We’re moving house sometime in the next few weeks, or months, so I’ve been sorting out all the stuff we’ve (okay, I’ve) collected over the last 32 years, and before that if I’m honest. There’s rather a lot.
The last few days I’ve been sorting out some old picture frames, keeping some, sending some to a charity shop and dismantling old, damaged and unwanted ones.
When I mounted pictures I used to pad the frames with old newspapers and behind one I found a pre-decimalisation Leicester Mercury, dated 26 January 1970. Fascinating reading, especially the letters page; correspondence from people who were then in the age group that I am now in, wanting the reintroduction of National Service (conscription into the armed forces) to sort out the undisciplined young hooligans of the time.
Nothing changes does it; many in our older generations decrying the actions and attitudes of the youth of today. Perhaps conveniently forgetting that we, the older ones, are the people responsible for whatever dire situation society is presently suffering through, and so leaving to the next generation to sort out or wrestle with. While, as with every generation before, we censure them for being feckless, lazy and entitled. “It wasn’t like this in my day!” No, perhaps it wasn’t, things change, but, for some inter-generational attitudes, probably not so much.
Anyway, returning to picture frames; dismantling another, I discovered the next packing material was a first edition of the Nottingham News, dated 4 February 1979. An interesting read again; there was an article about the splendid actor Don Warrington, appearing at the Nottingham Playhouse as Mark Anthony in Julius Caesar. Sue and I saw that production and thought it was excellent, although I slightly disbelieve that it was really 40 years ago.
There were many other framed pictures and photographs that hadn’t seen the light of day for a long time. I came across a ‘Shirts’ linocut that I made at art college about 1971 and a framed photograph of A A Milne, his son Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh, where I’d written on the back ‘To Pooh and Jurgend, 11th May 1991, Roy Manterfield.’
Something we’re definitely keeping is one of the most special of our wedding presents from 1982; matching reliefs of Sue and I, made by Michael Wright, one of my oldest, dearest and most talented friends.
There were also two framed collections of public transport tickets from the early to mid 1970s. I did use a lot of buses, trams and trains in quite a few places; I loved travelling around, visiting places that I’d not been to before. There are tickets from all sorts of cities and destinations in Scotland, Wales and England, and many from France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Anyway, that’s enough rambling on about picture frames.
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