Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Life in a box

Ever since Mr L was born, I've been keeping a box of memories for him, as I think most mums do. The usual ID bracelets from hospital, first lock of hair, invitations from his first birthday etc and it's surprising to see that in his short little life, there is already a large collection of memories for him to look back on. I have lots of this stuff myself from my early years (mum was a good record keeper) and it was certainly a surprise to be presented a collection of boxes on a trip home last year. 2 boxes contained cards from early birthdays and Christmas, one contained letters from my pen pals including a HUGE bundle from my cousin Jess. The last contained more memories collected from the first 17 years of my life - stuff that I had collected myself and looking back, brings back so many happy moments from my life.

Telegram, still in its envelope - in the age of modern technology, I love the idea of telegrams. Kind of like Twitter on paper! Short simple messages with so much meaning. This one arrived the day after I was born from some friends of mum's from Stanthorpe.

Religious prayer cards - an assortment of dog eared cards, no doubt given to me at special occasions like my first Holy Communion, Confirmation etc.

Commonwealth Savings Account Passbooks x 2 - Who remembers Dollarmite accounts? My first banking was on 3rd Feb, 1983 for a whole dollar.

Various membership cards - Courier Mail Fun Club, The Sunshine Club, Kid Zone (hello lifetime member here!), Warwick Daily News Fun Club. Yep, I was cool...

Ansett Boarding pass and luggage tag - this is from my trip to Rockhampton in 1992 as a member of a debating team that fluked their way to the state titles. Yes, fluked. I was crap - the other girls were pretty darn good! I still recall the look on our coach's face after I delivered my debate (as second speaker).   Actually, no I don't - because he had covered his face with his hands and was slowly rocking to and fro. If there wasn't such a stigma about grown men crying in public I am sure he would have. The whole debating thing is another story. Best we leave that one right there...

Debating palm cards - erm... well, looks like I wanted to torture myself further about how crap I was at debating. The cards look fairly new so I'm guessing they're from that last debate when we came 3rd (the team we lost to came 1st so we decided that was fair - in our eyes anyway). I am guessing I kept them to remind myself never to debate again. It worked...

The National Science & Technology Centre entry ticket - 6th April 1992

ACW Certificate - just a nice one to say congrats on surviving 3 years with a list of students I survived with. We were a good bunch - I really miss that group.

My Missal - a First Holy Communion present. Used it quite a bit when I used to toddle off to Mass on my own.

Tickets to see Merchant of Venice (19 March 1992) and the Rock Eisteddfod (13th Aug 1993)

World Expo 88 sticker - Together We'll Show the World!

Coin - a Bicentennial memento for school students, given out in 1988.

St Marys Sports ribbons - 2 firsts and 4 seconds. I am guessing one those seconds was when I jumped a little bit shorter than Jill Collins in long jump in Yr 7! Not sure about the others - most likely for sprints and relays. Certainly not for swimming... 

Photo from Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary - 1st August 1982. I think I look pretty darn cute! And I'm sure the koala crapped in my hand. Don't they all?

Greasepaint ticket - ACW student concert, 14th Sept 1990. Seat D5.  Think that was the year I played a narrator in our class play. I still remember some of the cheesy lines I had to deliver "Car 16, Car 16, come in car 16. Happy Birthday! You are now Car 17."

Book "Five Loaves and Two Fish" - This was a Christmas gift from Miss Noble, my Year 1 teacher. I remember we all received a book.

ACW speech night program (1992). - One of the teachers asked me and two friends to sing a song from Jesus Christ Superstar as part of the entertainment before the boring bit (ie the presentations) started. I'm sure everyone's ears bled after listening to my singing (it's pretty bad!) - am sure I was a sympathy invitation. Am sure my microphone was turned off. The other girls and the guitarist were of course awesome! I am sure I kept this as a reminder never to sing in public again. (Singstar doesn't count. Neither does karaoke).

Cheque stub from a bursery award I won - for the MJP Foster bursary. A cool $40. I was in Yr 9 and remember being asked to go see the principal after school. I was shaking with fear, thinking I was in trouble. Instead, he gave me an envelope, said congratulations you've won an award that gets presented to one year 9 student each year, and that was it. I still don't know why I received it. I don't think I even told anyone about it.

ID cards from years 8 - 10. aka - A laminated collection of bad hair dos through the early 90s.

Program from the Antioch National Convention held in Sydney in October 1993.  I don't remember much about this except that we marched through the streets of Sydney, singing songs like a bunch of hippies. And I loved it!

Order of Service for my Confirmation (1989) - I wore a pink dress which had a balloon skirt. And I have a photo with the Bishop!

About Me - some folded A4 sheets stapled together to form a book. Everyone in our year 9 class had to do this (probably in RE) - we passed the books around the class and you had to write one nice thing about the owner of the book. One person wrote 'nice hair do, personality alright.' Alright? My personality was awesome! Another wrote 'You seem to be a really nice person.' As opposed to what? About 10 people used the word nice (nice - ewwwww! The word you use when you can't think of another word!). Another wrote 'you have a good brain. I eny envey you'. Yes thank you Mr Anonymous - my good brain has gotten me far.

A shell that I found on our Yr 9 trip to Hastings Point.

There are a few other things in there but they're not as significant.  Will I chuck things out or 'declutter my life' as Oprah would say? Probably not - someone had gone to the effort of keeping this for so long that I think I'll keep it a bit longer. Especially so I can remind myself about my good brain and 'alright' personality when I feel a little down. Thanks Yr 9!

1 comment:

  1. So glad to know my letters were important enough to be saved! Love it. I bet they contain a LOT of detail about the location of the drinking fountains, etc. in my middle school.

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