I HAD THE EXACT WALLPAPER! Identical, and you know what? I think I had it for many years. I remember studying it careful at night-time. Clearly, my insomnia was cultivated at an early age. So, unfortunately I won’t be doing the exercise; I have nostalgia issues - it just makes me too weepy. Grief is still such a part of my daily life that nostalgia is locked in with that, and I have to shut it away if I want to keep it together. I mean, maybe not forever - just for now.
I can get very weepy about it too… but of course if you are dealing with grief it is completely understandable. I wonder also if it’s an age thing and it will pass. I hope so!
All those pictures evoke memories for me. But the Sindy vanity case is something I still have. Well, it's not a Sindy one, but a Lorraine Chase one with makeup in it, which I got for Christmas one year. I was obsessed with vanity cases and I loved Lorraine Chase cos I thought she was so pretty and glamorous with her long hair and all. The vanity case was white with a big sticker of Lorraine on it and she was wearing a pretty little hat with a veil. I wish I could share a photo but I peeled the sticker off when it became grotty. The vanity case I still have, though. I use it to put important papers in.
Your image of the blue and yellow roller skates were my inspiration for this automatic writing exercise, Anna. I found my page filled with vivid detail of my first (and only) pair of ice skates, baby blue in color and trimmed with fake fur around the ankle. Within 7 minutes of writing, I was transmitted back in time to a cold winter day, bundled in a long stocking hat that doubled as a scarf, gliding happily and carefree over the ice on my local neighborhood skating pond.
It's amazing to me how "rubbing these compressed memories" brought them to life!
Oh Cindy, I’m so pleased to hear that you found this exercise helpful and that it allowed you to time travel. How wonderful. Well done for giving it a go!
I was obsessed with Holly Hobbie for a long while - I still have a book - I used to draw my own versions. I named my daughter Hollie (curiously a combination of the two words Holly Hobbie) only just twigged the connection!
I was already loving this and then gasped when I got to the photo. Deely boppers are so nostalgic for me that I’ve thought about buying some to wear while writing (I haven’t yet because I also remember the pain of those tiny plastic teeth digging into my skull).
I’m interested in the concept of nostalgia. I explore ‘home’ a lot in my writing and sometimes I wonder if the two things are the same, or at least easily confused. We used to play a game called Ghost Castle, was that the same as Haunted House? It had an illuminated skull that seemed really impressive at the time 😂
Ah you’re right, it was ghost castle, that must have been the American one I posted. I didn’t look at the name just the picture. And that’s interesting what you say about nostalgia and home, I think you’re right though for people who didn’t have a happy home, I wonder if they would feel nostalgia
Sure and I think I specifically mean ‘place’ not ‘home’. Like where feels like home. I spent 7 years as a child in Devon and am so nostalgic for the towering hedgerows. And it is taking me many years to make Northumberland feel like home. Perhaps because there was a lot of sadness, I’m not sure. This is why I write! X
That wallpaper! That really made me smile. And that man in the shower. What was his name??? I can see him so clearly. Was he in Dallas? I love the 1980s - it was the maddest decade. And I love that line from Monique Roffey, or maybe it was your line. Rubbing memories with friction... Vaguely erotic in itself. I didn't read Roffey's book about discovering tantric sex, but heard a lot about it. Did you read it?
Bobby Ewing! Thank GOD be wasn’t dead after all!!!
The Monique Roffey book was ‘by the kisses of his mouth’ I think. I did have it but loaned it out before I got chance to read it. But I did read The Tryst by her which was very sexy. I mean, chafingly so.
Those photos, Anna. When I was writing my first book, I was immersed in the late 1980s and early 90s, and photos as well as the visceral memories I have of the markers of childhood (50p pocket money being enough for a copy of the Bunty, a 10p mix and a lolly). For this current book, my character is a teenager at the turn of the millenium, and I've been revisiting the portfolio I made as an art student to take me back to that time. It was all collages of glossy magazine spreads, sexualised images of women that character doesn't have a hope in hell of emulating and a sense of danger, too. What a change in just a decade.
