Monday Memories - The Typewriter

Over the weekend my son shared a post on Facebook that he has given me permission to post here.

He wrote "Found a Remington Travel-Riter Deluxe on eBay ..... just like my grandfather's old one. The kids are as obsessed as I used to be ......"

And he shared a picture of  two of the grandkids playing on the typewriter.

My son also sent me a couple more photos of the typewriter. One of the cover and one of it sitting on Uncle Jack's desk that is at my son's home.

My  Dad loved typing and, as a cranky old man, he spent hours sending letters of complaint to government departments, the police, the press and anyone else he could think of. I had forgotten how my kids loved playing with Dad's precious toy.

What my son doesn't know is that playing with typewriters is in the genes. 

When I was a a child we used to visit my grandmother's home each Sunday and I loved to play on the typewriter there that my Aunty Kath rented when she was learning to type.

Unbreakable

As you may have previously read Mr GeniAus and I are in the process of decrapifying our home. After nearly 45 years of marriage and with few moves we have acculumated a lot of stuff. 

As I was packing our green and white kitchen dinnerware into a box today my mind wandered back to its aquisition. Quite a number of years ago my Aunty Kath, my mother and mother-in-law were  decrapifying so they passed on their collection of Grindley Hotelware to us. As this stuff is virtually indestructible we still have 36 dinner plates (3 sizes), coupes, bread and butter plates and cups and saucers in the set. I never use my other everyday plates, my fun chicken dinnersets or my four posh sets. 

Family members all had sets of this crockery because my Uncle Jack imported and sold the  Grindley Hotelware through his hotel supplies firm so they got it at a good price.

As I was packing the stuff into boxes this morning I pondered on the thirty odd years of good service the plates have given us and the many family celebrations that they have witnessed, I guess they could tell some tales. In a way I am sorry to see those plates go because of the memories they dredge up and I know that their pristine white replacements will not survive as well in my kitchen and dishwasher. 

I am pleased to report that the plates are moving on to another family home where I know they will give many more years of faithful service.

Return to Adelaide

Over the years I have visited Adelaide a number of times. As I prepare for our excursion to Adelaide next week for "The 13th Australasian Congress on Genealogy & Heraldry Adelaide 2012" I took a peek in my Picasa collection to see what images I could find.


In 1952 I travelled with my mother to visit her sister, Kathleen, who was living in Adelaide at the time with my Uncle Jack. We travelled by train and returned by 'plane. Some of my first memories are from this trip. I remember having to change trains in the middle of the night in Albury as the gauge of the railway track changed as we crossed the state border. I remember that Aunty Kath and Uncle Jack had a set of external stairs leading to the flat. I remember the big scales (to weigh baggage or passengers) at the airport, having orange juice on the 'plane and being greeted at Sydney's Mascot Airport on our arrival home by  two other aunties.


I do not recall the outing recorded in the attached photo or the little boy, Robert McCubbin, who must be all grown up by now.