got together. Those weeks were the best of my life, and has sustained me here where I can no longer be with you.
It breaks my heart to imagine that the two of us will not have the life we dreamed, but I take comfort in knowing that you are still in the world I will now only look down upon. Know that I will be with you in spirit if not in life, and rejoice in your every trip, your every discovery and your every breath while I patiently wait for you to join me in the after life.
Eternal love from
Yours for evermore
Maurice
As much of a consolation as the letter was supposed to be, for Anna it is only adding to hear heartbreak, for how can she go on when the one she wanted by her side is no longer there? Heartbroken she weeps for her beloved by his newly dug grave, entirely inconsolable.
Later, she writes to her sister:
What am I to do now? What used to be my dreams became ours, and now they are supposed to be just mine again? I know mother and father will expect me home, but that is something I cannot live with. Miss Bain has asked me to stay on, to work in a proper hospital and live here in Glimmerbrook, but that too is unbearable without my darling Maurice. I have come to love this town, but every tree, every rock, every turn of the river will forever remind me of the happiness I had and lost.
I suppose I must return home for Josephine's wedding, which is sure to soon be announced, though how to survive her happiness without spoiling it with my deepest grief I do not know. I weep constantly, unable to eat, to read or to work. I feel as if a cloak of absolute darkness has been pulled over me and it prevents me even from breathing. Oh dearest sister, I hope you never suffered thus, and hope you never will. I miss you terribly, and seeing you again is the one thing that brings me any happy thoughts at all at this time.
Your loving sister,
Anna
Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
For Josephine, the end of the war means one thing more than others. Nash will return and she can finally get married! She is delighted when she receives his letter telling her that he's coming home:
My darling girl!
I am finally coming home! I'm sure by now you've seen the headlines. We've been told there was celebrations in the street. There sure was here. I cannot wait to return, but it won't be long now. I'm shipping out tomorrow and will be back before you know it. How does a Christmas wedding sound? Then you can be with me when I start uni. My stepdad is making the necessary arrangement for a place to stay, if we're married it can't be in a dorm, that's now allowed, so he's setting up some apartment for us. See you'll be setting up a home of our own sooner than you thought!
I cannot wait to be your husband. Your portrait has been keeping my spirits up all these months (and made a whole lot of other soldiers jealous). Saw your sister in Glimmerbrook. She didn't seem herself, more serious and sad somehow, but then she's been out here longer than most men and many of those are a wreck. She's a strange one, your sister, but she's got more guts than most men I've ever met. You must be proud of her. She promised she'll return in time for our wedding, even if it's at Christmas, so you can start planning. It will have to be in Willow Creek church, my step-dad would not have it any other way, but other than that, you can have whatever you want.
I cannot wait to see you.
Yours fondly,
Nash
But barely has she received it when she's starting to feel unwell. Apparently celebrations in the street and meeting family members who have just been sick was not a good way to prevent the flu from entering your home. For Josephine, it's fairly serious:
She spends the next few days in bed, unable to get up. Abigail, worried sick about her little girl, refuse to leave her side and spend all her time by her bedside, refusing admission to the rest of the family. "There is no need for anyone else to be sick!" she firmly states.
In truth she is terrified. What if they lose their baby girl? What if it's a funeral rather than a wedding they'll need to attend? So many have died, why would their daughter be spared?
But by some miracle, she is, and Abigail can rejoice when Josephine for the first time in days says the words: "I'm hungry". She's still shaky and weak, but she gets up from bed and eats something, and has a bath, before returning to bed.
In the next few days she is progressively stronger, but remains mostly inside and takes it easy. Instead a new interest has taken her over. She has never been a great reader. Homework, schooling...none of it has ever made sense to her or interested her at all, but now she's found something that has. Housework.
Being spoiled enough to live in a home with a maid, and hearing how John and the other kids complain about the lack of good food now when Emily is the cook at home, she has come to the realisation that she is woefully unprepared to be a wife. She's sort of always assumed that there would be a maid, but Emily has none, and so how can she expect one when Nash is only a student still? She will not let Nash be disappointed with either food or the household, so now she reads. Cookbooks, baking manuals, flower arranging... if it's about housekeeping, she will read it. She will be the most prepared wife in history of wives she's decided.
Her mother, still hovering, doesn't complain. Reading seems like a sensible thing to do.
Thanksgiving is a quiet affair. They decide it is better not to invite the others in the family when someone has just been sick in the house, but with Josephine's recovery and Nash's soon return from the war, there is still much to be thankful for.
Meanwhile, Joseph has become more and more involved in the prohibition movement. He knows his son is in trouble, and he now is firmly convinced that the only way to save him is to save everyone - by banning alcohol. He starts a petition, and goes around the neighborhood looking for signatures to repeal the juiced community NAP that is plaguing their town.
Interestingly enough, he finds that more women sign than men, and he starts to believe that maybe his daughter was onto something when saying women should have the right to vote. If they did, surely alcohol would already be forbidden? And so in fighting for prohibition, Joseph more and more starts to see himself as a supporter for women's suffrage too.
As winter approaches, the Spanish flu continues to wreck havoc on Louisiana, taking several of their friends. Ashley Doughtry who lives just down the street dies, leaving her three children and husband behind. Caroline, the eldest daughter, just turned young adult, will now be responsible for raising her younger siblings. Abigail and Josephine, dutifully visits the family and offer their condolences, though they do not stay long. No need to take chances by visiting those who has just had the illness in their house. Especially not since Josephine just recovered.
A few days later, they learn that George Addington's father, Frank, has also passed away. He was no close friend, but surely when she returns Anna will want to visit her friend and offer her sympathies. Abigail, for her part, cannot wait to see her daughters again. As 1918 gives way to 1919 almost four years has passed since she last saw either of them. All she can hope for now is that no new illness might keep them from returning home to her.
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Josephine: Why shopping with sisters is way better than shopping with your mother!
As Christmas week begins, Abigail finally gets her wish. Her girls come home! There are happy hugs all around, although William is a bit hesitant. He's heard a lot about these older sisters, but he's only ten and it's been four years... he barely remembers them. Anna makes sure to offer him a hug too. He's a bit intimidated by the brave sister who went to war, but he likes the hug.
After hugs, and dinner, and keeping up appearances, Anna and Alice are finally alone in their room for the night. Now they can greet each other properly, and say all that they want to say without the others listening in. Anna is keeping a brave face on, but Alice knows how deeply she hurts. She tries her best to comfort her sister, but as she goes to sleep, she can hear Anna crying in her bed.
Anna shows none of her grief the next day, however, as she and Alice take Josephine shopping. "Are you sure I shouldn't go along? Abigail asks, but the sisters are adamant. Shopping, even for wedding gowns, are best left to the younger generation.
Josephine quickly learns that shopping, is much more fun when your mother isn't in the picture. "I don't want to cut my hair!" she says, a bit nervously.
Alice just shakes her head and laughs. "Don't worry. I haven't, have I?"
"Perhaps you should," Anna adds. "It's the best thing I've ever done. You'd look great in it."
"Maybe," Alice agrees. "But first a wedding dress for Josephine."
"And I know a fabulous hairstyle that doesn't include a haircut. Georgette perfected it, and she was French," Anna adds.