Awww Lindsay, those memories of what you could get for your 50p pocket money, or 50p lunch money (a bag of chips AND a chocolate bar -- so healthy). How amazing that you still have you art portfolio. What a resource.
I too love those nostalgia posts - but I have an excuse! I'm writing about something that happened in the seventies and although I have a lot of old diaries and letters to help me, there's nothing like an image to bring back the memories. I think I have a visual memory anyway, but these images somehow remind me of how things felt at the time, not just how they looked. The picture of the three Corona bottles instantly brings back the Saturday ritual for me and my two sisters of 'going to get the pop'. We would walk back from the nearest local shop, ten minutes away, carrying three bottles of different sickly colours - lime, cherry, orange - and take back the empties the following week for a refund on the next three. It was one of our weekend jobs, and so in one sense just a mundane fact of life. But now I think about it, it says a lot about life at the time. There were no huge supermarkets where you could do a whole week's shopping at once, not many people had cars (we didn't) so you were limited to what you could carry on the bus, and it's obvious that getting the kids to carry some of the heavy stuff made sense. 'Going to get the pop' was definitely an activity of its time!
I love that Helen. See, I remember 'the pop man' because didn't they used to deliver the pop like milk? But also, I remember having loads of pop at home (limeade being my favourite, ooh I can still conjure up it's sweet sickly taste on my tongue), but I asked my mum yesterday if my stepdad worked at the Corona factory, and it turned out he did! No wonder we had so much of it! Love your memories of 'going to get the pop'. We never shopped at supermarkets, so it was always a real adventure for me when I got to go to Sainsbury's with a neighbour. So exciting... mind you, I feel the same when I got to Waitrose now! I love how this post made you remember going to get the pop. Thank you for sharing, and I hope you'll have better luck on Monday getting to the Write with Me Club?
I HAD THE EXACT WALLPAPER! Identical, and you know what? I think I had it for many years. I remember studying it careful at night-time. Clearly, my insomnia was cultivated at an early age. So, unfortunately I won’t be doing the exercise; I have nostalgia issues - it just makes me too weepy. Grief is still such a part of my daily life that nostalgia is locked in with that, and I have to shut it away if I want to keep it together. I mean, maybe not forever - just for now.
I can get very weepy about it too… but of course if you are dealing with grief it is completely understandable. I wonder also if it’s an age thing and it will pass. I hope so!
All those pictures evoke memories for me. But the Sindy vanity case is something I still have. Well, it's not a Sindy one, but a Lorraine Chase one with makeup in it, which I got for Christmas one year. I was obsessed with vanity cases and I loved Lorraine Chase cos I thought she was so pretty and glamorous with her long hair and all. The vanity case was white with a big sticker of Lorraine on it and she was wearing a pretty little hat with a veil. I wish I could share a photo but I peeled the sticker off when it became grotty. The vanity case I still have, though. I use it to put important papers in.
Oh I loved those vanity cases, why don’t they do them now? Why are they just cheap plastic rubbish?
Your image of the blue and yellow roller skates were my inspiration for this automatic writing exercise, Anna. I found my page filled with vivid detail of my first (and only) pair of ice skates, baby blue in color and trimmed with fake fur around the ankle. Within 7 minutes of writing, I was transmitted back in time to a cold winter day, bundled in a long stocking hat that doubled as a scarf, gliding happily and carefree over the ice on my local neighborhood skating pond.
It's amazing to me how "rubbing these compressed memories" brought them to life!
Oh Cindy, I’m so pleased to hear that you found this exercise helpful and that it allowed you to time travel. How wonderful. Well done for giving it a go!
I was obsessed with Holly Hobbie for a long while - I still have a book - I used to draw my own versions. I named my daughter Hollie (curiously a combination of the two words Holly Hobbie) only just twigged the connection!
How funny that you only just twigged that, Lynn!
I was already loving this and then gasped when I got to the photo. Deely boppers are so nostalgic for me that I’ve thought about buying some to wear while writing (I haven’t yet because I also remember the pain of those tiny plastic teeth digging into my skull).
