Grade 7: 1978, Van Bellingham Elementary School, Winnipeg, MB. Teacher – Mr. D. Corbett. Grade 7 found us back in the same space as Grade 4, so more open area. I was still in the “B” class, and still very much distracted by the changes at home. I do have class pictures from Grade 7,... Continue Reading →
Book of Treasures: Grade 6
Grade 6: 1977, Van Bellingham Elementary School, Winnipeg, MB. Teacher – Mr. John Chaput. For Grade 6, it was back to the open area classrooms. Mr. H and Mr. Chaput moved up with our class, but I was moved down a bit into the more remedial stream, so Mr. Chaput became my homeroom teacher. I... Continue Reading →
Book of Treasures: Grade 4
Grade 4: 1975, Van Bellingham Elementary School, Winnipeg, MB Teacher – Mrs. Delaquis Both Mrs. Delaquis and I graduated to Grade 4, and with many of the same kids in my class again. The “room” was open-area again, right next door to the previous year’s room. With the same school, teacher, room and classmates, I was... Continue Reading →
Book of Treasures: Grade 2
Grade 2: 1973, Princess Margaret Elementary School, Winnipeg, MB. Teacher: Mrs. Soderstrom. I was added to Grade 2 quite shortly after starting Grade 1. Suddenly, I was with kids who were a year older than me and had been a cohort for a few years already. Even though we’d all been at the same school,... Continue Reading →
Item #16: Book of Treasures
Another digression from the rule about books, this book is more of a compendium of objects than an actual book. Kept within the suitcase of objects, the Book of Treasures is a scrapbook of sorts, an organized way of capturing things from school years. My mom started this for me in kindergarten, and I picked... Continue Reading →
Item #15: Book of Things
While my “rules” for this list of objects proscribes books, I find I will have to make some exceptions, for this book and a few others, because they align with the spirit of the project: things with no value beyond my attachment, objects that require an explanation as to “why keep this”. So I hereby... Continue Reading →
Item #14: Suitcase
This is an object of objects, both symbolic and practical. Like a tickle trunk or Mary Poppins' travel bag, this old suitcase is a box of dreams and memories, represented by things old and older. Although apocryphal, my memory tells me that this suitcase once belonged to my great-grandmother - my mom's dad's mom, known... Continue Reading →
Item #13: Cow-er Pot
A childish object from my adulthood, this little item is reminiscent of my family’s tendency to wordplay, extensive and repetitious wordplay. At some point, a series began relating to cows. You know the ones: the udderly ridiculous, the moo-re the merrier, the gulli-bull (stolen from Bugs Bunny, that one). I don’t remember how it started,... Continue Reading →
Item #10 – Address List
At first I wasn't sure whether to include this as an object, but since it is a thing, valued as much for its substance as its content, I think it counts. Titled "Robyn's Residences", it was written in or around 1990, when I first moved from Winnipeg to Vancouver. I don't recall the exact circumstance,... Continue Reading →
Pattern recognition
It happened while searching for something under the bathroom sink. I keep a box there with the various odds and ends that one needs or might need - hair dryer (always on top for daily use), cotton balls, various hair products. When something went astray, I was forced to pull the box out and root... Continue Reading →
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