At the end of the day, they've found much more than a wedding dress. All three comes home with new outfits, though Alice shakes her head at some of the more practical things her sister has chosen.
"I'll need things like this in Selvadorada!" Anna points out.
"Yes but you need something to celebrate New Years Eve in Del Sol Valley with me too"
After a day full of shopping the three sisters heads off to an ice cream parlor before going home with their shopping.
Back home Josephine can't stop looking at herself in the mirror. She loves her new outfits.
While they've been gone, Abigail has been helping William with his schoolwork, and now that they're back she is looking forward to dinner with all her children around the table. All the girls are showcasing some of their new outfits that night, and Anna looks quite pleased with her new short haircut:
But as happy as Abigail is to have her girls at home, she is not blind, and worries about her eldest girl, who she has noticed seems a bit off at times. When the others gather around a game of simbles, she corners Anna in the bedroom, and asks her about what is wrong. Anna tries her best to keep her facade up, but it's difficult when you've done little else but pretend you are fine all day. At the end of it, she tells her mother (almost) everything. About the man she fell in love with, the promise that was made, and the reason the promise could not be kept.
Abigail tries to console her daughter, telling her that life will move on, that eventually the pain will lessen, that she'll love again. But Anna doesn't believe she will.
"Could you? If it was dad, could you just move on?"
"I can't imagine it, no, but he did. When you are ready, you should talk to your father. He knows more than most about loss like this. I have never had reason to doubt how deeply he loved Ruth, her picture still hangs in the living room, after all. But I also don't doubt how deeply he loves me."
"Maybe men are just different that way."
"Or perhaps you just need to give yourself time to heal."
And somewhere in this conversation, something very ordinary, and at the same time very extraordinary, start to happen between mother and daughter:
*** A side note about outfits and the 1920s:
In game, I will use a lot of CC for the 1920s (as it is hard to find good outfits). But I have tried to find some, and a nocc version of the three Whittaker sisters can be found in the gallery here. You can see their outfits in this post here.
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I've seen a lot of great 1920s cc, especially from other Decades Challenge people. Shall I send you some links to some amazing looking stuff? There's a Simblr user called "A Heathen, Conceivably" who amassed a really good collection of cc.
@Kellogg_J_Kellogg I like to try to do nocc-versions as well and challenge myself that way. I've found myself using items in CAS that I've never use otherwise, and some of them I now quite like because of it. That said, I do use quite a bit cc, especially for the 20s as there are so few shirts that are straight enough to fit the decade in game, besides there are so much beautiful stuff out there too. I did find several things in that link that I hadn't found before though, so thank you. It's always fun to find new stuff!
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Christmas week is both heaven and bitter sweet for Abigail this year. She loves having her daughters at home, hearing their chatter throughout the house and seeing them connect to each other again. Yet she knows that this is just temporary and that she will soon loose them to the world again. Josephine is getting married and moving away in the new years, and Anna and Alice will both be heading west again even before that.
So Abigail sets out to make the most of this rare privilege, and throws herself head first into the celebrations. First, on Christmas Eve, it's Josephine's wedding. While Abigail might have a thought to two (or three) about the hemline, she cannot deny that her daughter looks very stylish in her modern wedding dress as she walks down the isle. Josephine and Nash seems almost shy to each other, but then they haven't had any time together since his return after the war. Abigail cannot help but to shed a tear as they say their vows, and laugh as Nash takes a spousal kiss way too far for a proper church wedding.
The reception is back at Joseph and Abigail's house, and Dolly has outdone herself with the cake. Josephine is visibly moved as she and Nash cuts the cake. All in all it's a very successful reception, and Nash and Josephine are both tired when it's time for them to be alone together as husband and wife for the first time. Josephine feels shy, but Nash has no hesitations on what to do.
Dolly, on the other hand, spends most of the night cleaning up before she can go to bed. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and the family is once more invading (Dolly's words) the house. So much to do, not enough hours in a day to do it. She's exhausted by the time she falls into bed.
Abigail isn't the only one who is happy about having the girls in the house. After a shy beginning William has come to realise that a sister might just be fun to have around. At least a brave, active one, who goes into wars and have no problems building snowmen or playing monster at the playground. Anna is so much more fun than any other adult woman William knows. He wishes she would stay, but think her plan to explore the jungle is so, so exciting.
As Christmas Day progress, the house is filled with people once more. Abigail has taken Dolly's work load into consideration and made the turkey together with Josephine and after dinner the entire family relaxes and just spend time together. The kids find their way into the attic to play, and the adults talk about everything that is going on and Alice entertain them with a story before Father Winter comes.
The next morning, Alice heads off for a visit she has been longing for: seeing Betty and George. They meet up outside their building, and then goes up to their apartment where they spend the next few hours catching up. Their twin girls are adorable, and so very different. While Dorothy is constantly demanding her parents' attention, her sister walks off to play on her own. Anna hardly sees her while she is there. She is glad to see that her friends seem happy with their little family and that they like their apartment in downtown Newcrest. It's becoming quite the buzzling city.
Boxing day ends with the traditional dinner at Frank's and Emily's. To her great relief, Emily has managed to cook an acceptable meal (if not a good one), and everyone seems happy to be there. Still, with a newborn in the house, she is a little bit relieved when everyone leaves again.
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@JAL
I'm sorry, if you already mentioned it and I forgot, but how do go about time and aging? So, how many Sim days are a year and do you use normal aging or age up manually?
@flauschtrud I have changed that a bit as I've gone along, so at first one sim year was one year, but that took too long, and it worked very badly with aging and pregnancies, so now I've landed at something I think works for me:
1 sim year (2 weeks per season, 8 weeks or 56 days in a year) = 5 years, so 2 years to a decade.
I play with aging on, and long lifespan, which works ok (they are based off the 56 day year length), but I've adapted the aging to work for me and so that the sim has their birthday on the same day of the week in the same season each year (so Saturday in second week in spring for instance). So aging is as follows:
Pregnancy: 8 days
Baby + Infant + Toddler: 56 days (two or three days longer than standard)
Child: 112 days (twice as long as standard)
Teen: 56 days (shorter than standard)
YA: 112 days (standard)
A: Here I have forgotten how long I made it but a lot longer than standard.
E: 112 days (I think that might be standard actually)
With my aging, a sim becomes a child at 5, a teen a bit late at 15, a young adult at 20 and an adult at 30. I think I set the elder state at the equivalent of 60 but am not sure. This is actually one I could, for future decades challenges, consider changing and raising as life expectancy goes up. In 1920, life expectancy was only 54 years for men and 55 for women. Then again, those numbers are always brought down heavily by how many kids who died early. If you've managed to hit 20 life expectancy was longer, and things like wars and pandemics also put a dent in life expectancy (It sank a lot in 1916-1918 actually, being down at 37 for men and 42 for women as its lowest in 1918). Interestingly enough, you cannot see the same dent at the time of WW2, so presumably the Spanish flu was a bigger part for those lower numbers than the war. But again, this is me putting way too much thought into something that could be much simpler
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New years eve starts early for the Whittaker family as they gather outside their house to say goodbye to their girls. All three are leaving, Anna and Alice together, making the long journey to Del Sol Valley, and Josephine and Nash are headed for Britechester, where his stepfather, the reverend has arranged a flat for them. They aren't leaving as early, but has gathered with everyone else to take their farewells to Anna and Alice. There are a lot of hugs and some sad faces, and William especially hugs Anna the hardest and says she's his favourite sister.
