Thursday 11 September 2014

Hoarder Or Archivist ?

 I've spent most of the last week rummaging , looking for an old photo for Middle Daughter . Elder Grandson is at the gappy stage , when teeth suddenly fall out , usually at inconvenient moments resulting in reverently wrapping tooth in a paper napkin and Not Losing It Till They Get Home . He's now keen to see how his parents looked when they were losing their front teeth ...
 "If he just waits a few more years , he can see for himself . We'll be doing it again  " , said his mother , obviously feeling her age .
 Meanwhile , I'm hunting for a snap of a seven year-old MD in a poncho and toothless . Needless to say , I've found everything but . He'll have to content himself with images of toothless aunts , great aunts , grandmother , second cousins once removed ... even a dentally challenged , much younger Opa .
 Which has made me wonder why I've still got all this stuff . How many generations of photos does one keep ? The one of a great uncle , aged one , propped in a chair playing a large drum is rather sweet , for instance and must be guarded . But a fuzzy-ish black and white shot of  great grandmother's anonymous cousin's small son in full Highland dress , while equally sweet , seems less necessary , somehow . But I religiously put them all back in boxes , which will eventually be left to my daughters to store in their turn .
In the same case , I was amused to find a stash of drawings which I'd kept from their early school years


 This one caught my eye , since I'm reading an historical novel , at the moment , about Henry II * . YD  must have been doing English History at the time . I'm particularly intrigued by her depiction of Anne Boleyn ... the eyes ! ... The sheer brazen tilt of the hussy's head ! . Still YD's  teacher was , after all , a Spanish nun so La Boleyna wasn't going to be kindly viewed , I suppose . One day I must organise it all and hand them on but I'm too fond of them to do it yet .

* Elizabeth Chadwick's "The Time Of Singing ."

5 comments:

Fran Hill said...

We have a large suitcase we call the 'nostalgia case'. This has inspired me to get it out again some time and look through.

rachel said...

So interesting, these old collections! I have many of my mother's and aunt's old family photos, and wish I'd thought to ask who the subjects were, and label them - who are those moustachioed chaps in WW1 army gaiters? And the Edwardian sisters in ghastly striped frocks and gigantic hats? But I do have a rather scary photo of me with front teeth half-grown...

Friko said...

The good thing is you don’t have to decide, you can eventually pass them on.
On the other hand, have you made notes on the back who these people are?

I’ve got rid of stacks of bad photographs. It’s amazing how few there are left now.

But the drawings are another matter altogether.

molly said...

I too have boxes of childrens' drawings. Don't know who'll want them but I can't bear to part....

Liz Hinds said...

Oh I know what you mean. Granddaughter started Big School last week and I wanted to find to find a photo of her mummy in her uniform - but could I?

And I have so many photos of people that I don't know but can't get rid of ...

And I found some of my children's drawings and stories that I still have on my desk and need to put away again.

But what a wonderful Henry VIII!