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Tuesday, 4 January 2011

Sepia Saturday's Christmas Box

It may be strange to start a story about a Christmas box at the beginning of a new year. After New Year's Day on Saturday and a Bank Holiday yesterday it was time for the Christmas tree and decorations to be taken down.

That's where our Christmas box comes into its own. It's held together by parcel tape and has no lid. Carrs Water Biscuits is the name on the side. The decorations and lights from the tree are kept in the box until Christmas comes round again.

There was some debris in the bottom of the box to be emptied before it could be filled. It was then that the old discoloured newspaper lining the box caught my eye.


The paper was so fragile that it could not be straightened out. The date had faded but this is what it said:



The Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph that day contained a column "Roma's Mid-Week Notes" with the main heading "New Year - But men will still hate women drivers."



Our three children were born in Scunthorpe; the photo below is of Andrew  and Adrian in early 1964 - the year of the newspaper in our Christmas box.



Even then Britain was importing American ideas as shown by another of Roma's Notes:


I wonder what happened to the kooky rings.

Happy New Year to all at Sepia Saturday (where you will find more Sepia memories )

14 comments:

David Robinson said...

Great post Bob, and really entertaining stuff. I still hate women drivers ... especially my missus.

Alan Burnett said...

What a great find - and it makes a perfect Sepia post. It even has that sepia-ish tone. Happy New Year Bob.

Anonymous said...

I have had many friendship rings, but never a harem ring, ha ha, even though I once did have four fellows I dated. I didn't want fellow one to know of fellows two, three and four! :-)

Kristin said...

If I hadn't put my decorations away I would look at the old newspaper pieces I use for wrapping ad see if there were any interesting articles. I know I don't have any pieces over 40 years though!

Unknown said...

Now that was a find. I have been concentrating on looking for those old papers myself. Great post.
QMM

Unknown said...

Oh I just saw this and it brought back memories--I had one of those friendship rings, wonder whatever became of it. Great find by noticing the newspapers. Quite a realization that the times of our lives have become old times, 1964 seems like yesterday; our son was born then too. Nice post.

21 Wits said...

Oh this is great! I was delighted by your title too, Christmas Box is so delightfully mysterious! Nice post!

Anonymous said...

I'd have bought myself the full set to kid on I was popular! I'm glad the newspaper survived so long in your Christmas box :-)

mouse (aka kimy) said...

wonderful weaving of old newspaper stories and family history....cute kiddos!!

Anonymous said...

I remember "mood rings" but I don't remember "harem rings". Mood rings were supposed to change colors as your mood changed.
I can never resist reading old newspapers that have become packing material. As you've shown it can be fascinating.
Barbara

L. D. said...

It is those found things that were simple packing that let you see back into time. Great post.

Bob Scotney said...

In view of all your comments I shall now scour the house to see if there any any old newspapers else where. But it seems that the days have gone when they were used to line drawers. The modern newspapers are not the same as they lose too much of the print and we recycle the lot!

Marilyn & Jeff said...

I can relate to this. Papers used as lining - just grabbed quickly, nothing special - but many years later they are so interesting and tell of times gone by. A great SS post.

Bruno Laliberté said...

ok! i'm confused... you posted this jan 4th, and i'm seeing this only now? how did i miss that?
anyway...
gentle steaming, maybe with an iron, hovering over the paper might have relaxed the paper fibers, without the iron actually touching. still, fun stuff. makes me think of those old houses when people do renovations and when they open up the walls, they find the oddest things in there.

good find!!
go treasure hunting now!!
:)~
HUGZ