Ricki Crush Bandicute TarrThe Tolkiens knew how to party!
KanaMaunaComing of age party for a Sub-Lieutenant? Sounds like they were really reaching for an excuse there.
M.S. Bellows, Jr.@KanaMauna @RickiTarr I was curious about this too, so I found the Wikipedia article on "coming of age," which suggests that Sublieutenant Tolkien probably was turning 21.
But right below that, was this, which is amazeballs: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_of_age
Madeline Bodin@msbellows @KanaMauna @RickiTarr
CJR Tolkien was born 21 November 1924, according to Wikipedia, so it seems that was the occasion
clewLook again at the _date_. Their son survived to adulthood during a world war; his parents remembered losing so many of their friends in the last war.
Dave@clew @MadelineBodin @msbellows @KanaMauna @RickiTarr And their son (if I'm remembering correctly the biography I read) had spent a couple of years in the RAF in Africa. His father had been sending him instalments of book IV of LOTR (the Frodo, Sam and Gollum section) for something to read during downtime.
Not sure if the British also had it, but NZ had a service where letters could be microfilmed, the microfilms sent overseas by airmail then reprinted at normal size as "news from home".