29 March 2018

Do you have a special keepsake you can’t bear to throw away?


I enter quite a few competitions and one I entered recently was this, run by Space-Station.co.uk:

Do you have a special keepsake you can’t bear to throw away?

Posted on Monday, January 08, 2018 by Space Station
From lockets to old postcards, keepsakes can be reminders of a loved one, a special moment in our lives or a memory we don’t want to fade.
Some items that are passed down or collected over the years might seem unusual on the face of it, but actually have a really special story behind them.
Do you have an unusual item that has been inherited from friends or family, or an item that you have had for years and cannot bear to part with?
If this sounds like you, or someone you know, we need YOU to enter our competition by sending in your best photos.
We want to know the story behind your keepsake - who gave it to you, where you got it and why your entry has a special meaning to you?
The best entry will win a £100 Not on the High Street voucher to spend on personalised items that will help you to cherish even more memories.
To enter, all you need to do is:

Upload or import a photograph of your keepsake via the panel below
Give your photo a caption, explaining the story behind it
Enter your full name, age, hometown/city and email address so that we can contact you if you’re the winner

The overall winner will be selected by the Space Station team on 19 February 2018 and notified by email.

I racked my brains to think of something I had kept and remembered my fireman's cap, not exactly a treasured memento, more a curiosity, acquired on the return journey, in an MGA sports car, from Yugoslavia in the late sixties.

I was rather surprised to see the competition had been mentioned in the Daily Mail!



The Austrian fireman's cap

Christine Monk, from Derby, treasures this memento of a trip to Austria more than 40 years ago. 

'I was given it as a souvenir, although I'm not sure if the owner knew,' she recalled. 

'I was in Trebesing after being invited to a village party to celebrate a new fire engine, and I remember an oompah band and Austrian dancing.'





So although not precious at all, perhaps I misunderstood the brief, I have kept it for over 40 years, in fact nearer 50!

The village dance to celebrate their new fire engine was a lovely experience because at the time I think tourists in Trebesing were a novelty and we were treated like celebrities.

I was also given a lovely traditional gingerbread love token, which I also kept for a long time, not the gingerbread but there was a message, a little mirror and ribbon to which it was attached.

I wrote about my trip through Austria in an earlier post:

https://sortoflife.blogspot.co.uk/p/holidays-in-1960s.html