Even though Josephine and Nash leave later in the day, they arrive in Britechester much earlier, as the trip is not nearly as long. Standing outside their new building, Josephine feels like her real life is just about to begin. She's almost nervous to go inside.
Once she is, she sort of want to go back outside. The apartment is cramped, with only two rooms and the smallest kitchen Josephine has ever seen in her life. It does not even have a separate dining room! She tries to hide her disappointment and tell herself that it's only temporary, until Nash has finished university and started a career. Two years, possibly two and a half, then surely they'll be able to move out and into a real home? She sets her mind to not complaining and making the most of the situation. As the neighbors comes to visit (and walks right in without knocking!!!) Josephine makes dinner and puts on a brave face. Nash will have no reason to be ashamed of his wife!
Nash is not blind, however, and when it's time to pay up for this semester's studies, he opts to pay with a loan. After all, investments are lucrative, and economics is the subject of the future. Once he's through university he'll be able to pay back the loans in no time.
In the mean time, Alice and Anna have finally arrived in Del Sol Valley, and Alice takes quite a bit of pride in showing Anna around her apartment. It's also a one bedroom apartment, and the dining room is here - as in Britechester - in the same room. But it is a lot bigger than Josephines, with a hallway and a dressing room and a communal pool in the building. For Alice it's just the right type of place for her. Anna is duly impressed, and promises that she won't mind at all sharing a bed with her sister until she's off for Selvadorada.
The rest of the evening the two sisters spend getting ready for the new years party that Ms Ward is hosting that night. It's the kind of party Anna has never been to, far from the stuffy balls that the Duncans' hosts every year. Loud jazz music is playing from the stereo, a bartender has been hired, there is poker playing and dancing going around and every other person is someone that Anna has seen in magazines and in movies.
Anna is quite the success, and manages to truly impress one of the biggest actors in Del Sol Valley with her stories from the war (told without all the gruesome details).
But in all this, there are two who are looking a lot at each other that night. As the drinks go down, caution is thrown to the wind, and as Anna return to their apartment to sleep, Alice knocks on another door.
If Anna's tale of her and Maurice has taught her anything, it's that life is short and unexpected. She's done playing pretend and taking it easy. She's noticed the looks Cora is giving her. Once inside she does what she has wanted to do for some time, and kiss the woman who has caught her imagination. One thing leads to another, and Alice never does go home that night. As 1919 gives way to 1920 Alice truly discovers what two women can do with each other.
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@JAL
Thanks for all the details! And wow, I can believe that having one sim year to equal one real year must have been difficult to play!
I think it's fine if you don't mirror the real life statistics exactly. After all you probably don't play that many Sims that they would be statistically relevant in any way.
I feared that for the decades challenge something aroud the numbers of the long lifespan would be the most appropriate... That feels quite daunting for me as someone who always plays on short, lol. I always wonder what people do with all these days
Poor Nash hoping for a good economy...
But I'm happy for Alice (again) Hopefully her happiness can last longer this time!
@flauschtrud I did at one time play with LMS' mod 3 week seasons, with 12 weeks to a year, and each week being a month. The first nine week pregnancy was fairly interesting, the third not so much. I think a key to playing on long, is either investing a lot into your characters, or like here, play with many of them. The Whittaker family tree consists of 23 people, I feel you need a long life span to have time to play them.
And yes, poor Nash is in for a bit of a surprise. But who knows, some investors made a fortune off the crash. He might get lucky.
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The next morning, Alice is back home before Anna's up (it's right across the hall after all). By the time Anna is awake, she's cooked, showered and arranged for an audition for tomorrow. Anna is surprised, and asks her about the nights events. She might have been tired, but Alice not returning home did not go unnoticed. She wants to tell her to be careful, but bites her lip and thinks of Maurice. At least Alice can't get pregnant, she could have.
After tending to the dishes together, Anna and Alice goes downstairs to do something important that they've been longing to do for years - vote for the NAPs of their choice! So important, such a milestone. Especially Anna feels pleased with this.
As the young women vote for the first time, it's another new law that Emily is most excited about - the ban on alcohol. She eagerly brings this up with Frank, only to find that he has no intention of giving up drinking just because of some law.
"But you're a politician!" Emily yells in exasperation. "You must follow the law!" The entire encounter ends up in a huge argument about, of all things, their globe bar. At the end of it, with both Frank and Emily furious, the bar ends up in the basement, but is not brought out of the house. There it joins a whole lot of new contraptions. A juice fizzer, a nectar maker... now when there is no legal way to buy alcohol, Frank has started to dabble in making his own moonshine. Emily is devastated, but can say nothing about it. If she did, Frank might get in serious trouble and then where would she and the kids be? With no money, no one to support them, they'd be out in the street in no time.
The rest of the day is a complete disaster. Frank and Emily barely speak to each other. It's not really as if Emily has time to speak anyway, not between tending to baby Harrison and cleaning, cooking and washing clothes. She feels worn out, and thinks she looks it too. She's gained weight, and she never uses the vanity table she was so proud to have when they first moved into the house.
At dinner Frank takes his anger out on John, seemingly annoyed with everything his eldest son does. Dinner ends quickly, and Emily sends the boys to bed while making Beatrice help out with the dishes before she too is allowed to go to bed.
As Frank comes to bed that night, she pretends to be asleep. It's not only that she's angry, because in spite of the fighting and the anger, she does still want her husband, but she cannot imagine going through yet another pregnancy. Frank, annoyed, goes to sleep feeling lonely, misunderstood and trapped in a marriage that is not at all what he once imagined it would be like.
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@flauschtrud Like in many other countries, it was a combination of the war and the hard work of women across the country to earn the right to vote. In the US it came at roughly the same time as the ban on alcohol, which many women had argued and worked politically for as well. There were also the belief from many that women would simply vote "better" (usually better meant whatever they themselves thought. So some thought women might be more conservative and vote for issues of family, tradition and religion, others thought they would care more for the poor and sick). But as far as I know there was no specific "trigger" just a combination of views of the time, what happened in the world and the new role of women in society.
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Comments
My numbers when I roll are not anywhere near accurate, but as close as you can get with the roll of a dice. I could, of course, use some website and add the 0,02% that was the real death toll of US soldiers (116 516 dead out of 4,2 million soldiers), but in a game that risk is so ridiculously low that it would make no impact on the game. My French roll is much closer to reality, but then their war lasted longer, it was on French soil and the trenches were horrible places where illness and infection killed as indiscriminately as bombs and bullets did.
Speaking of things that makes no sense in the game, I have thought about aging and years. I have aging on long, with slight adjustments, making sure everyone has the same birthday each year. Unfortunately with 5 years/sim year, and birthdays one the same days, kids grow up way too fast. They become children at age 5 which is fine, but then teens at age 10 and YA at 15. It doesn't really make sense. So I've decided that starting now, kids will be kids for two sim years, aka 10 years. It's a bit too long, but that way they still get to keep their birthdays. It means they won't become teens until they're 15, but I can live with that as they definitely do not look younger than that anyway and they start having crushes and think of adult things right off the bat.
