My Long Ago Happy Land

Working today on one of the personal memoir writing workshops I am offering in 2011, I was taken aback by discovering this photograph of the interior of my first apartment fourteen floors up in a tower block in South Wales - my first venture into independent living, back in 1974. How much a photograph can hold - so many of those items carry their own story.

There is the white 'swivel chair' that I saved up for over many, many months, convinced that was essential to give my apartment  an air of of elegance and sophistication :-).  There's the little TV - only black and white pictures, but oh, how much of a companion it was in the first weeks there, when I wondered if I had not also launched myself into eternal loneliness alongside liberating independence!

There are the cushions (pillows), that I patchworked, crocheted and Bargello embroidered with my early passion for textiles which still abides. There's my record player, with all my collection of (vinyl) discs stacked beside it....The Eagles, Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel  (sigh) - and there is my great grandmother's oil lamp, temporarily converted then for electricity, but still with me today with its glass shade and put to use when we have a power cut.

There's the desk at which I sat to study for a zoology exam, and always, the books, the stacks and piles of books. There, on the walls, a Japanese woodcut, given to me by my boyfriend at the time. And there, in front of my trendy chair, the little occasional table which my Mother proudly bought for her own mother with her first week's wages as a 'clippie' bus conductress during WW2.

Such ordinary artefacts - such particular histories. Have you got any reminders like this of your own special "stuff" and the stories that the items carry? If you have, why not get them out soon and write down the stories  of the things that have made us who we are - you may be amazed at what you remember - and what other memories that story-telling evokes.

Comments

[Jamie]

Love this! It is a much nicer collection of "things" than MY first place (although I did have just as many books and records -- my constant companions)! Later we had once thing I ALmost with I had back: a large oval oak dining table that had seen better days, and which we cut the legs down to 6 inches. So we sat on the floor around it (with lots of cushions!).

[Margaret Lambert]

A priceless photo for personal memory, Roz. Yes, it is reminiscent of my own first apartments- same era and much of the same sensibility, taking needlework pillows and such along.
At my daughter's request I started a book about 15 years ago to tell the stories of some of the special things we live with. We have photographs of family homes from 80 years ago which have familiar rugs,tables, paintings. In a whirling world of constant change there is an anchor in that.

[Brigitte]

Every single thing of my homes (apartment in the city and a cottage in the country) carry their own stories, and I do love this. Can't imagine to live in a home and with furniture with no history behind. By the way I like these cushions! Do you still have them? Or what do your present cushions look like?

[Gracie]

It's deeply true Roz, we are surrounded by some many objects, we are used to see them as just "things" but a few of them bring back so much treasured memories.....Thanks for sharing yours.

[Darla]

Thanks for the peek at your former life. Funny, just yesterday I pulled a out a cup I bought while on vacation in Canada in the early '60's. It brought back so many memories including the fact that buying that cup was a big deal as money was tight in those days.

Darla