I always go for the domed ones (American: thumbtacks)
Some readers may recall that last August Shirley and I spent an inordinate amount of time clearing out my late brother Simon's rental cottage. We tried to be ruthless but even so a few boxes of his rescued stuff were brought back to our home in Sheffield.
Largely those boxes have remained untouched as I wait to see Simon's financial affairs brought to closure. The process has been incredibly slow and frustrating. Amongst the rescued items were things that belonged to my mother, father and the rest of our family.
Anyway, today I addressed two of those boxes and managed to reduce them to one. It was a success measured against the past five months of my procrastination. Something of a psychological nature has been going on here though I can't quite explain it.
Here are some of the items that surfaced today. Remnants of the departed...
A commemorative tin from 1981. Charles and Diana were married in the same year as us.
My old school badge - I hated that institution with a vengeance. The three crowns
echo the city's coat of arms - Kingston-upon-Hull
My father was a proud trade unionist within the teaching profession and
these badges acknowledge his terms of office as President of The National
Union of Teachers in East Yorkshire
In this old pill jar I discovered a full set of brass RAF
buttons from World War II - in desperate need of polishing.
I believe my mother cut them from her old WAAF uniform.
A box that in truth contains a stop watch though it was clearly meant to
contain studs for old shirt collars that must have often got lost. I hope you
didn't think that the term "stud" referenced sexually proficient gentlemen. You
can see a fellow under a bed searching for lost shirt studs.
My father was a pretty good cricketer and I suspect that this was his post-war cricket cap
when he must have represented The Old Maltonians Association. Malton is a little
Yorkshire market town east of York. and that is where Dad went to school - Malton
Grammar School in fact. Should I just throw it away?
Throwing away your father's cricket cap would be like trashing his war medals.
ReplyDeleteHow so very dare you !
Where shall we see a faded blue like this Maltonian blue again ?
These are the blue remembered hills and the clock that stands at five to three.
( Bit of conflation here, AE Housman & Rupert Brooke begob. )
Surely in my dreams I climbed the wolds above Malton and cupped my hands in the ice-cold stream, drinking deep of the crystal waters thereof.
Ye don't have an old unopened bottle of Camp Coffee, do ye ?
The chicory flavour would bring back my rainy-darkness-at-noon Glasgow boyhood.
Nice with a tot of Navy Rum when the old ship's going down, chum.
I appreciate your wistful, tangential response.
DeleteRiver topped me.
DeleteDomed drawing pins: even Keith Waterhouse forgot about those.
In my 1950s childhood, Teacher let us pin up wall charts with those domed tacks. Geography lessons.
My dream was to walk round the white walls of York and call into Rowntree's for a bit of chocolate chemistry.
We paused in our studies to pray for the great brave men of Hungary who were shot like vermin at the order of the Kremlin.
Less than ten years later we were praying for President Kennedy as he lay dying in Dallas Hospital.
A week later my Uncle Jack came to see us and told my father that Lee Harvey Oswald could not have acted alone.
Jack was a war child (born 1929) and a good marksman.
These articles may or may not have value for you. For the rest of us to be honest no value. Now I'm trying to move some stuff out of my house so that whoever looks after things when I'm gone won't have such a formidable task.
ReplyDeleteI guess I am too sentimental Red. I should be more ruthless.
DeleteThese are the kinds of things that are hard to throw away. I work on the same site as the Salvation Army museum in Sydney and people are always bringing in these kinds of things. The museum manager says it's easier for him to throw it away than a bereaved family
ReplyDeleteIf I died tomorrow, these things would mean nothing to anybody else.
DeleteYou are alive and they have meaning for you, so get them into a frame and remember your parents when you look at it
DeleteWhen you die many years from now these little treasures will mean a great deal to your sons, and one day to Phoebe.
DeleteFamily history, old sport. ( I'm in a Gatsby mood, old sport. )
I prefer domed drawing pins too, but they're hard to find now. Why does your old school badge have a white donkey on it?
ReplyDeleteHa-ha! I think it is a white hart or a sheep and I cannot find out why.
DeleteIf I were you, I would show the things that belonged to your parents to Ian and Frances. Who knows - they may want to keep some small memento of their grandparents. If not, you can still throw them away, although I guess I would try to find collectors of wartime memorabilia etc.; these things are very much sought after here in Germany and often go to collectors in the USA at amazing prices.