Dearest Alice!
I am afraid your letter does not find me at my happiest, as Maurice has received his marching papers and has left Glimmerbrook for the time being. have to admit that even if we both knew it was a matter of time, the news hit us both hard. We have been living in a bubble, both knowing what would come but pretending it wouldn't. But now it has and my heart is aching from the loss as acutely as if one of my limbs had been torn away from me. It is fortunate that I have my work, and that it keeps me busy or I'd be lost in the blackest corners of my mind. I can certainly understand the duality in what our sister is feeling, because I feel it too. I would not love Maurice if he was not the man he is, if he was not so brave and not only willing but eager to fight for his country again and return to the front and his fellow soldiers, and yet my heart breaks at the very idea that he is no longer by my side and might never be again, but I cannot think that. I cannot allow myself anything less than hopefullness or I'll perish.
I will instead comfort myself in knowing that there was nothing that wasn't said, done or shared between us. Indeed the last few days we have almost lived as man and wife, well in some ways entirely like man and wife. Oh if mother only knew! But how could I deny him, or myself, the throws of passion when knowing that there might never be a tomorrow? I regret nothing, and if the worst happens, I will know that I for the briefest of moment had everything. Oh, Anna if what you felt for Lizzie was even a sliver of what I feel now then I apologize because I did not understand. Let no one tell you what you feel is wrong, or to be careful, for how can one be careful when one's very soul is on fire?
Before you ask we have talked of marriage, and there is a ring on my finger. To be fair I could not have cared less about a ring that might mean nothing in the end, but Maurice did. He said he wanted there to be a ring on my finger, so that I could call him husband should I need to, and I admit we have not been careful. He even gave me the key to his house so that I can live there should I want to (it's beautiful, by the way, absolutely stunning! You'd love the art on his walls.), but I do not know how to stay there without him. It would feel too much like a lie, even though the lie is a small one. In our hearts we are already wed, though in practice we could not be as there is no one in Glimmerbrook left to wed us. Do not tell mother or father, as I have no clue what to tell them yet. I am not ready to face our parents and their questions. Not yet.
On his last night we went out with the others together. To send him off, and celebrate our "marriage". As if not everyone here knows exactly the predicament we are in. To their benefit none of them said a word about it, but pretended along with us. It was a nice night, and yet through it all I could only wish we were not there but alone together. For every hour that passed I knew it was one less we'd spend together. But I will keep my hopes up, and wait for his letters to arrive in hopes that he will return to me.
I am sorry. I notice now that this entire letter has been only about myself. I am happy for you, and the more Del Sol does for the war effort the happier I am. For the first time in my life, however, I feel I cannot room any other feelings than those I am wrapped up in at the moment. It will pass, I am certain, once this too becomes routine or Maurice returns. Hopefully with US in the war, it will not take as long to end. The faster this can end the better. In the meantime, tell me more about you, and the gossip from back home, as I so badly need to hear it right now.
Your loving sister,
Anna
Dreaming of the future and watching the clouds:
Anna sees Maurice's home for the first time:
A special night:
Maurice's last night in Glimmerbrook before returning to the front:
My dearest beloved,
I do not know how to start this letter. I suppose by telling you that I have arrived all right and that I am still in the land of the living. Life in the trenches are what I remember it to be, but so much harder this time as I keep thinking of you. Last time I had no wish for anything but to fight for my land, but now I worry for your safety, and long to be with you again. Conditions are as bad as ever, but we soldier through the best we can. It turns out some of the fellows here are actually quite good story tellers, which help. A fellow named Gaston told such a fantastic horror story that we all went to bed a little more frightened than we probably have ought to be.
Oh! How I love you and as I sit here waiting I wonder what you are doing. I must not do that. It is hard enough sitting waiting for whatever comes next. The bombardment is constant, but then you know that. You can hear it well enough in Glimmerbrook. How hard it is to be so close to you and yet so far away.
The faces here are almost entirely new. Of my own comrades most are gone in one way or another, dead or wounded or sent elsewhere. The fellows are new, some so very young and all terribly frightened. We who have been here before try to calm them, tell them that as long as they keep their heads down they are comparatively safe. Of course some shelling do land in the trench themselves, and it's a matter of time before they, we, are ordered over the top. But enough of that.
How are you, my love? I cannot wait to receive news from you, to hear how you are fairing. I will see you again, and this hope keeps me warm at night. I picture you waiting for me, working as hard and bravely as ever. Now that your fellow countrymen has decided to be as brave as you and join this retched war perhaps this war can finally come to an end and the Germans be pushed back once and for all and France be free again. Then I too will be free. Free to return to you. Then I will come with you to your home, introduce myself to your family properly, and never leave your side again as we explore the world together. Even in the gray dullness of the trenches I see jungle and color wherever I look, because you sold me a dream I cannot shake. I long to see the jungles of Selvadorada, to paint those colors as you discover its secrets. What a life we will lead! I will enclose one of my drawings, bleak in comparison to what I dream of, but something which shares a bit of reality of what I am seeing here. I must draw or I will truly loose my mind, and someone ought to see the reality that is life here.
And now I must sleep. I have the early morning watch, and then drills with the new recruits all day. Know that you are forever in my thoughts, forever in my dreams.
Always your most devoted,
Maurice
Actual artwork from the front:
Death toll by game:
In Del Sol Valley, Alice is becoming ever more successful. She moves between parties at Judith Ward's home, to photoshoots, to auditions and roles. As a result of her hard work she is promoted within the production company, and make more money as she's hired.
But in all the glamour there is also time for every day life, and living alone Alice gets to learn all about the kind of chores she never had to do back home. Cleaning, washing up, cooking (she quite enjoys that one) and washing clothes (she definitely does not enjoy that one). She also makes new friends. One in particular, Cora is someone who she can actually relax with and whose company she can enjoy not as a part of promoting her career, but relaxing with.
After her last promotion and rent payment, it's time - or so says Judith Ward - to move into a more respectable apartment. Somewhere she can entertain, and as an apartment has been made available in the Mirage... well of course she wants to move there!
She spends the next few days buying and arranging furniture, spending more money than she really thinks is wise, but which leaves her with an apartment that fits the very latest of trends.
She arranges a phone call with her parents from the phone in the hallway, informing them of her new address and number. "No, daddy, I am not being wasteful, I promise," she assures Joseph. "This is a safer, cleaner place. Without mice."
Later, she writes to her sister:
How wasteful all this must seem to you, being where you are and doing what you do. Yet Judith assures me that this is necessary if I want to move up in my career. That I need to start throwing parties of my own and not just attend hers. I do not know if she's right or not, but so far listening to her has done wonders for my career. Did you know I got to play opposite her last time? It was such an honor! But I cannot help but to think of you in all of this, and of what you are going through. I cannot believe it's been three years since I went off to uni and you to France. To me so much has changed, but for you time must seem frozen. How can this war not be over yet? Perhaps soon. You are in my thoughts constantly.
