Vocal Voices

Apart from doing a bit of knitting I have felt rather nostalgic today because I have been going through two old cases that belonged to my father looking for some documents concerning my mothers brother who was killed during WW1. My son and lovely d-i-l are going to France in the New Year and they wanted to visit the memorial plaque that has his name on.
So far I have not found it but its been a fascinating tour back in history starting with this old photo of my hubbys maternal grandfather. As my hubby is now 84 I leave you to guess when the photo was taken of his granddad.


Its been a journey through from the 1800s to the present day and looking at old marriage certificates and death certificates plus WW2 identity cards and ration books has been quite an emotional ride.
I also came across this lovely card that was sent me from one of the schools that I used to go to to talk to the children about WW2 and being an evacuee. I have kept the card because I thought it was lovely to have been signed by all the children plus their teacher. I wonder what has happened to all the children now because this was sent to me in 2005.

Front of the card will show me talking to them.



These show the inside of it where the children have signed it.





I also used to take Nellie the Elephant to show the children.

The elephant below was sent from India in 1942 by my eldest brother who was in the RAF. When he had leave he bought this elephant to send her home to my parents plus a lovely embroidered table runner with the Taj Mahal on it all done with beads.
Unfortunately Nellie the Elephant got caught in a bombing raid that damaged quite a bit of Mount Pleasant Post Office in London.
When she finally reached us her trunk was off plus her tusks were missing .
My father glued the trunk and God knows what he glued it with because its still stuck to this day. No superglue then but whatever it was it certainly made a good job of Nellie’s trunk. She stood for many years balancing the man on top of her trunk in my parents the window but still minus her tusks.
When it was handed down to me I went to a jewellers and bought two necklaces that had a nacre ( mother-of-pearl ) tusk hanging on them.
Hubby put the tusks in the holes where the original ones should have gone and Hey Presto here is Nellie in all her glory.
She has been a great conversation piece no matter who calls and children are fascinated watching the man spin on the top. She will definitely be staying in the family.



Funnily enough with looking through the cases and looking at the photos of family and friends no longer with us has made me feel better to know that they have been remembered at this time of the year. I am the only one left now in my family so it was nice looking at the family photos and remembering good as well as bad times.
Ok so I am a sentimental old fool and its not to everyones taste but just thought I would show the card to show that not everything is bad in this world of ours

That was most interesting, Maywalk.

I think it is fascinating to look at old family photos, and I often wish that I had some of my family. When I was a child I did see some uncles and aunts on rare occasionsns, but I never met any grandparents.

Thanks a lot.

May I absolutley loved reading this! I have quite a few old family photos - when my parents both died last year my sister and I had the sad task of clearing out their flat, but a highlight of that was looking though the old photos, some going back almost as far as yours

That card is so sweet! I especially loved the little one who put "Thanks for coming, even though I was away!" xxxxxxx

Glad you enjoyed that Aggers and Kaz and if my tales start getting on your nerves I wont be offended if you tell me
because not everyone wants to read tales of time gone by.
Off to find another true tale.

Maywalk wrote:Glad you enjoyed that Aggers and Kaz and if my tales start getting on your nerves I wont be offended if you tell me
because not everyone wants to read tales of time gone by.
Off to find another true tale.

I try hard to keep up with the times, but I must admit that thinking about the past gives me great pleasure. Compared with todays standards, we had hardly anything - but, generally speaking, we were happy.

So I, for one, will welcome your 'tales of time gone by'.

Many thanks Aggers.

I loved reading that May

When my Mom used to put me to bed when I was little, I'd ask for her to tell me about "the olden days" rather then her reading me a story. I loved her stories about being a child during the war.

You might like the book I wrote JoM about the first 20 years of my life which I put on my website because I had SO many contacting me about it from abroad.
It is for sale and all proceeds after printing goes to my local Rainbows Childrens Hospice.
I have had a few e-mails from folks telling me that they are going to order it as a Christmas present for Grandma/Grandad.

http://www.reprintuk.com/books/yesterda ... ld_war_two