Sic transit
Nov. 13th, 2012 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofastolatWhen I was 10 and 11, I was mad keen on the English Civil War, even to the extent of having a Civil War themed birthday party for my 11th birthday ("Pin the ear on the cavalier," "Sleeping Roundheads" etc.) When I was at the height of this obsession, the Sealed Knot spent a few days at our local castle. I had a season ticket for the castle, and went every day to avidly watch them. (I wonder if any visitor attraction nowadays would admit an unaccompanied 11 year old who'd walked there by themselves.) I bought several souvenirs from the Sealed Knot womenfolk (who, it seemed to me, got lumbered with all the boring jobs, not being allowed to fire muskets and wave swords around.)
One of these souvenirs was an English civil war tea towel, which I stuck to my wall with blu-tac and displayed as a picture for a good long while. When Pellinor and I got married in 1994 and moved to the island, it went into service as an actual tea towel, rather than as a wall decoration. It is still doing this job. However, I have to accept that its days have finally come to and end. It is so faded that the cavalier and roundhead upon it look like dim and distant ghosts in a mist, and it is all tattered and holey and torn.
This makes me strangely sad. I am not a hoarder, and I don't have problems throwing things away, but this could well be the oldest possession that I still regularly use. Yes, I have older things that were bought or inherited, but this is something that I chose all by myself and have used continuously for over 30 years. I once wore a very comfortable nightie into rags, refusing to get rid of it, and I had a pair of grey school uniform socks that I still wore well into my thirties, despite them becoming more hole than sock, but both are long gone now, and this tea towel was older still.
One of these souvenirs was an English civil war tea towel, which I stuck to my wall with blu-tac and displayed as a picture for a good long while. When Pellinor and I got married in 1994 and moved to the island, it went into service as an actual tea towel, rather than as a wall decoration. It is still doing this job. However, I have to accept that its days have finally come to and end. It is so faded that the cavalier and roundhead upon it look like dim and distant ghosts in a mist, and it is all tattered and holey and torn.
This makes me strangely sad. I am not a hoarder, and I don't have problems throwing things away, but this could well be the oldest possession that I still regularly use. Yes, I have older things that were bought or inherited, but this is something that I chose all by myself and have used continuously for over 30 years. I once wore a very comfortable nightie into rags, refusing to get rid of it, and I had a pair of grey school uniform socks that I still wore well into my thirties, despite them becoming more hole than sock, but both are long gone now, and this tea towel was older still.
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no subject
Date: 2012-11-14 09:15 am (UTC)