Your loving sister,
Alice
While Maurice is fighting in the trenches and Anna is fighting in the hospital, the reality of war is far away from Willow Creek. It may be in the news, charity organisations are working overtime and the young men's absence is surely felt, but it is still a far way off and as of yet no one the town people know has died in the war. Instead, matters closer at hand worry the people of Willow Creek. Like the new "sneeze malady" that the papers write about. Especially in the national papers that Joseph sometimes brings home from the club.
The news is of course worrying, and rumors have it that two women who were ill might have had this discase, though it is of course too early to tell. In the Whittaker household, Abigail has set Dolly to clean everything in the house extra carefully, but otherwise try to keep things as normal as possible. After all, the local newspapers urges calm, and writes that "Influenza does not spread, or become severe in warm, sunny weather, such as prevails during the greater part of the year in New Orleans." (Times-Picayune, October 1, 1918). As such she does not think it will be necessary to alter their lives too much. She can still see her charity group, go to WW1-relief rallies and see their extended family.
Which is why when it's time for Harold to age up, the entire family (and the Duncans) gather at Frank and Emily's to celebrate this:
Emily in turn has her own problems. With the war going on, more and more women join the work force, and less and less women are interested in domestic work. After all, it's poorly paid with horrible working hours and virtually no time off. Even on Sundays, though you were supposed to be off, most domestic workers were expected to carry on working. Emily was no different in this respect from any other employer. No better, no worse, but Virginia is young, and with so many other job offers out there she now has options. After yet another evening of fighting and drinking in the household, she decides she has had enough.
Dressing in something that is not a servants uniform, Virginia packs her bag and informs Emily she is leaving. There is no pleading Emily can do to persuade her to stay, and Emily is stuck with the house work she has never had to do before, like cleaning the dishes and picking up all the children's clothes.
Back at the senior Whittaker household, Josephine is bored and definitely not worrying about some silly sickness. With no school (she has no interest in university), and Nash being off fighting a war instead of marrying her, she has very little things to keep herself occupied. She's not one for sporting activities, and while she does know how to knit she thinks her mother's constant knitting is enough for the both of them. In fact, Josephine has very few real interests that can occupy her time, nor did she ever think she'd need them. At this point of life she had imagined she would be setting up a home of her own, planning and hosting dinner parties and meeting and greeting her husband's coworkers, possibly planning for her first child. Things that would be keeping her busy on its own. She had not counted on her life being on hold until a idiotic war in Europe was over. What does it has to do with them anyhow?
At least she's not the only one. With virtually no young men left in town, all young adult women are left to do nothing but wait and work for charity organisations. Gathering, they talk of the rapid changes in fashion, of what to do when the men return, and gossip about the people in town.
For Abigail, the war takes up quite a lot of her mind. After all, nothing can be seen as more important than bringing Anna back home again, and to do so the war needs to end. Therefore, Abigail has very much taken Anna's urges for more supplies and the government's sale of war bonds to heart. She has never knitted more in her life, and with the Willow Creek charity group, she arranges for war rallys and charity gatherings to raise money for the cause. She is not entirely indifferent to the spread of the new illness, so she makes sure the latest party is hosted outdoors, in the park. It's a resounding success for such a small town, though of course nothing like the rallys they have in the bigger cities. In the paper she can read that a war rally in Lafayette Square attracted 50,000 people on October 5. In New Orleans, as in Willow Creek, the unfortunate downside is the massive spike in flu cases that results from this.
Of course this is nothing Abigail knows anything about yet, nor does anyone else. Fall has just started for real, and no one they know has fallen ill yet. That is about to change, and in game that will look like this:
Spanish flu death toll so far:
War death toll so far this week:
For Emily life has not been very easy since marrying, but one thing she hasn't had to deal with is housework. Without Virginia, and unable to find a new housemaid, she has to. Of course, not only is it hard to learn things that you've never done before, but for someone like Emily who is both high maintenance and lazy... well it's a challenge. She starts by complaining to her sister-in-law:
Who then takes her shopping for some more practical home dresses. Emily is sceptical, but she does she the point and finds a new dress that she can dress herself in easily and that has a hemline more productive to working around the house.
Her first challenge is to pick up all the clothing piles around the house, as no one knows how to hit a hamper, and then washing said clothes. She manages to make a mess of the entire floor in the process and so have to mop everything up for quite a while. How did Virginia manage not to get the entire floor wet?
She then needs to try her hand at cooking. Something she realises she has never done - not once - in her entire life. She bought bass while out on the town, but realises soon that she has no clue what to make with a bass. Or with anything. She ends up making mac and cheese, poorly. Cooking is not a favourite hobby.
Nevertheless, by the time the kids and Frank returns home from school, dinner is on the table. Not that Frank appreciates her effort. Instead he complains about the poor quality of the food. More importantly, Harold, Emily's baby, does not seem well. He has a fever!
Emily sends him to bed straight after dinner. Is it this thing they've been talking about around town? This sneeze malady? She cannot help but to worry. So many people have been reported sick lately, and they've started dying!
The next day, Harold does seem better, but then Beatrice complains about a headache that later turns into a fever. Saturday is spent mostly in bed sleeping for poor Beatrice, with her mother hovering and worrying about her as the fever runs through her system.
Luckily, by the end of the day, she seems better. She manages to eat a little (a feat, considering who made the dinner and what it tastes like), and she even has enough energy to play for a while before her mother sends her right back into bed again, this time for the night. No need to take chances.
But just as Beatrice is improving, Harold takes a turn for the worse! Emily had been so sure he was fine she didn't even think to check him before he went to bed but now he is ill again! Emily feels helpless! There is nothing to do but rest and hope it passes. No medicine works on the flu, and no the hospitals are overrun as it is. All she can hope for is that her baby boy will pull through on his own.
Meanwhile, back in Del Sol Valley, Alice is spending her 25th birthday alone in her apartment. She had imagined a party, perhaps a great meet-and-greet gathering, but Del Sol Valley has acted swiftly and resolutely against the spread of the Spanish Flu, and all bars, restaurants, bowling alleys or movie theatres are closed down. Large parties or gatherings are not forbidden but frowned upon. So Alice is alone, in an apartment she rented to be able to host parties in. But it could be worse. As she writes to her sister:
This might not have been how I imagined my birthday, but at least I am comfortable, working regularly, and have my health. On my 26th birthday, I hope the war and flu are both over, and the we can be together again. Perhaps even at home for a few days, the whole family, including your Maurice. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
Your loving sister,
Alice
Death toll Spanish Flu:
Death toll WW1:
As William and Edward turns 10, midway through his childhood years, it's a quiet day in the junior Whittaker household. Harold is sick, and there is no birthday celebration for the boys. Grandpa and Abigail comes by to say hi and give gifts, before returning home to William and Josephine. All that marks the day is a quiet family dinner, with mum's cooking. That does not bode well. It's in all account a fairly awful birthday as far as Edward is concerned.
But as sad as this is for Edward (and he's sure bestie William is feeling the same), Emily is relieved, because by nightfall her youngest recovers from his second turn with the flu. So far, and she's keeping her fingers crossed, no one else seems to have caught the illness either.
