Sunday 3 March 2013

PIck your precious 3- from my memory box

                     
I opened my Memory Box last month, to search for a story for Sian's Pick Your Precious Storytelling blog hop which takes place on the first Sunday of the month. The stories are often moving, sometimes funny and always inspiring so I recommend that you pour yourself a cup of tea and head over there. But read mine first while you're here!

10 years ago,I culled my Memory Box quite ruthlessly when  I was moving house and pregnant with R.  Items which had been important through my teenage years had lost relevance and I knew that I was about the embark on a whole new set of memories. Although I was not a scrapbooker then, I must have already had a scrapbooker's mentality because I based my choices of what to keep on what I would want to show my children when they grew up. So the things in there are consciously precious, not just randomly saved.
Here is a selection some of the things I found:
 A collection of Royal Mail First Day Covers. The earliest was for the Queen's 25th Jubilee in 1977 and the oldest is 1981 - Prince Charles' wedding to Diana. They are not all royal. There is one about Guiding and Scouting, a ballet dancer and various animal ones and famous people. They are probably fairly worthless now, but might be collectable by the time M inherits them. I kept them more for historical interest. The cover price of the earliest stamp was 8 1/2p, compared with 50p today!
These champagne corks were from the children's christening parties and my wedding. I had never come across this tradition of putting a coin in the corks until I met P.
These 2 swimming badges from primary school were kept because they were my only ever sporting awards (until I got my orange belt in karate in 2011) I threw away the badges between 25 m and 500m, but kept the highest two. I am an OK swimmer, it is once of the sports I can do, but I am not fast. In my final year of primary school we went to the public swimming pool once a week by coach.  We got exactly 45 minutes in the water and then had to get changed at lightening speed to get back to school by the end of the school day. We did distance badges at regular intervals, the highest award being 1500m. I was proud of my 800m but on the day I was due to try for my 1500m I was nervous. This was twice as far as I had ever swum.

However,  I was determined and there was a lot of peer pressure to succeed. I don't remember how many laps we had to swim, but I do remember a teacher telling me to hurry up  because I only had 10 minutes before I needed to get changed. There was no way I was going to cvomplete the laps in time but I battled on regardless until the teacher literally had to pull me out of the water. I was gutted. Everyone else had achieved the required number of laps. I hadn't. And the badges were to be given out in school assembly on Friday. I cried with frustration all the way back to school on the coach.

In Friday's assembly I sat with my head down as my friends went up to collect their badges. Then my name was called. What? But I hadn't swum 1500m. Puzzled, I stood and went up to the front of the school hall. The teachers had located a 1000m badge! We didn't know that distance existed, but they said I had achieved it. I maintained, and still maintain today that I could have swum 1500m if I'd had enough time!

16 comments:

Lythan said...

I love that story about swimming and the unexpected reward at the end. thanks for sharing!

Ladkyis said...

I want those teachers for my grandchildren please! What a wonderful memory

Irene said...

A whole box full of precious items and each with their own story to tell. How wonderful you have this box in which to take the occasional trip down memory lane. Very precious indeed.

Sabrina DS said...

Very precious box. I never thought of having one… You made me change my mind!
Cheers from France

Sian said...

What a great story! I never achieved any swimming badges myself, although, like you, swimming is the only sport I even half enjoyed; so I can understand how you must have felt when they found the right badge, just for you!

I like your point about the carefully curated treasures too..I'm often all about the random, but I really see how the chosen few make for a special collection. Thanks for letting us have a look.

Elizabeth said...

I don't enjoy swimming but I can imagine how precious that badge is to you. I don't have a memory box but I suppose one can start a memory box no matter what age they are.

Missus Wookie said...

Oh that is a lovely story of the 1000m badge :) Glad you've shared it here.

Julie J said...

That's a great story, which I can totally relate to, being a slow runner and swimmer myself. I was in a similar position when we did a charity swim at my regular pool, but they left the pool open for me. Everyone else was out and dressed but I kept on and on and wouldn't give up. I think it was 5 miles I got - my one and only sporting achievement.

Jen said...

I love your memory box. And what amazing teachers to have to find that badge for you;Thank you for sharing. J x

Sheena said...

Kirsty x
Many thanks for sharing these precious items with us.
I was so pleased to hear that your teacher had organised a well deserved badge for you to be presented with too.

Susanne said...

Oh you've shared lots with us today. I'd never heard of putting a coin in a cork, that's new to me. And I thoroughly enjoyed your swimming story - what grand teachers to reward your determination and milestone.

debs14 said...

What a lovely swimming story! Not sure I would EVER get to do the full amount! I have several corks with coins in too. Thank goodness I've written on the cork what the occasion was as I would never remember otherwise.

Lisa-Jane said...

I think that badge definitely deserves a page of its own. I'd be tempted to swim it again and make myself a badge! Except that I don't swim very well at all... ;-) Thanks for sharing your story x

Amy said...

I don't have a treasure box but I think it is a lovely idea and I might have to organise one I think.

Jo said...

What lovely, precious things you have in your memory box x

Unknown said...

1000m is a LONG way to swim when you aren't a regular swimmer! I am glad they found you a badge. My goal is to one day swim the Rottnest Chanel Swim, it is just over 19km. Once I can afford the regular pool entry I will start training. I am trying to talk my boys into doing it with me as a relay swim but they are afraid of the possibility of sharks.