If this was subjugated knowledge circulating in subaltern spheres, people's
children and grandchildren seemed to care and know little about it. One woman
who had worked as a house maid said that her children were uninterested in her
melnories and regarded her opinions as irrelevant and old-fashioned.60 Another
who had worked as a gelzdclk (a young girl who cared for and played with Dutch
children) said her children never asked about working for the Dutch. Youthful
impatience with stories of the "old days" is not surprising, but this disregard
raised questions about what happens to memories marginal to popular culture,
excluded from the valued, "usable past."61 Was there no common script in part
because there was no audience and no forum for their telling? Our project became
less one of tapping into subaltern narratives than one of exploring the very
availability and amenability of narrative forms to encompass these recollections