Memories

I finished work thirty minutes early and hastened to the car ready to get to the gym. I then had a 'brain fart' and decided to go home speak to the builder, spend time with the children and relieve Clare of dinner cooking duties.

The photograph today is of Joshua's plastic model kits, he likes the finished article but not the 'doing'. Sitting with polystyrene glue trying not to break the small parts brought back memories. My paternal grandparents at one time lived opposite the Airfix factory and as a child I used to 'acquire' many, many kits through the numerous family and friends who worked there.

This burst of nostalgia prompted me to pick up the box I brought back from my Mum's house. Oh what memories, Birth, Death and Marriage certificates going back to 1803, a family tree going back to 1632. Lots of military memorabilia, my fathers, grandfathers and uncles medals, cap badges, insignia, the "Kings Farthing", the commemorative bronze plate given to the families of those killed in the Great War, mine honours my great uncle, killed aged 20 at the battle of Loos in 1916.

There were letters almost spookily similar, from my great uncle to his Mum telling her not to worry written on the eve of the Battle of Loos, from my grandfather to my grandmother telling her how much he loved her, written on the eve of the Battle of El Alemain, from my Dad to to my Mum telling her how much he loved her before moving off to Cyprus for the Suez Crisis and from me to my Dad and Mum prior to the Falklands in '82. I guess the guys in Afghan write the same letters today.

Lots of 'treasure', lots of memories, lots to do to get it in some semblance of order so that my siblings, my children and my children's children can see and be as proud of their heritage and ancestors as I am.