poliphilo: (Default)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2020-10-23 03:42 pm

Going Through The Bottom Drawer

There are four drawers in the bookcase-cum-bureau. We'll start at the bottom.

This is a drawer into which my grandmother and mother have thrown things they didn't want to look at again but couldn't bear to part with.

These include:

All the letters of condolence my grandmother received on the death of my grandfather in 1939.

Several newspaper supplements relating to the death and burying of Winston Churchill- who was something of a family hero (but not to me. Stamp, pout!)

Letters home from two generations of kids who had been banged up in boarding schools- one of whom was myself. I remember having to write the damn things- arduously trying to be grown-up and entertaining and duly grateful for small benefits received, scraping round for news when there isn't really any (I'm at school and wish I wasn't) and avoiding any expression of real feeling. Looking through them is dispiriting. My mother's letter home are even duller than mine, my sister's a little livelier.

These things have hung around for long enough; I won't be passing them on to the next generation.

But I will be passing on the photographs of my great great great grandparents...

cmcmck: (Default)

[personal profile] cmcmck 2020-10-23 04:43 pm (UTC)(link)
I can see the family likeness.

I have one of my Jewish maternal great grandmother and it's uncannily like looking in a mirror.
athenais: (Default)

[personal profile] athenais 2020-10-24 02:16 am (UTC)(link)
Wonderful photos!
qatsi: (dascoyne)

[personal profile] qatsi 2020-10-24 11:32 am (UTC)(link)
Such fine photographs!