That night, there is more news, as she recognise the symptoms of yet another pregnancy. Her fifth. Does she really want another child? Of course she does. How silly of her to think otherwise. Even if it does mean loosing her sewing room to make another nursery. Then again, that does give her an excuse to do something other than chores. How she will manage without a maid in the house when the baby comes she has no idea, but perhaps by then they will have found a new one? She can always hope, even if she has read in the paper that the entire country is in a national domestic worker crisis. At least the new nursery looks good:
The next morning the news is all over the newspaper. An armistice has been signed - the war is finally over!
In spite of the ongoing pandemic, spontaneous celebrations break out in the streets at the news spread from household to household. The young men will return! All is well. Some, like the Edwardsons, cannot share in the celebrations, having lost their only boy to the war, but others rejoice at the return to normal.
Emily, Frank and the kids rush over to the senior Whittaker family, where Josephine is especially elated at the news. Nash is coming home! They can set a date, get married, get on with life. She is jubilant. So is Abigail and Joseph. Anna can return home again! Finally! After more than three years, they will at long last see their beloved daughter again.
Meanwhile in France, Anna and the others are celebrating with the rest of the town in the bar. Racheal is playing the piano, people are drinking, hugging, kissing and dancing. There has probably never been so many people in the bar at all as nurses and soldiers come from nearby towns to celebrate the news. Some soldiers has already started returning, others are still in need of care and it will be a while before they can all go home, but for Anna tonight is especially joyful. Soon. Soon. She will see her beloved Maurice again! He might not have returned at once, but the front is long and she knows that she will need to wait. Tonight nothing can diminish the joy she is feeling. The war is over! Tomorrow they can start patching up the last wounded soldiers. Tonight they will celebrate!
The next morning, Anna is up at the crack of dawn in spite celebrating most of the evening the night before, rushing to the field hospital. She knows that it is a slim chance that Maurice will have returned from the front so soon, but she cannot help but to hope, a hope that is only bigger when she sees those from the same company there. She asks where Maurice is, if the soldier knows when he will return, but in stead of answering, the soldier pulls her away from the others.
Once alone he tells her the heartbreaking truth. That Maurice won't be returning at all. He shares a story of a gas attack on one of the last nights of the war. Of how Maurice did not get his gasmask on in time, how death came to the trenches that night and brought three men with him when he left, Maurice among them.
Consoling her, he promises her that she was the last thing on Maurice's mind, shows her his hurried grave among the others next to the field hospital and hands her his final letter:
My dearest beloved!
If you read this letter, then I am no more and I will have been forced to leave you. Try not to be too sad, for if death takes me; the country demanded my blood; which I voluntarily gave, after so many others. I have done my duty courageously, you can be proud of me, I have not failed at my task of being a good soldier. My last kiss, my last thoughts will be for you, my dearest. I welcomed your friendship that has only grown during the long and cruel separation that this war has imposed on us and is forever grateful for the short time we got together. Those weeks were the best of my life, and has sustained me here where I can no longer be with you.
It breaks my heart to imagine that the two of us will not have the life we dreamed, but I take comfort in knowing that you are still in the world I will now only look down upon. Know that I will be with you in spirit if not in life, and rejoice in your every trip, your every discovery and your every breath while I patiently wait for you to join me in the after life.
Eternal love from
Yours for evermore
Maurice
As much of a consolation as the letter was supposed to be, for Anna it is only adding to hear heartbreak, for how can she go on when the one she wanted by her side is no longer there? Heartbroken she weeps for her beloved by his newly dug grave, entirely inconsolable.
Later, she writes to her sister:
What am I to do now? What used to be my dreams became ours, and now they are supposed to be just mine again? I know mother and father will expect me home, but that is something I cannot live with. Miss Bain has asked me to stay on, to work in a proper hospital and live here in Glimmerbrook, but that too is unbearable without my darling Maurice. I have come to love this town, but every tree, every rock, every turn of the river will forever remind me of the happiness I had and lost.
I suppose I must return home for Josephine's wedding, which is sure to soon be announced, though how to survive her happiness without spoiling it with my deepest grief I do not know. I weep constantly, unable to eat, to read or to work. I feel as if a cloak of absolute darkness has been pulled over me and it prevents me even from breathing. Oh dearest sister, I hope you never suffered thus, and hope you never will. I miss you terribly, and seeing you again is the one thing that brings me any happy thoughts at all at this time.
Your loving sister,
Anna
For Josephine, the end of the war means one thing more than others. Nash will return and she can finally get married! She is delighted when she receives his letter telling her that he's coming home:
My darling girl!
I am finally coming home! I'm sure by now you've seen the headlines. We've been told there was celebrations in the street. There sure was here. I cannot wait to return, but it won't be long now. I'm shipping out tomorrow and will be back before you know it. How does a Christmas wedding sound? Then you can be with me when I start uni. My stepdad is making the necessary arrangement for a place to stay, if we're married it can't be in a dorm, that's now allowed, so he's setting up some apartment for us. See you'll be setting up a home of our own sooner than you thought!
I cannot wait to be your husband. Your portrait has been keeping my spirits up all these months (and made a whole lot of other soldiers jealous). Saw your sister in Glimmerbrook. She didn't seem herself, more serious and sad somehow, but then she's been out here longer than most men and many of those are a wreck. She's a strange one, your sister, but she's got more guts than most men I've ever met. You must be proud of her. She promised she'll return in time for our wedding, even if it's at Christmas, so you can start planning. It will have to be in Willow Creek church, my step-dad would not have it any other way, but other than that, you can have whatever you want.
I cannot wait to see you.
Yours fondly,
Nash
But barely has she received it when she's starting to feel unwell. Apparently celebrations in the street and meeting family members who have just been sick was not a good way to prevent the flu from entering your home. For Josephine, it's fairly serious:
She spends the next few days in bed, unable to get up. Abigail, worried sick about her little girl, refuse to leave her side and spend all her time by her bedside, refusing admission to the rest of the family. "There is no need for anyone else to be sick!" she firmly states.
In truth she is terrified. What if they lose their baby girl? What if it's a funeral rather than a wedding they'll need to attend? So many have died, why would their daughter be spared?
But by some miracle, she is, and Abigail can rejoice when Josephine for the first time in days says the words: "I'm hungry". She's still shaky and weak, but she gets up from bed and eats something, and has a bath, before returning to bed.
In the next few days she is progressively stronger, but remains mostly inside and takes it easy. Instead a new interest has taken her over. She has never been a great reader. Homework, schooling...none of it has ever made sense to her or interested her at all, but now she's found something that has. Housework.
Being spoiled enough to live in a home with a maid, and hearing how John and the other kids complain about the lack of good food now when Emily is the cook at home, she has come to the realisation that she is woefully unprepared to be a wife. She's sort of always assumed that there would be a maid, but Emily has none, and so how can she expect one when Nash is only a student still? She will not let Nash be disappointed with either food or the household, so now she reads. Cookbooks, baking manuals, flower arranging... if it's about housekeeping, she will read it. She will be the most prepared wife in history of wives she's decided.
Her mother, still hovering, doesn't complain. Reading seems like a sensible thing to do.
Thanksgiving is a quiet affair. They decide it is better not to invite the others in the family when someone has just been sick in the house, but with Josephine's recovery and Nash's soon return from the war, there is still much to be thankful for.
