Sunday 7 July 2013

Storytelling Sunday Three: Pick Your Precious


Storytelling Sunday Three? There is no excuse for not joining in with this one! Everyone can do it. Pick Your Precious is about celebrating the little things you love: those souvenirs, bits and pieces, things from your past you can't bear to throw out. You know, the special little something you have tucked away in a drawer or up on a shelf? Or the thing you love most in a room? Or the object you would save if you knew you had to leave the country? Your favourite things.


Ready to begin?

The Postcard Album

..and we're into July! Mmm..that usually means a trip here. The schools finish at the end of June and we like to skip town as soon as we can; so I'm thinking about travel this month. And souvenirs of journeys taken and reminders of friends who returned. 


I've used a postcard before as a Precious, but I guess that's the way it is with the things we love: we keep wanting to go back: a sure sign of a treasure, something to revisit. Because the card I showed you in February doesn't rest on its own. I pulled it from what, at the age of nine, I grandly called my album (album? my first? Little did I know how many more there were to be in my future). A simple scrapbook (scrapbook? a good word even at that age), bought with my pocket money to house a precious collection.

I loved postcards then, as I love them now. They were cheap and easy to find because of course, lots of us sent them, way back then. A good papery interest. I', paging through right now, impressed with the photo corners. They're still holding on there: a retro romp through that seventies sunshine. because the sun really did shine in the seventies and Auntie Rose went to Exmoor and wrote to say she was sending on my birthday present and cousin Anne went to Ayr and "bought a pair of baggy jeans for £4.50!!" and Caroline stayed in a caravan in Portrush and Hilary made it all the way to Spain ans swam every day. It's all there.

I cherish the cards I was sent, but I also get a smile from the cards I sent: saved by the family so that I could stick them into my book when I got back. From a school trip to London. Look!


1976 and that's how I wrote (spelling doesn't matter in postcards, right?); that's how I signed myself. SG. The girl who loved paper then as she loves it now.

Paper: where would we be without it? Emails, texts, facebook updates: they aren't safely tucked away in a book I can pull out whenever I want. The colours, the feel, the spirit..I need that. Paper is precious. But i think you know that already..

And that's my story for this month. I've kept it short in the hope that it will encourage anyone who doesn't like long to join us! Every month I think - there isn't really anything I can offer all you great storytellers. You get it, you know what you are doing, I have no advice. And then, often, I spot someone saying - I'd like to join in, but I haven't. Yet. And I think to myself - what can I say to persuade you? Is there something else I could have said? Try it! Short is perfect. A few sentences work just fine. Pick the first thing you trip over when you go into the attic, or the last thing you took back out of the charity box (or is that just me?). Start with a who, a what, a why; and if more comes - yes. If it doesn't, maybe that means you have told the whole story. But tell it! Because we're all here to listen.

Write your post, introduce it as a Storytelling Sunday story and then come back and link us up. You have a full week to add your story. No big rush! have a think, take your time. And then? Sit back and enjoy the rest.


37 comments:

Maria Ontiveros said...

Paul is known as a great sender of post cards. My story is all written and set to post in a few hours. Not travel-related, but I'm fairly fond of it nontheless.
Rinda

ComfyMom~Stacey said...

I love post cards. It's been a long time since I have sent or received any (I'd need stamps and I'm bad at finding stamps or having any idea how much it costs to send anything) but I still buy them just to have them.

Anonymous said...

It seems that memory keeping is in your blood! What a wonderful collection to keep and browse through.

Sheena said...

I used to love sending postcards from days out & holidays. How wonderful to have them all together with the pictures & the stories for all to enjoy x

Rachel Brett said...

I used to be a big postcard fan too Sian and would also buy a spare stamp from each place to go with it.. must find out what happened to those actually :)

btw.. Ted in the linky is me :)

Anonymous said...

Your story has brought back a lot of memories. I used to save postcards too but mine never seemed to get put into an album. I must get them and do that. Just writing my story now.

Becky said...

I don't have postcards, but only the other day I was reading the letters sent to me and the ones I sent back when I went on school camp - lovely memories.

debs14 said...

This has brought back so many memories of how postcard sending was an integral part of going on holiday! Great post!

Jen said...

I too collected postcards when I was a girl -- and kept it up for a good few years into adulthood. I still have 6 albums full of postcards and your post has brought back many memories. I come across them verytime I do a bit of clearing out - stack them to got to the charity shop - - and then put them back on the shelf. I guess that makes them precious - though it is many years since I did more that look at thr first page in maybe onlly one album. I will have to get them out and look at them now. I loved this story - so beautifully told as always. J x

Fiona@Staring at the Sea said...

Short but perfectly told as always. You have such a way with words. Lovely to see the handwriting of your childhood self. I loved to send and receive postcards too, but the thing I had to find as a souvenir from anywhere we visited was a nice shiny badge. I'll be joining in later, once I've retrieved what I need from the attic.

JO SOWERBY said...

Oh I love it. I have lots of letters in a box and a few postcards. Such a gr8 memory to share and keep,
Jo xxx

Alison said...

Sometimes I wish I hadn't been so quick to throw things like postcards away..you are right, there is so much social history on such things!..lovely post as always,Sian!
Alison xx

Abi said...

This is truly a precious collection collection Sian. Part of me is sad that I grew up at the end of the era of sending letters and postcards. My mum wrote to me every week whilst at school and I still save all of those.

