I spend far too much time reading the back of the postcards I’m preparing for sale. Yesterday I came across one which was a bit of a shock to say the least. It was of a girls boarding school at the beginning of the 20th century. All of the girls were arranged on the steps in front of the school in their best dresses. Very pretty and charming. We were putting it up for sale for the second time. I was preparing it when I looked at the back to see if it was interesting enough to scan. At first I thought that there was a drawing of a cannon on the back – a bit odd considering the subject of the card. It wasn’t a cannon and the landscape sketched behind wasn’t a landscape. Then I deciphered the text. The writer of the card was indicating where under age girls could be found. The card had been sent in an envelope and was in good condition so I suppose had been hidden away until the death of the owner when it was sold on. I felt quite upset by it.
When the children were small a two year old boy was kidnapped and assaulted and murdered by two older boys, you probably remember that. My mum wrote to me at the time and told me that when I was small I disappeared for a while and everyone in the village was looking for me. There were lots of tears when they found me. This upset me a lot because I couldn’t remember anything about it at all. Over the years I’ve let it go, but events like finding that postcard, sometimes bring it back...
4 comments:
Oh my, that postcard sounds distressing all by itself without the remembrances it brought up.
When you disappeared had you just walked off and gotten distracted?
Doris: I don't know anything which is what upset me when she wrote. My mum is good at deciding what's important and what's not. I have a dreadful feeling if i asked her about it she'd just say she doesn't remember.
I was lost briefly at a market in Chorley, when I was Very Young. I remember looking up and realising that it was not my mother there. Someone held me in the air and called out, asking who'd lost me. It was only a short separation, but I remember the shock still; and knowing what I have felt like when I've lost sight of Katie in the past, I can imagine what my mother must have been thinking -although things were safer then. Allegedly.
Horrid card. Did you post up a caveat for it?
Dru: We lost Dom in a DIY store once, we still tease her about it when we drive by, but it was horrible at the time. I confess I had to look up the word 'caveat' We certainly did.
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