This should have us smiling!
I was delighted to be invited to participate in the Oral History Project being hosted by St. Josephs School, Laverstock. Here, young people were invited to ask us ‘oldies’ questions about life as it was in our time, on topics such as fashion and technology, and how we think of it now and may be in the future. We were also able to question the pupils.
I registered rather late for this event and therefore hadn’t been sent an email requesting us to bring an object to speak about. On the spot, I thought I could talk about one of my many collections; however, more about that later. However, the girl pupil in our group said she’d forgotten to bring an object, but she’d intended to bring her toy monkey.
This reminded me that I still have my toy dog, Bonzo, which must have been given to me as a birthday or Christmas present when I was 5 or 6 years old. I explained that, to my eternal regret, I gave him a haircut with scissors, so he’s now practically bald. He now lives with all his friends (my wife, Sheila’s, cuddly toys) on a shelf in the spare bedroom. Sheila has knitted him a green jumper to keep him warm.
Returning to my various collections, I have been an avid and compulsive collector of anything and everything all my life. Among the earliest things I recall collecting are picture postcards. This was inspired by my fascination with my parent’s postcard albums. I particularly liked the pictures of guardsmen, resplendent in their bearskins and scarlet uniforms on duty at Windsor Castle. Since then I have collected at least one picture postcard from every place I visit. I also keep postcards that have been sent to me by friends and relatives. These are (or at least were) stored in date order in albums, so constitute a sort of diary. This habit lapsed as my working life became ever more demanding, and so many are now stored in shoeboxes and have become muddled from date order. My intention is to get these properly organised during my retirement.
I also collect (or at least don’t throw away) postage stamps. Although some of these are in albums, many are just in little boxes. Again, my intention is, in retirement, to get these organised.
I have blogged before on my inability to throw away obsolete technology, inspired by Sir Terry Pratchett’s comment that, “Although I have no particular need of it, I can’t bring myself to throw away what is now obsolete technology”, so I shan’t repeat it here.
However, by far my most assiduous collecting has been of trade cards (Kelloggs, confectionary, cigarette cards etc), particularly Brooke Bond tea cards. This was started by one of my elder brothers and I inherited his collection and continued with it when he left home to go to university. My collecting stalled after I got married because Sheila preferred another brand of tea to Brooke Bond. However, in retirement, I’ve managed to purchase complete missing sets and individual cards and now have the complete set of United Kingdom cards (There are also Canadian, USA and African series which I have diligently avoided becoming involved with!). One of my favourite sets is ‘The Race Into Space’ (1971). The official reference book, ‘Brooke Bond Picture Cards’ says, “No doubt the finest educational and pictorial issue of cards ever launched by Brooke Bond. The series is the work of a team of experts – one of the most accomplished groups it would be possible to assemble”
The Race Into Space (1971) album
I have chosen to show the final card in that series which concerns ‘The Manned Flight to Mars’. It was hoped that a spacecraft would reach Mars in 1982 (i.e. approximately 10 years hence) but we are still talking about it 50 years later!
If Brooke Bond were still publishing their picture cards, a similar album would be featuring the James Webb Space Telescope from which, only recently, we have been receiving our first images of the far reaches of the universe.
Thank you Alan, for making me smile, and bringing back my own memories of collecting.