Gordon Barlow

I wish I'd spent more time with my Mum, back in the day. I flew across the ocean and stayed with her for a week twice a year, and we were always very close friends. But still... I should have stayed longer, each visit.

Now, a generation later, I wish my son would stay longer with me, each visit. I feel the way Mum must have felt. Sigh... "Good parents" teach their kids to be independent, and to cope with whatever problems they encounter. Indeed, we take delight and pride in their independence. But still...

Anybody else?

morpeth

I was fortunate that due to changes in work, and realization my parents needed help, I moved back to where they were (both were 89, and passed away at 91) and that two years made me realize I should have spent more time with them as an adult. I would also fly to UK three times a year to check on my favourite Aunt who was in her 90s- was never able to convince her to come live with me.

Gordon Barlow

In the supermarket last week I was greeted by a stranger - I thought - who gave me his name and reminded me that we used to play cricket together, back in the day. At least thirty years ago, maybe forty. What a lovely surprise! We laughed about the time when we (our Club's Seconds team) had beaten our betters in a one-day match, and the sports-page headline in the local paper next day read "Greenies Two are Number One!" We both remembered too, that our seniors watched carefully ever afterwards, to ensure that any of our lot showing signs of decent talent was immediately taken up into the No.1 team.

He and I may never bump into each other again. But who knows?

Gordon Barlow

I put your main theme in blocks, there. And I doff my hat to you for your realization. I wasn't as understanding. I suppose six years at boarding school - aged 11 to 17 - made me both more independent and more likely to assume the parents were independent of me. My Dad died with cancer when I was 24 and living overseas; I did fly home to help Mum cope with the situation; but she insisted that I go back to London when she felt she could cope. Which I did, after two months at home. Looking back, I should have had the wit to disobey her and stay longer. She lived another 25 years. I visited once or twice a year, but it should have been more often.

morpeth

I had a similar assumption for years but finally it dawned on me the difficulties my parents had when they were in their 80s. The Aunt I referred to lived until 108, and while it was quite an expense to fly to UK three times a year to check on her, the neighbors were a great help who would keep an eye on her.

Gordon Barlow

When Linda died, her Will left her extensive stamp-collection to a local friend for the Cayman stamps, and the rest of the collection to a relative in Australia. I phoned the beneficiaries, but each one said "What a kind thought; but I don't want them". So I have them still. Like her photo albums they will probably end up with our grandchildren in Norway - or their children, not yet born! I wonder if the hobby will make an international comeback some day. Sigh... I can only hope.

morpeth

The hobby - described as "the king of hobbies and the hobby of kings"- is slowly dying in terms of number of collectors, let alone more serious philatelists. My children certainly have no interest, and unless a collection has a proper valuation, little value to most collections. Few stamp shops any more, even on Rue Drouot in Paris has less stamp shops,Much done on ebay now for buying and selling. Adhesive stamps are terrible for collectors. Basically stamps before 1940 have more value, however 1890 to 1930 was the heyday of counterfeits. A Scott or Stanley Gibbon catalogue often found in libraries can give rough idea on value.

uk_grenada

Here in Grenada, beautiful stamps depicting nature are a big business still for the postal corporation, Tourists still seem to like and buy them. They actually dont put glue on the back any more, which is best given our climate, the post office provide the glue as needed.

The new collectable seems to be bank notes. The eastern caribbean central bank keeps on.printing small batches of high value notes which people collect, and so they never enter circulation, which is very smart - reduces the money supply a bit, its literally printing money for them. In 1975 i think, the queen visited, they produced 2 coins, a 10 dollar in silver and a 500 dollar in 24ct gold. They only made 100 of the gold coins and gave them all to ministers etc but here every so often one goes on sale. I bought one 15 years ago for about 1500us, i believe they are about 3 times that now.

Finknottle

I like collecting bank notes, unfortunately my Wife doesn't and insists on distributing them all over the place!

Gordon Barlow

One year my all-boys boarding school put on the play "The Admirable Crichton". The storyline told of a small upper-class-English household group, shipwrecked on a desert island, with Crichton the butler ruling the roost because he was the only person who had a clue what to do. Lady Agatha was one of the three sisters who hoped to snare him in marriage; and I was Lady Agatha. I still harbour a deep resentment at having to do such a thing, at the age of sixteen. And I still wonder why on earth a drama teacher at an all-boys school would choose a play with female characters. God only knows! Naturally enough, we stage-females were extremely self-conscious. This was the 1950s, in the most conservative state in Australia, for goodness sake. Looking back: our director must have been a skilled persuader indeed, to keep us rehearsing for weeks without any of us drifting quietly off into the night.

It's probably too much to hope for, but is there anybody else here who suffered such an awful indignancy?

Gordon Barlow

Here's one for the "Back in the Day" file... I'm trying to persuade an old friend of mine (we went to school together 70 years ago) to write about the four years he spent travelling overseas in his early twenties. He and a Japanese friend he met "on the road" hitched from Europe to Singapore, then flew to Japan, where my friend drifted around for some months before going home to Brisbane. He has never told any of his grandchildren about that adventure. I don't know his family at all, but can't believe the grandkids wouldn't be interested. His stories might encourage them to go out on the road. I even gave him a rough idea of how he could start his reminiscences. No luck! Has anybody else had family members who kept mum about their pasts for no good reason? My parents never went overseas when young, or even travelled much in their home state of Queensland; but I wish I had asked them more about their parents (my grandparents). It seems a shame to let their information die with them.