Meanwhile, Joseph has become more and more involved in the prohibition movement. He knows his son is in trouble, and he now is firmly convinced that the only way to save him is to save everyone - by banning alcohol. He starts a petition, and goes around the neighborhood looking for signatures to repeal the juiced community NAP that is plaguing their town.
Interestingly enough, he finds that more women sign than men, and he starts to believe that maybe his daughter was onto something when saying women should have the right to vote. If they did, surely alcohol would already be forbidden? And so in fighting for prohibition, Joseph more and more starts to see himself as a supporter for women's suffrage too.
As winter approaches, the Spanish flu continues to wreck havoc on Louisiana, taking several of their friends. Ashley Doughtry who lives just down the street dies, leaving her three children and husband behind. Caroline, the eldest daughter, just turned young adult, will now be responsible for raising her younger siblings. Abigail and Josephine, dutifully visits the family and offer their condolences, though they do not stay long. No need to take chances by visiting those who has just had the illness in their house. Especially not since Josephine just recovered.
A few days later, they learn that George Addington's father, Frank, has also passed away. He was no close friend, but surely when she returns Anna will want to visit her friend and offer her sympathies. Abigail, for her part, cannot wait to see her daughters again. As 1918 gives way to 1919 almost four years has passed since she last saw either of them. All she can hope for now is that no new illness might keep them from returning home to her.
As Christmas week begins, Abigail finally gets her wish. Her girls come home! There are happy hugs all around, although William is a bit hesitant. He's heard a lot about these older sisters, but he's only ten and it's been four years... he barely remembers them. Anna makes sure to offer him a hug too. He's a bit intimidated by the brave sister who went to war, but he likes the hug.
After hugs, and dinner, and keeping up appearances, Anna and Alice are finally alone in their room for the night. Now they can greet each other properly, and say all that they want to say without the others listening in. Anna is keeping a brave face on, but Alice knows how deeply she hurts. She tries her best to comfort her sister, but as she goes to sleep, she can hear Anna crying in her bed.
Anna shows none of her grief the next day, however, as she and Alice take Josephine shopping. "Are you sure I shouldn't go along? Abigail asks, but the sisters are adamant. Shopping, even for wedding gowns, are best left to the younger generation.
Josephine quickly learns that shopping, is much more fun when your mother isn't in the picture. "I don't want to cut my hair!" she says, a bit nervously.
Alice just shakes her head and laughs. "Don't worry. I haven't, have I?"
"Perhaps you should," Anna adds. "It's the best thing I've ever done. You'd look great in it."
"Maybe," Alice agrees. "But first a wedding dress for Josephine."
"And I know a fabulous hairstyle that doesn't include a haircut. Georgette perfected it, and she was French," Anna adds.
At the end of the day, they've found much more than a wedding dress. All three comes home with new outfits, though Alice shakes her head at some of the more practical things her sister has chosen.
"I'll need things like this in Selvadorada!" Anna points out.
"Yes but you need something to celebrate New Years Eve in Del Sol Valley with me too"
After a day full of shopping the three sisters heads off to an ice cream parlor before going home with their shopping.
Back home Josephine can't stop looking at herself in the mirror. She loves her new outfits.
While they've been gone, Abigail has been helping William with his schoolwork, and now that they're back she is looking forward to dinner with all her children around the table. All the girls are showcasing some of their new outfits that night, and Anna looks quite pleased with her new short haircut:
But as happy as Abigail is to have her girls at home, she is not blind, and worries about her eldest girl, who she has noticed seems a bit off at times. When the others gather around a game of simbles, she corners Anna in the bedroom, and asks her about what is wrong. Anna tries her best to keep her facade up, but it's difficult when you've done little else but pretend you are fine all day. At the end of it, she tells her mother (almost) everything. About the man she fell in love with, the promise that was made, and the reason the promise could not be kept.
Abigail tries to console her daughter, telling her that life will move on, that eventually the pain will lessen, that she'll love again. But Anna doesn't believe she will.
"Could you? If it was dad, could you just move on?"
"I can't imagine it, no, but he did. When you are ready, you should talk to your father. He knows more than most about loss like this. I have never had reason to doubt how deeply he loved Ruth, her picture still hangs in the living room, after all. But I also don't doubt how deeply he loves me."
"Maybe men are just different that way."
"Or perhaps you just need to give yourself time to heal."
And somewhere in this conversation, something very ordinary, and at the same time very extraordinary, start to happen between mother and daughter:
***
A side note about outfits and the 1920s:
In game, I will use a lot of CC for the 1920s (as it is hard to find good outfits). But I have tried to find some, and a nocc version of the three Whittaker sisters can be found in the gallery here. You can see their outfits in this post here.
Read Sim 66 here:https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/978195/sim-66/p1
https://kelloggjkellogg.blogspot.com/2020/10/sim-66-prologue.html
Christmas week is both heaven and bitter sweet for Abigail this year. She loves having her daughters at home, hearing their chatter throughout the house and seeing them connect to each other again. Yet she knows that this is just temporary and that she will soon loose them to the world again. Josephine is getting married and moving away in the new years, and Anna and Alice will both be heading west again even before that.
So Abigail sets out to make the most of this rare privilege, and throws herself head first into the celebrations. First, on Christmas Eve, it's Josephine's wedding. While Abigail might have a thought to two (or three) about the hemline, she cannot deny that her daughter looks very stylish in her modern wedding dress as she walks down the isle. Josephine and Nash seems almost shy to each other, but then they haven't had any time together since his return after the war. Abigail cannot help but to shed a tear as they say their vows, and laugh as Nash takes a spousal kiss way too far for a proper church wedding.
The reception is back at Joseph and Abigail's house, and Dolly has outdone herself with the cake. Josephine is visibly moved as she and Nash cuts the cake. All in all it's a very successful reception, and Nash and Josephine are both tired when it's time for them to be alone together as husband and wife for the first time. Josephine feels shy, but Nash has no hesitations on what to do.
Dolly, on the other hand, spends most of the night cleaning up before she can go to bed. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, and the family is once more invading (Dolly's words) the house. So much to do, not enough hours in a day to do it. She's exhausted by the time she falls into bed.
Abigail isn't the only one who is happy about having the girls in the house. After a shy beginning William has come to realise that a sister might just be fun to have around. At least a brave, active one, who goes into wars and have no problems building snowmen or playing monster at the playground. Anna is so much more fun than any other adult woman William knows. He wishes she would stay, but think her plan to explore the jungle is so, so exciting.
As Christmas Day progress, the house is filled with people once more. Abigail has taken Dolly's work load into consideration and made the turkey together with Josephine and after dinner the entire family relaxes and just spend time together. The kids find their way into the attic to play, and the adults talk about everything that is going on and Alice entertain them with a story before Father Winter comes.
The next morning, Alice heads off for a visit she has been longing for: seeing Betty and George. They meet up outside their building, and then goes up to their apartment where they spend the next few hours catching up. Their twin girls are adorable, and so very different. While Dorothy is constantly demanding her parents' attention, her sister walks off to play on her own. Anna hardly sees her while she is there. She is glad to see that her friends seem happy with their little family and that they like their apartment in downtown Newcrest. It's becoming quite the buzzling city.
