Saturday 6 February 2021

Lost and found

I'm sure it happens to everyone at some time.  Something is not where it should be.  Because I've always been a little forgetful I have developed the habit of always putting things away in what I decree as their rightful place.  Well, obviously not always.  

I remember many years ago accusing my teenage daughter of taking my newly purchased black pantyhose.  I knew where they should be and they weren't there, so in my mind, someone must have moved them.  In this case I don't have anyone else to blame.  Although, I must confess I checked the deep freeze which is where the pantyhose were finally found - under the tub of ice-cream.  No ice-cream this time round and no missing album either.

When my third child was born I started a little album with the details of when each of my children reached their milestones - when they got their first tooth, first words at what age, when they crawled, walked, etc.  I had one for each of them but this one had all the info in the one place and it's been the one I've referred to most over the years.

Now that third child has reached fatherhood (a slow developer in that respect) and he's interested in how his child compares to himself as a baby - and I can't find The Book.  I know I've looked at it since I moved in July, so it's in the house somewhere.  (I also have some stuff in boxes in the shed.)

It's obviously getting at me because last night I had a dream of where to find it and bounded out of bed joyously this morning only to have my dreams dashed.

I'm so cross with myself but it's not helping at all.

I pray it is just misplaced, not lost.

To cheer myself I sat down and looked through my wedding notebook that I've kept for nearly 55 years.

I thought absolutely everything to do with my wedding was written in there.  I see the material for my going away outfit cost $12, my hat a further $5.50, shoes 70 cents (yes, really!)  The material for my Kitchen Tea outfit cost $8.12, another pair of shoes for 70 cents, and new gloves cost $1.25.  Isn't it odd that gloves cost so much more than shoes?   I made both outfits myself but had a dressmaker make my wedding dress.  I haven't recorded the details, I'd guess because the material was bought on layby a fair while in advance and the dressmaker was a friend of a friend's parents and made a gift of her services.

I've also recorded a list of expenses for the groom.  Church fees which I remember were not a set price but a donation to the church and was to be put in a plain envelope and handed to the priest without attracting attention, marriage licence ( £1/1/-) organist and church singer ( £1/1/- each), I was married in June and Australia introduced decimal currency during the previous February and some costs were still quoted in pounds sterling.  On the list was gifts for attendants, flowers for groomsmen and fathers, bouquets for bridesmaids and mothers.  However, my groom escaped the flowers costs as a cousin of my mother's gifted me the flowers and my bridesmaids and I made up the bouquets and corsages ourselves the night before the wedding.  I remember how we handled them so carefully on the Big Day, knowing they could easily fall apart.

There were a few blank pages at the back of the notebook where I wrote my first few weeks' housekeeping expenses as a married woman.  In the first week I spent $25.32 of my $27.95 pay packet and that included $4.25 for a gift and wrapping paper.  I wonder who received the gift?  I wonder what the equivalent of the saved $2.63 would be in today's money.  And yes, I banked it, the book says so.

What the missing book says remains a secret!

18 comments:

  1. I too found my mobile phone in the freezer.
    You are very organised, I have notes on stuff scattered all over the place, I took a month old shopping list out on Wednesday, it seemed to work fine and would have been perfect had I needed kitchen roll last month.

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  2. At least my pantyhose suffered no ill effects from a good freezing. I suspect your phone might not have got off so lightly. I now keep all my notes in the same place, my special scribbler book. Unfortunately, sometimes I can't make out what the note means when I see it some time later. Keeps life interesting!

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  3. I have to say that your second paragraph gave me a good old belly-laugh. Like you I have a place for everything and for the same reason. Last week I tore the house apart looking for something. Days it took. Then I remembered that I'd moved its "proper place".......a few weeks previously. It's a good job I've almost no hair left to tear out. Good luck with your hunting.

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    1. Ahh, so perhaps I changed its "proper place"? But why did I leave the other albums in the previous "proper place"? I keep thinking that I left it out, didn't put it away, knowing I'd be referring to it frequently with a new baby in the family.

      The search continues!

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  4. Hello Pauline,

    Well, in other times one might have arranged a treasure hunt for your lost album. It could have worked rather like an Easter Egg hunt but seasonless.

    Just invite round a number of small children, tell them they can go wherever they want, make as much noise as they like and that there will be a chocolate prize for the finder of the album. Your house may never be the same again, but there is surely a good chance of the album turning up and, perhaps a whole number of other things that you did not even know were missing.

    Good luck with it all. Look upon it as a home version of an archaeological dig.

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    1. Hi, Thanks for your comment. I think I've done a fair impression of an archaeological dig already. Luckily, I moved house in July so nothing is buried too deep.

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  5. Don't we all have "proper" places to put stuff? The thing is though, that proper place changes in our mind about five minutes after we have declared it to be the proper place. A few years ago we found the ring from a homing pigeon in the nest of a pair of Peregrine Falcons we were monitoring. I have it somewhere and we are trying to establish the age of the pigeon for other reasons entirely and the band would tell us that. However, it is stored away in its "proper" place so that I could find it in an instant. Now if only I could figure out where that proper place is!

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    1. You'd think that our brains would be constant, wouldn't you? That what it tells us is the right place today will be the same tomorrow...and the next day. Or would that make life too boring?

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  6. The older I get the more I ‘lose’, or rather missy, some of it never to be found. It’s so annoying. Like you, the loss haunts my sleep and I am sure I have the solution but when I look for where I thought it was/is, I am usually wrong. Drat!!

    I didn’t keep a list of prices for items in the distant past, it would be interesting to compare then and now.

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  7. I thought the difference in prices between 1966 and now quite interesting. I didn't expect it to be quite so marked. I doubt there are so many rules these days about how things should be done. And I find it hard to believe that I paid more for gloves than for shoes.

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  8. Sweetie is notorious for losing everything he owns, over and over. He has finally trained himself to usually put certain things in certain spots. It has taken a long time to get him to that point.

    Hope the book shows itself soon!

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    1. Sweetie sounds like my younger son. When he first went overseas he was very proud of himself that when he returned 2 years later he still had 2 items of clothing that he left with. He must have left a trail of clothing across Europe.

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  9. Oh, I hope you find the book soon. It is so frustrating searching and searching and not finding what you want. Mxx

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    1. I've resorted to looking behind the couches, under beds, etc but still no sign, Margaret.

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  10. Losing something important is such a nag for me. I hope you find it soon.

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    1. I hope so, too, Tabor. I'm starting to lose my sense of humour about it all.

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  11. You were meticulous in writing things down, something I wish I had done, but at the time I didn't even think of it. I think my costs etc would have been similar as gloves were part of dressing for special occasions. I hope you find The Book, just don't think about it for a few days and I am sure your brain will work it out. Good luck!

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  12. Wow! This is so interesting, Pauline! A terrific record, reminder of the way it was....

    I do hope you find your missing book...not only to read what is in it...but to settle down your mind. If you're anything like me, it will be playing on your mind, not allowing you any peace until you do find the book.

    Take good care...and thanks for sharing this with us. :)

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