Miriam said...

Brilliant Sian...an idea for me for next month. You are amazing. I Just love your story this month.
I was very nervous the first time I wrote a story for you but I have to say to new story tellers that this is a wonderfully supportive community. And the beautiful collection of stories you will have after a few months will make you pleased you did it.

Jo said...

I used to collect all the family postcards and your post has made me sad that I no longer know where they are. It's lovely that you have such a fine collection though x

Karen said...

I regularly send postcards to my friends when traveling, but the only ones I've received in recent years are those from Kat Sloma's Liberate Your Art project. I always bring back a few postcards from my trips, but never know quite what to do with them. I loved seeing the one you wrote. I came across a box not long ago that had letters I'd sent home from college that my parents saved. I've yet to read them all.

Missus Wookie said...

What a lovely collection - definitely precious.

We have just donated a big box of postcards to raise money for Q works... part of an international homeschool swap project. I like sending postcards and often buy them for my albums too.

Ladkyis said...

I daren't look at my postcard collection. It takes up a whole drawer in the small cabinet> Mr M thinks I should "get rid" I think I should either sell some o fht view cards or sell the lot to a dealer.

scrappyjacky said...

I love postcards....and still send them when we are on holiday...I wish I still had more of the ones I received as a child.

Jo.C said...

My collection was stamps, rubbers and thimbles to name a few. Impressed with myself. Have managed to join on the day :0)

Mel said...

I collected post cards as a child and ,my mom recently built up a very impressive post card wall in the reception area where she works. She said it always sparked up conversation and the clients loved to look at all the places places pictured. Looking back at the postcards you sent - a printed out eemail just doesn't compare!

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

It's such a sweet collection that you have, Sian, and I love how you tied it into your overall love for paper. It's perfect! Your postcard from London made me smile, telling that you'd been on the Underground three times. And Westminster Abbey...sigh...you've conjured up some fond memories for me as well. xo

This West London Life said...

I am such a fan of the humble postcard! I no longer have any collection of my own, alas, but The Boy Child's own collection is growing quite nicely ... perhaps I should get an album for him?

Jane said...

my children used to have a scrapbook of postcards, I wonder where they are now, must send my husband up in the loft!!

Unknown said...

I have planned on writing about my postcards this year but haven't got around to it yet. Mine aren't stored in a fine book like yours. They always lived in a drawer or box with a big elastic band around them. I have dreams of putting them into a divided page protector album ... one day :)

Beverly said...

I informed the newlyweds I wanted no trinket from their honeymoon, I wanted a postcard! You can imagine how disappointed I was when they arrived home and said they didn't send it because it was going to take a month to get here. It appears I have some educating to do with them :::sigh:::

Barbara Eads said...

I have a few old postcards in a scrapbook I made when I was about 10-12. I'm so thrilled to have them now, but only wish I'd saved more! At least it's something. My favorite part on my cards (and yours) is the handwriting. With emails today, the art of letter writing is going by the wayside. I cherish a postcard sent to me at camp with my grandmother's handwriting. It just reminds me that I need to write a letter to each one of my own grandchildren for their future enjoyment.

Unknown said...

Lovely to still have that collection, I have something very similar, must go and dig it out!

Sorry I haven't joined in yet, I hope to!

Lou said...

Great memories on your postcards Sian. I wish I had kept mine. I loved receiving postcards but have to say I hated writing them - that was the worst part of a holiday for me. Not being a great writer and all - until STS that is lol....when how I write didn't seem to matter (to me) only that I had written and recorded a story.

Lisa-Jane said...

How lovely to have post cards from and to your little self from all those years ago! Precious indeed and something I shall definitely show to my Smalls so that they can see the value of keeping stuff for the future.

Jimjams said...

To me what's really precious is the way your family saved the postcards you sent and now you have examples of your writing (and spelling) to jog your memories. A lovely post

Cheri said...

It is a great collection with a lot of history. I used to send postcards all the time, but got out of the habit with the advent of cell phones and texting. It's making me think about our upcoming trip to the shore...

Carmen said...

I love that you have your postcards back too - I bet they transport you back to when you wrote them.

I'm one of the ones that keep saying one day - I will do. I have put it off (and also WOYWW) for fear of not getting round other people at the moment but I will x

Sinead said...

This is so fab, I love postcards, and it's so lovely to look back on them. I think writing postcards is kind of a dying art which is an awful shame...I'm a primary school teacher, and we had a month during the year where the children sent postcards back to the school from wherever they went, near or far. It was great fun! Thanks for sharing :D xxx

Ginger said...

My grandmother saved everything... so I have postcards she received from family in Germany, my mom was going to discard them but I asked if I could have them all. She even kept one I sent her while away in Central America for University. Great memories to have :)

Anonymous said...

I chuckled when I read the bit about "spelling doesn't matter on postcards...". I wonder if postcards were precursors of today's texting. In fact, I'm beginning to think traditional spelling and grammar will be the buggy whip of the 21st century. Why write all those vowels or bother with punctuation? Everyone will know (or can guess) what you mean anyway, right?

Susanne said...

I think we scrapbookers should start a world-wide movement to bring the postcard back. Otherwise future generations will lose out. Whenever we are at a flea market or antique mall I always stop to look at the postcards - wanting to see what kind of crazy or racy messages might they have included that they didn't mind the postman reading. I haven't come across any real jewels yet, though.

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