ReplyDeleteMaybe. Have I got the energy to do that? Maybe not.
DeleteYou could take them to a local antique dealer and see what they think.
DeleteYou've got a photo of the cap. Back the photo up and throw the cap away. Who will even know what it is when you go...up or down.
ReplyDeleteSeems harsh but sensible.
DeleteDrawing Pins are called Thumb Tacks over here. An hot press is what we call an Airing Cupboard .
ReplyDeleteWhat do you call an Irishman who steals your pint?.... Nick McGuinness
DeleteTo keep or ditch the cricket cap? Well, if it means a lot to you then you should keep it.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't mean a lot to me but at the moment I cannot bring myself to cast it out.
DeleteHave you contacted the cricket club to see if they would be interested in the cap?
DeleteYou have to work through sorting things out a little bit at a fine, ten minutes. here and ten minutes there, and you get there. Some of these things I wound keep and label to look at occasionally and leave for someone else to decide.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your advice Tasker.
DeleteThere are often some real "finds" amongst a hoarders collection. Now you just have to decide what to do with them.
ReplyDeleteI guess I have just got to keep sifting.
DeleteIt's so difficult to know what to do with stuff like this -- things you aren't likely to use or wear but that have familial and historical value. Why are the NUT badges from three different districts? Was he president in all three or did the districts change?
ReplyDeleteThat is a good question Steve. After posting, I thought the same myself. Perhaps he was meant to pass those badges on to other local presidents as he was president of the Holderness branch. Shame I can't ask him.
DeleteShare with the kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews. I would keep the cap, or send it to the club.
ReplyDeleteI think Tasker Dunham has the best idea. I shouldn't think of it as an immediate clear-out but as a gradual erosion over time.
DeleteI have no idea what you should do with all of this but I am as mystified as you are about the psychology of it all being so difficult. I have my own bags and boxes. I feel they weigh me down.
ReplyDeleteI really identify with this post as I am still in the middle of doing the same thing. My mom died 4-1/2 years ago and my goal is to consolidate a half dozen large tubs of "stuff" from the farmhouse into one manageable tub. I have set the goal of later this spring and I'm not sure I'll quite make it but I'm still going to try. Emotions make it hard to move fast on a project like that.
ReplyDeleteI agree that you should check with your kids to tell them the stories behind the items and see if they want to keep them. Or local history chapters that might like to add to their collections of memorabilia.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what to do with 'stuff'. Mostly I walk away from it, but I think the suggestion that your children should look at it and see if they want it may be the best.
ReplyDeleteKeep them, for now. You're still dealing with things, still grieving, you don't have to decide right now. I got rid of all of my mother's things, except a handful of things and I regret it now. I was too upset and overwhelmed at the time. And your children and grandchildren might want them one day.
ReplyDeleteI read your last comment. I'm sure most people would consider it pandering to let Jack choose what he wants to eat but I know how I was raised and I know how stubborn Jack is. I have a difficult time with textures in food, so do other family members, and I have a hard time with bitter flavours. Mealtimes were a constant battle in our house because I could not force myself to eat certain things, I would gag. This led to what would no be called anorexia I would imagine. Once I was allowed to choose my meals, my weight became normal, so maybe not anorexia. Regardless, I will not do that to a child. He will sort it out one day, my daughter did.
We have an intense hoarding situation in our house at present. Not only do I still have many of my late father's bits and pieces (not to mention my late stepmother's extensive pottery collection), but also because I have given up a city office after about 20 years and now "WFH."
ReplyDeleteI have a weakness for tin boxes like your drawing-pin box, also for old cigarette tins. This almost certainly exceeds the objects I could usefully store in them.
I reckon someone will be interested in almost everything pictured in your post except the Charles & Diana tin (because those are surely quite common?). The buttons are nicely stored as they are and someone will surely be interested if they can be acceptably restored.
Not so sure about the cricket cap.
Andrew's suggestion of a backed-up photo seems to me a good approach to dealing with objects to which we must reluctantly say goodbye.
Maybe you could vent your feelings about your old school with a ceremonial burning of the insignia? Consistent with Andrew's suggestion, this too could be electronically recorded. Just a thought.