Boxing day ends with the traditional dinner at Frank's and Emily's. To her great relief, Emily has managed to cook an acceptable meal (if not a good one), and everyone seems happy to be there. Still, with a newborn in the house, she is a little bit relieved when everyone leaves again.
I'm sorry, if you already mentioned it and I forgot, but how do go about time and aging? So, how many Sim days are a year and do you use normal aging or age up manually?
My first attempt at creating a Sims comic: The Parker-Goth Legacy.
1 sim year (2 weeks per season, 8 weeks or 56 days in a year) = 5 years, so 2 years to a decade.
I play with aging on, and long lifespan, which works ok (they are based off the 56 day year length), but I've adapted the aging to work for me and so that the sim has their birthday on the same day of the week in the same season each year (so Saturday in second week in spring for instance). So aging is as follows:
With my aging, a sim becomes a child at 5, a teen a bit late at 15, a young adult at 20 and an adult at 30. I think I set the elder state at the equivalent of 60 but am not sure. This is actually one I could, for future decades challenges, consider changing and raising as life expectancy goes up. In 1920, life expectancy was only 54 years for men and 55 for women. Then again, those numbers are always brought down heavily by how many kids who died early. If you've managed to hit 20 life expectancy was longer, and things like wars and pandemics also put a dent in life expectancy (It sank a lot in 1916-1918 actually, being down at 37 for men and 42 for women as its lowest in 1918). Interestingly enough, you cannot see the same dent at the time of WW2, so presumably the Spanish flu was a bigger part for those lower numbers than the war. But again, this is me putting way too much thought into something that could be much simpler
New years eve starts early for the Whittaker family as they gather outside their house to say goodbye to their girls. All three are leaving, Anna and Alice together, making the long journey to Del Sol Valley, and Josephine and Nash are headed for Britechester, where his stepfather, the reverend has arranged a flat for them. They aren't leaving as early, but has gathered with everyone else to take their farewells to Anna and Alice. There are a lot of hugs and some sad faces, and William especially hugs Anna the hardest and says she's his favourite sister.
Even though Josephine and Nash leave later in the day, they arrive in Britechester much earlier, as the trip is not nearly as long. Standing outside their new building, Josephine feels like her real life is just about to begin. She's almost nervous to go inside.
Once she is, she sort of want to go back outside. The apartment is cramped, with only two rooms and the smallest kitchen Josephine has ever seen in her life. It does not even have a separate dining room! She tries to hide her disappointment and tell herself that it's only temporary, until Nash has finished university and started a career. Two years, possibly two and a half, then surely they'll be able to move out and into a real home? She sets her mind to not complaining and making the most of the situation. As the neighbors comes to visit (and walks right in without knocking!!!) Josephine makes dinner and puts on a brave face. Nash will have no reason to be ashamed of his wife!
Nash is not blind, however, and when it's time to pay up for this semester's studies, he opts to pay with a loan. After all, investments are lucrative, and economics is the subject of the future. Once he's through university he'll be able to pay back the loans in no time.
In the mean time, Alice and Anna have finally arrived in Del Sol Valley, and Alice takes quite a bit of pride in showing Anna around her apartment. It's also a one bedroom apartment, and the dining room is here - as in Britechester - in the same room. But it is a lot bigger than Josephines, with a hallway and a dressing room and a communal pool in the building. For Alice it's just the right type of place for her. Anna is duly impressed, and promises that she won't mind at all sharing a bed with her sister until she's off for Selvadorada.
The rest of the evening the two sisters spend getting ready for the new years party that Ms Ward is hosting that night. It's the kind of party Anna has never been to, far from the stuffy balls that the Duncans' hosts every year. Loud jazz music is playing from the stereo, a bartender has been hired, there is poker playing and dancing going around and every other person is someone that Anna has seen in magazines and in movies.
Anna is quite the success, and manages to truly impress one of the biggest actors in Del Sol Valley with her stories from the war (told without all the gruesome details).
But in all this, there are two who are looking a lot at each other that night. As the drinks go down, caution is thrown to the wind, and as Anna return to their apartment to sleep, Alice knocks on another door.
If Anna's tale of her and Maurice has taught her anything, it's that life is short and unexpected. She's done playing pretend and taking it easy. She's noticed the looks Cora is giving her. Once inside she does what she has wanted to do for some time, and kiss the woman who has caught her imagination. One thing leads to another, and Alice never does go home that night. As 1919 gives way to 1920 Alice truly discovers what two women can do with each other.
Thanks for all the details! And wow, I can believe that having one sim year to equal one real year must have been difficult to play!
I think it's fine if you don't mirror the real life statistics exactly. After all you probably don't play that many Sims that they would be statistically relevant in any way.
I feared that for the decades challenge something aroud the numbers of the long lifespan would be the most appropriate... That feels quite daunting for me as someone who always plays on short, lol. I always wonder what people do with all these days
But I'm happy for Alice (again)
My first attempt at creating a Sims comic: The Parker-Goth Legacy.
The next morning, Alice is back home before Anna's up (it's right across the hall after all). By the time Anna is awake, she's cooked, showered and arranged for an audition for tomorrow. Anna is surprised, and asks her about the nights events. She might have been tired, but Alice not returning home did not go unnoticed. She wants to tell her to be careful, but bites her lip and thinks of Maurice. At least Alice can't get pregnant, she could have.
After tending to the dishes together, Anna and Alice goes downstairs to do something important that they've been longing to do for years - vote for the NAPs of their choice! So important, such a milestone. Especially Anna feels pleased with this.
As the young women vote for the first time, it's another new law that Emily is most excited about - the ban on alcohol. She eagerly brings this up with Frank, only to find that he has no intention of giving up drinking just because of some law.
"But you're a politician!" Emily yells in exasperation. "You must follow the law!" The entire encounter ends up in a huge argument about, of all things, their globe bar. At the end of it, with both Frank and Emily furious, the bar ends up in the basement, but is not brought out of the house. There it joins a whole lot of new contraptions. A juice fizzer, a nectar maker... now when there is no legal way to buy alcohol, Frank has started to dabble in making his own moonshine. Emily is devastated, but can say nothing about it. If she did, Frank might get in serious trouble and then where would she and the kids be? With no money, no one to support them, they'd be out in the street in no time.
The rest of the day is a complete disaster. Frank and Emily barely speak to each other. It's not really as if Emily has time to speak anyway, not between tending to baby Harrison and cleaning, cooking and washing clothes. She feels worn out, and thinks she looks it too. She's gained weight, and she never uses the vanity table she was so proud to have when they first moved into the house.
At dinner Frank takes his anger out on John, seemingly annoyed with everything his eldest son does. Dinner ends quickly, and Emily sends the boys to bed while making Beatrice help out with the dishes before she too is allowed to go to bed.
As Frank comes to bed that night, she pretends to be asleep. It's not only that she's angry, because in spite of the fighting and the anger, she does still want her husband, but she cannot imagine going through yet another pregnancy. Frank, annoyed, goes to sleep feeling lonely, misunderstood and trapped in a marriage that is not at all what he once imagined it would be like.
Nine weeks pregnancy
I'm glad Anna and Alice can vote now. Was there a specific event or trigger in the US for it or was it "just" the impact of WW1?
My first attempt at creating a Sims comic: The Parker-Goth Legacy.