Oh you’re so right about the plastic teeth digging in! I’d forgotten about that…
I’m interested in the concept of nostalgia. I explore ‘home’ a lot in my writing and sometimes I wonder if the two things are the same, or at least easily confused. We used to play a game called Ghost Castle, was that the same as Haunted House? It had an illuminated skull that seemed really impressive at the time 😂
Ah you’re right, it was ghost castle, that must have been the American one I posted. I didn’t look at the name just the picture. And that’s interesting what you say about nostalgia and home, I think you’re right though for people who didn’t have a happy home, I wonder if they would feel nostalgia
Sure and I think I specifically mean ‘place’ not ‘home’. Like where feels like home. I spent 7 years as a child in Devon and am so nostalgic for the towering hedgerows. And it is taking me many years to make Northumberland feel like home. Perhaps because there was a lot of sadness, I’m not sure. This is why I write! X
That wallpaper! That really made me smile. And that man in the shower. What was his name??? I can see him so clearly. Was he in Dallas? I love the 1980s - it was the maddest decade. And I love that line from Monique Roffey, or maybe it was your line. Rubbing memories with friction... Vaguely erotic in itself. I didn't read Roffey's book about discovering tantric sex, but heard a lot about it. Did you read it?
Bobby Ewing! Thank GOD be wasn’t dead after all!!!
The Monique Roffey book was ‘by the kisses of his mouth’ I think. I did have it but loaned it out before I got chance to read it. But I did read The Tryst by her which was very sexy. I mean, chafingly so.
Bobby Ewing!!!
Those photos, Anna. When I was writing my first book, I was immersed in the late 1980s and early 90s, and photos as well as the visceral memories I have of the markers of childhood (50p pocket money being enough for a copy of the Bunty, a 10p mix and a lolly). For this current book, my character is a teenager at the turn of the millenium, and I've been revisiting the portfolio I made as an art student to take me back to that time. It was all collages of glossy magazine spreads, sexualised images of women that character doesn't have a hope in hell of emulating and a sense of danger, too. What a change in just a decade.
Awww Lindsay, those memories of what you could get for your 50p pocket money, or 50p lunch money (a bag of chips AND a chocolate bar -- so healthy). How amazing that you still have you art portfolio. What a resource.
It really is, Anna. A treasure!
I too love those nostalgia posts - but I have an excuse! I'm writing about something that happened in the seventies and although I have a lot of old diaries and letters to help me, there's nothing like an image to bring back the memories. I think I have a visual memory anyway, but these images somehow remind me of how things felt at the time, not just how they looked. The picture of the three Corona bottles instantly brings back the Saturday ritual for me and my two sisters of 'going to get the pop'. We would walk back from the nearest local shop, ten minutes away, carrying three bottles of different sickly colours - lime, cherry, orange - and take back the empties the following week for a refund on the next three. It was one of our weekend jobs, and so in one sense just a mundane fact of life. But now I think about it, it says a lot about life at the time. There were no huge supermarkets where you could do a whole week's shopping at once, not many people had cars (we didn't) so you were limited to what you could carry on the bus, and it's obvious that getting the kids to carry some of the heavy stuff made sense. 'Going to get the pop' was definitely an activity of its time!
I love that Helen. See, I remember 'the pop man' because didn't they used to deliver the pop like milk? But also, I remember having loads of pop at home (limeade being my favourite, ooh I can still conjure up it's sweet sickly taste on my tongue), but I asked my mum yesterday if my stepdad worked at the Corona factory, and it turned out he did! No wonder we had so much of it! Love your memories of 'going to get the pop'. We never shopped at supermarkets, so it was always a real adventure for me when I got to go to Sainsbury's with a neighbour. So exciting... mind you, I feel the same when I got to Waitrose now! I love how this post made you remember going to get the pop. Thank you for sharing, and I hope you'll have better luck on Monday getting to the Write with Me Club?
Me too! Internet problems fixed, it's looking good...