Day Off

Ed Speeleers & Cara Theobold as Jimmy & Ivy

 

Let's take a sad moment to face reality- very few young ladies now a days would be asked out on a date if they had to face the interrogation squad of Mrs. Patmore, Mrs. Hughes and Mr. Carson.  Just asking for permission from Mr. Carson would send most boys off the thought of ever asking a girl out.  Can you imagine if Mr. Carson had a daughter?  She would never be married.  No man would have the strength to ask for her hand in marriage.

 

So, whether Jimmy is just playing around with Ivy's emotions or not, it must be said he has gone through quite a lot to take her to the theater.  Why all the fuss?  Because a house such as Downton must be full functioning and running 24/7.  Servants lived there, they ate there, they were expected to be there.  There was no such thing as 9 to 5, 5 days a week back then.  One day off was allowed, and that did not mean the entire day.  Every other Sunday afternoon was often a stipulation of the job, and if you were lucky another member of staff had that every other Sunday off as well so you had some company.  Not always likely though.  Usually only one or two members of staff had off at the same time so that the others could cover the slack of missing workers. 

 

In the Downton staff, Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes would have first priority of time off due to their seniority, but it is doubtful they used much of their "vacation" time.  Of course Mrs. Patmore had off any time she wasn't cooking- it is why so many young girls took on the hardest role in the house of being a kitchen maid so one day they could live a good life as a cook. The Bates, now married, would probably get time off together.  This leaves the understaff with the scraps for time off, despite the young probably being the ones most in need of it.

 

Margaret Powell, in her book Below Stairs writes of the elaborate outings she had planned whilst working in London verses the reality as a kitchen maid:

 

"But I was always too darned tired.  I just wanted to go to the films where you could sit in darkness, where it didn't matter that you hadn't dressed up.  On my day off I used to go to the nearest cinema and get all my romance second-hand.  It took a lot less energy.  I often thought I wouldn't have had the strength if a marvelous lover had swum into my life.  I couldn't have done anything about it.  Once a fortnight I used to get a Sunday evening off with Gladys the under-housemaid, and we used to stroll around Hyde Park..."

 

The reality is, Ivy and Jimmy may fall asleep in the audience of the theater due to work exhaustion, but at least they tried.