Wednesday 30 September 2009

intimate archeology

My mother came to stay and brought with her two plastic bags filled with a mass of little objects from my past.

She had decided to get rid of an old desk that had been slowly warping and ageing in her greenhouse, topped with runaway geraniums and spider plants. In the desk drawer she found a treasure trove of things sentimentally hoarded by me back when the desk was in my room as a teenager.



In one bag, there were old love letters, restaurant cards, stamps, postcards, (several pictures of owls, unsurprisingly!), letters full of warmth and affection from friends now all but forgotten... One overstuffed envelope had a yellow sticker on it saying, rather mysteriously: 'code yellow letters' (I think signalling declarations of love, or particularly intimate and difficult-to-read missives).


In the second bag, I found my own personal thrift store! A once-valuable antique ivory fan, a pinback badge from my 18th birthday, long beaded necklaces and lots of homemade earrings - already 'vintage' now, since I made them as a child!

At the bottom left of this photo you can see a pair of glass strawberry earrings. These were my first ever pair of 'dangly' earrings (i.e. not studs). I was in Arizona, USA, aged 5, when I decided I wanted my ears pierced. My mum (to my surprise!) agreed, but the deal was: no dangly earrings before the age of 12. Too grown-up, too tacky, I suppose? Go figure.

Anyway, a family friend gave me the strawberries when I was about 9 and so I snuck in there early with the danglies and never looked back!

5 comments:

Margaret said...

I love it!

Stevie-Lynn said...

That's so cool! How lucky your mom saved all that stuff. I'm sure you had a fun time perusing through all those items and reminiscing :-)

Unknown said...

Yes, I'm lucky that my Mum is as much of a hoarder as I am!

Blue Eyed Night Owl said...

What a great post!

And as far as danglies go those are pretty much the sweetest and most appropriate ones you can get for a 9 year old:)

Unknown said...

Thanks for your lovely comment!

I still like wearing the strawberry earrings, it feels like a connection to my childhood.

I'd love to have a daughter some day and pass them on!

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment! It's always so lovely to hear from you.
Suki

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