Old letters
I decided I really should start packing today*, so I've started with my bookcase and have 4 boxes** packed so far, mostly books. I picked up a pile of papers, wondering why on earth I had stored these for so many years under a bed at my parents' house, and then brought them over to Australia. Two random letters fell out, and reminded me exactly why I keep these things. Memory lane.The first letter was from the Editter, not dated, but around the time of "so you told them all about the secret fancying" in this post, but, if I'm not mistaken, just before the "and it turns out they knew all along". This was in the days before email, and it was one of those nice long gossippy letters ("And when they said bye she just... kissed him! Amazing eh?"). And it ended with: "On Sunday Nana said she's always regretted missing out on her true vocation in life. I asked what that was and she said 'Mushroom Picking' ".
The second letter was from a correspondant I had no idea I was still corresponding with in 1991, my first year at university in New Zealand and his year of army service in Germany. I had fancied him ever since high school in Belgium, but we never actually dated, although I do remember slow dancing with him when I was 16 or so to "Sign Your Name Across My Heart" by Terence Trent D'Arby... Anyway, it's a very sweet and funny letter (for example, and I know this is pointless unless my readers happen to know Dutch, "Hello my dear#" then at the bottom of the page "# Nederlandse vertaling = dag dier!"), and I'm so pleased I kept it. It seems we had plans to stay in touch and meet up again, but we never did. But it made me smile to read the letter.
Now I really want to go through the rest of the letters, but I've just packed them. So instead I might have a cup of tea and think about what else I can pack***.
R.
* Packing to move across town is just so NOT a big deal having packed to move hemispheres at least half a dozen times in as many years
** Admittedly, 1 of those 4 was one that never got unpacked in the first place
*** Without actually doing any of the packing, naturally
posted by flying kiwi @ 4:17 AM
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