<-Content yourself with this picture of Queen Victoria.
They are a fine looking bunch of men and women - typesetters, writers, office staff - all arranged around a formidable looking printing press, the women seated, the men standing. There are some spectacular moustaches. Some of them even on the men.
That printing press is, I *think*, still in the building. There was a closed off area that I never ventured into. I think that the presses were too big to remove. And anyway, what would we have done with them? Just board up around them and forget that they're there!
I am unexpectedly overwhelmed by a wave of nostalgia as I look at the earnest faces from so long ago. I had really enjoyed working there. I announce: 'I used to work there. Before you were born, of course.'
Sonshine looks over my shoulder at his printed-out homework: Which one is you then mummy?
*sigh*
And YES, I did make him redo the whole thing because he was looking at WWI and not WW2. Well, after that comment, I had to punish him with something.
Have a great weekend :-)
So what *is* that on Victoria's head ?
ReplyDeleteWell, my own theory - and this is untested by historians - is that it is a thing for covering over cakes to keep the flies off.
ReplyDeleteoh bless.......I am by my boy forbidden to speak of the past!!
ReplyDeleteI am not forbidden, yet....but if he carries on like this, I will simply refuse to tell him anything!
DeleteAli x
Hahaha. Yep I have that all the time at work ('Miss when you were at school, was it like Charles Dickens?')!
ReplyDeleteHeard about someone who was asked by a grand-child 'when you were young, did you have a tail?' which has GOT to be the BEST!
DeleteAli x
Oh, I think that's a sweet story. Sonshine is obviously trying to connect to you at a deeper level.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should tell him that the guy with the biggest moustache is Tartarus' Dad, who suffered a terrible accident with the hot lead and ran away to sea to hide his disfigurement...That's why Tartarus is also a sea officer, and nothing at all to do with Consuela and Jesus.
The concerns about Consuela and Jesus have disappeared for the time being! That's certainly a more interesting tale than the truth - that his grandpa was Clerk of Works at the Council!
DeleteAli x
One of my dreadful children asked me if there were cars when I was young... No, I said, and the wheel had only just been invented. Cheeky sods.
ReplyDeleteThe did-you-have-a-tail? story is genius!
My eldest can just about remember when I worked but the younger two don't (gave up when third was born). It's as though I have only ever existed to do their bidding, at home, always, compliant and constant. (I'm not really those last two!) xxxx
Pastcaring - it's ok, your secret is safe with me. Sonshine thinks I'm compliant and constant. He has NO idea what I do when he's out at school. NO IDEA. Thank goodness :-)
DeleteIt is quite hard to have a sense of time prior to one's existence - all time is just lumped into the BM period (Before Me) for the young because a decade is a lifetime for them, so a century is just incomprehensible. I am always astonished by just how long ago the dinosaurs were around - hard to believe when you can see their skeletons in a museum as if they'd only died recently.
ReplyDeleteOn a less serious note - "tail"! ROFLMAO
Trust you to go to the defence of the munchkin! I know, in the darkest cleft of myself, that you are right, but REALLY, I was laughing but REALLY mortified. Inside my head, I'm still about 21, see?
DeleteAli x
ha ha I remember learning about the Victorian Era & sincerely asking my poor mother if she wore buckle boots as a child. A swipe to the back of the head soon put me right!
ReplyDeleteI may have done something similar. I have a vague thought of my mother in Victorian times that fits quite well and I am loathe to give up!
DeleteAli x
My grandmother and I were very close and often spent hours talking about her younger days. We were looking at pictures of her and my father taken during war and she turned to me and asked if I remembered the little terrier dog. She had a look of confusion, then said “of course not, you weren’t there till later”. I don’t know if is too flattering to be thought of as a contemporary of a 90 year old, and born before my father. I think I need new makeup.
ReplyDeleteShe was 90 at the time of the conversation?! Well, you can get a bit confused at 90 :-) I found two birthday cards in beside the breakfast cereal this morning. I'm not 90 *panicked face*
ReplyDeleteAli x
Our wee angel asked his grannie if she could remember the dinosaurs. She was not amused. It goes both ways in our house. Alex asked me on my last birthday if I was as old as he was, to which my darling wife said "apparently not".
ReplyDeleteoh they can be crushing in their innocent assumptions, can't they? But you're not 10 years old yet, are you Wally?
ReplyDeleteOh. That is very funny. I don't have anything more to say.
ReplyDelete:-D
Delete