Everyone should have a treasure box.
What you keep in it will of course be different and depend on your age, your interests and just how much of a hoarder you are.
Mine contained an incomplete collection of picture cards featuring British butterflies, courtesy of Horniman Tea, a broken rocket which once used a reel of caps to make a noise, four mouldy conkers and a used ticket to Madam Tussauds wax works dated August 4 1962, along with a souvenir programme for the Boys and Girls Exhibition at Olympia from the year before.
Hardly a pile of treasures to set the hearts of Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon racing with the prospect of a find to rival that of the tomb of Tutankhamen, but they were my treasures and remained with me until mother gave them a way to the rag and bone man soon after I left home for Manchester.
So given my loss I am always curious to see what others keep in theirs and while for some it is a secret Peter was keen to tell me about one of his special things.
It is a pack of 40 blank postcards, passed down from his mother, which cost one shilling, and in that pre internet and pre mobile age were pretty much the quickest and cheapest way of communicating with family, friends and the green grocer.
For the price of a stamp you could reveal the latest gossip, order up a basket of food, or just tell your mum you were staying out for tea.
That said they were postcards and so could be read by anyone, which rather curtailed the degree to which you could pass on the news of Aunty Edna’s new beau or dad’s choice for the 2.20 at York Races.
I suppose they are still sold today but you might be hard pressed to find a shop where you can buy a packet.
All of which leads me to reflect on the demise of that other cheap and cheerful form of communication, which was the picture postcard, which was really a posher version of Peter’s pack.
They were sent every year in their millions from holiday destinations and from just around the corner, benefiting from the frequent postal collections and deliveries, which really did mean that you could post a card in the morning arranging to meet a friend in the afternoon confident that the card would arrive in time.
Sadly picture postcards are not so popular although Peter has set about reversing the trend with his own, but that is a story for another time.
Location; Peter’s treasure box
Pictures; the blank Postcard, from the collection of Peter Topping
Mine contained an incomplete collection of picture cards featuring British butterflies, courtesy of Horniman Tea, a broken rocket which once used a reel of caps to make a noise, four mouldy conkers and a used ticket to Madam Tussauds wax works dated August 4 1962, along with a souvenir programme for the Boys and Girls Exhibition at Olympia from the year before.
Hardly a pile of treasures to set the hearts of Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon racing with the prospect of a find to rival that of the tomb of Tutankhamen, but they were my treasures and remained with me until mother gave them a way to the rag and bone man soon after I left home for Manchester.
So given my loss I am always curious to see what others keep in theirs and while for some it is a secret Peter was keen to tell me about one of his special things.
It is a pack of 40 blank postcards, passed down from his mother, which cost one shilling, and in that pre internet and pre mobile age were pretty much the quickest and cheapest way of communicating with family, friends and the green grocer.
For the price of a stamp you could reveal the latest gossip, order up a basket of food, or just tell your mum you were staying out for tea.
I suppose they are still sold today but you might be hard pressed to find a shop where you can buy a packet.
All of which leads me to reflect on the demise of that other cheap and cheerful form of communication, which was the picture postcard, which was really a posher version of Peter’s pack.
They were sent every year in their millions from holiday destinations and from just around the corner, benefiting from the frequent postal collections and deliveries, which really did mean that you could post a card in the morning arranging to meet a friend in the afternoon confident that the card would arrive in time.
Sadly picture postcards are not so popular although Peter has set about reversing the trend with his own, but that is a story for another time.
Location; Peter’s treasure box
Pictures; the blank Postcard, from the collection of Peter Topping
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