My Dad died on Boxing Day in 1984.At Christmas the following year, on the first anniversary of his death, we took my Mum to Cyprus.While there i took this photo in a dead scruffy shop.Huge candles shaped as babies.Lord knows the purpose of them? They seemed only to be collecting Nicosian dust on the day we visited .............................. (a stranger's collection is usually meaningless,sadly)
Is it a 'boy-thing' this collecting lark?As a lad (6-ish?) I had a notebook in which i obsessively collected bus numbers.I nearly got run over once by an Edinburgh bus on Princess Street in my enthusiasm ........... Older (11-ish onwards) I collected Rugby League programmes.I stored over 3,000 different ones.Even when i stopped collecting i couldn't face getting shut of them.It was only in my 20's ,returning from college in Liverpool one summer, i found out my Mum had given them away "to make more space".........on dark winter nights the boy in me still pines for that rare 1939 Wembley Cup Final programme of Halifax against Salford..........(Halifax won!)
Somehow,by collecting and preserving The Past ,it made The Future more secure in some oblique way.I still don't fully understand how that one works.........? Either remembering or imagining (or both!)an occasion from a distance.I only collected programmes before I actually went to any 'away' games. My programmes then from Hull Kingston Rovers and Whitehaven were like Exotic Travel & Adventure Guides. Boys Own Adventures priming me for the future.
I still do this now in a less obvious way.I visit a blog in the same way i would "visit" a Rochdale Hornets Vs Barrow programme from 1957. in-order to get a sense of a time & place & examine a particular atmosphere that I feel generated.............
Now I imagine the past.I collect and promote my old photos.These past few weeks I have been scanning loads of old photos of The Rochdale Turkish Baths onto my web Album here.I have been going there for 25 years.They will soon knock it down.But even when they do ,I will still have a tangible record of My Place In It.
Maybe we collect The Past to better Dream The Future?
Here is an online guide that tells you it's OK to make a butterfly collection .
[via:]
This is a photo my friend
Abdullah Dombaycı took with my old Sony camera in Istanbul 5 years ago.We have all flow off since then but it still proves to me that moment existed........
21 comments:
Good one, Tony. I find the older I get, the more I turn think of those things from the past. I can identify with your wanting those old programs back - even if they are not something I would have collected.
Oh dear. I meant to type: The more I TEND TO think of those things from the past. My fingers are not behaving tonight.
Hey Tony!How are you?So you are an hell of a collector,do you say collector?Oh hell..those french what do they know?I love old pics myself,I don't collect anything apart from craps to say,like I said,this is an "echantillon"..sample yeah you say sample!I was once in a bus on Princes Street in Edinburgh,perhaps OMG..I was in the bus that almost hit you??!The world is small though.Love the pic of the butterfy!Have a nice day!:)
I have tried to get rid of all my collections. All I have now is books. And every letter that was ever mailed to me.
by collecting the past it makes the future secure...i like that thought...collecting pics are like collecting memories, each one comes witha story. happy tt!
thoughtful post, sugar! thank you. xoxox
I used to collect a few things (letters, greeting cards, unicorns, candles) but when I started moving house alot in my 20's most of those collections got abollished. Save for the unicorns, they still have places in my shelves, but it stops at the ornamental type.
For me, collecting things gave me a reason to go back and reflect. Especially the letters. Now I can't remember what was written, what was going on in my life back then, and who was important to me at the time. And i think that is both sad and good. Not living int he past makes the future much brighter.
the collection of the wax babies reminds me of black magic. typically ginger root is used to preserve or deny natal energies, but i can see a candle being used instead. Very creepy though, bad juju.
An attempt to stop time from passing? Good post, a little melancholy for me.
Great post, Tony. Digitizing old photos and other items from the past is a great way to preserve some history, even if it is only one's own.
I get the impression you're nostalgic Tony. :)
Interesting post. Candle wax babies, eh? Creepy, I say!
Great post! I'm glad I discovered your blog! Happy TT!
i tried to take a snapshot of a white caterpiller for my collection the other day, but he was shy and only curled up. Like the butterfly!
Thanks To All For Commenting and/Or Reading.I will visit & Comment youAll on my hungover-return from The Rugby on Sunday.
I actually cringed when I read that your mum threw out all those rugby programs. Ouch!
grat post, Tony.
Candle wax babies....now that really is a little creepy! ha!
Eee by gum! Good grief! Who'd burn a candle that looked like a baby. My bro gave me a Buddha candle once and it's still sitting in the china cabinet! And I think you're right about the boy thing. My husband used to collect Playboy magazines (for the articles naturally) and putters . . go figure. My son collects Coca Cola bottles and T shirts and a plethora of other pop culture silliness. Having said that, my Mother collected Theatre Programs . .I haven't had the heart to discard them so they 'hide' in her piano stool. I guess lately and due to the digital darkroom . . I collect photographs.
Old rasslin programs, rocks, postcards etc.
GAH! When I think of all the stuff my parents tossed into the dustbin, over the years....can relate to that, as well as the old snaps, I can. Do take care sir :)
I used to be an avid collector of all types of tat, had to snap out of it!
i may be beside the track here, but wouldn't it make sense that it is engrained in our genes, as hunters & gatherers, to seek something we find special & hoard as much as we can?!?
a primitive response to this modern world.
or do we do this merely to validate our passage on this planet? to give some tangibility to our existence?...
:)~
HUGZ
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