Archaic Historical references in a story.

[ShelbyDawn57]

I can only extend copious apologies for your manifest discombobulation, I am penitent, contrite, and remorseful.

Em

Burden not your countenance on my behalf. My lugubriously surreptitious repartee was intended to imbue my respect for your unmistakably loquacious demeanor.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Burden not your countenance on my behalf. My lugubriously surreptitious repartee was intended to imbue my respect for your unmistakably loquacious demeanor.

Touché

 

[gunhilltrain]

I often make references to archaic and outdated things in my stories set in the past to make it seem more realistic for the time it is set.

For example in my most recent story 'Cindy's Close Encounter' which is set in 1959 Cindy, her boyfriend and their friends pay a visit to New York City right at the end and narrator Cindy notes seeing the Empire State & Chrysler Buildings as well as Singer Tower. Singer Tower was demolished in 1969, and its inclusion in a story set 10 years before this helps make it seem more authentic (that's if any of the readers had heard of Singer Tower).

On a similar note, in other stories set in New York in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s I've had characters see the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, again to show that the story is set in a time long past.

Having the Singer Tower is a nice touch for the New York of 1959. Earlier in the century it was briefly the tallest building in the world. By the spring of 1968, it was being demolished with a giant crane while the foundations for the World Trade Center were being built a block to the west. Nowadays, there are probably few New Yorkers under the age of 65 or so who know anything about it.

However. somebody did a documentary about the building recently.

 

[RetroFan]

Having the Singer Tower is a nice touch for the New York of 1959. Earlier in the century it was briefly the tallest building in the world. By the spring of 1968, it was being demolished with a giant crane while the foundations for the World Trade Center were being built a block to the west. Nowadays, there are probably few New Yorkers under the age of 65 or so who know anything about it.

However. somebody did a documentary about the building recently.

I have a lot of fun with things like this when writing my stories set in the past. In fact, I find it even more fun than the erotic scenes. Even in stories I write set in the 2000s, I might reference characters using My Space social media.

Another thing I have fun with is having characters making 'wrong' calls of history, a sense of foreshadowing. For example, in my story 'April Leads Julie Astray' which takes place in October 1963, April and Julie discuss the month of November, April stating that November is a nothing month where nothing interesting seems to happen, and that in years' time if anyone asked them what they did in November 1963, they would be sure not to remember.