| Posted: 05 August 2011 at 8:29am | IP Logged | 10
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Arrived this week a Big Box o' Stuff -- those of my Father's effects I wanted sent on to me. (Thanks to Forum member and pal Paul Gibney, for his part in expediting the shipping of this material to me.)This proved a real treasure trove of memories, including the pictures of two "generations" of City Clerks I mentioned up thread, and which I whipped off to the framers before I remembered I'd said I would scan and post them here. Oh, well! When they come back! Some of the items were remarkable! It seems like my parents were, to some extent at least, pack rats. The box contained both my mother's and my father's birth certificates, as well as my father's Student Union card from when he was 16! Mom's birth certificate confirmed that her mother's maiden name was Heaton. There had been some debate, over the years. Gran'ma, with her Black Country accent, pronounced the name without the H, so we were not entirely sure whether it was Eaton (a more common name). Nobody thought to check the birth certificate, obviously. Probably forgot they still had it! Quite a bit pertained to our various trips across the Atlantic, which allowed me to finally put the ships in chronological order. The Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mary and lastly the Ivernia. (A small validation, here. A few years back, my father started insisting that it was the Saxonia on which we had made our first Atlantic crossing, but I was sure it was the Elizabeth. Documentation in this accumulation of papers confirmed my memory.) One little flash of nostalgia came from finding a small orange card on which was printed an announcement from the Canadian Pacific Railway, inviting passengers to try their new Cafeteria Car. It was in that car that I, at age 7, had my first fried egg sandwich. I saw it on the menu, and wondered what it was. (I knew what fried eggs were, and I knew what sandwiches were -- but both at the same once?) A small jewelry box, such as might at one time have contained cufflinks, was filled with old British coins, including three big pennies so worn as to be little more than copper disks. On one, the date was JUST readable -- 1863!!! Missing was a photo of my father's parents, taken on their wedding day, that I recalled seeing once, many years ago, but not since. I guess that's gone forever, now. Also in the box (packed separately) were three porcelain jugs/pitchers, embossed and glazed with scenes from Shakespeare. I think these were anniversary presents to my parents, for 1, 2, and 3. I know that were a presence (no pun intended) in my life right back to the beginnings of my memory. One of them was shattered into about eight pieces, but this was less of a tragedy than it might sound. Having all crossed the Atlantic three times, each had been shattered and glued back together more than once, and the breakage in this case was along existing "fault lines". Gluing it back together was easy enough. One surprise was a stack of about twenty five birthday cards -- from my FIRST birthday!! There were also congratulatory cards and telegrams from my birth, AND my parent's wedding (which were eighteen months apart, thank you very much!) Pictures of Dad in India, in uniform, and some pics of Mom and a couple of her girlfriends from just after the War rounded out the collection. Also a picture of a young woman in Naval whites, sitting on a bench on a street corner in a vaguely tropical looking city. I remember my Dad talking about a brief but torrid romance he'd had in Durban, South Africa, while en route to India. I wonder if this was her? And one picture of Mom, in a rather daring off-the-shoulder one piece bathing suit, sitting on the stoop of one of our apartment residences, with me in trunks (and sneakers!) looking about eight, with another woman and two young kids. Not sure who those other people are. So, of course, there was that momentary muscle-memory of almost reaching for the phone to call Dad and ask him!
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