Stardust Memories

John the life model sits still for 3/4 of an hour examining the pipes with his engineering eye.

John got a his uncles medal form the war office last week.

When John was 14 he travelled by coach to the Dutch boarder where he stayed with the head of the Dutch resistance.

Eating cold ham, homegrown broad beans and new potatoes in the garden. John’s host remarked that his uncle had been buried in the garden.

Before John left the hosts wife asked John’s parents to sign the tablecloth. Later she embroidered the names into the cloth. This she did for everyone who had come to stay and visit the graves.

The studio is cold and bright today. I feel fuzzy in the head. The skip has gone and I still seem to be surrounded by a deep litter of clothes and embroidery thread, Haiti auction letters, brown tape, hot chocolate mugs, books that half interest me, and the mouses bed.

coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrolls
cresssandwidgespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater

Sooty bird has a girlfriend and I realise that his last two mates were boyfriends. Snowybird sits still on the top rung of the ladder and fades into the whitewashed wall. Sootybird has been plumping up the cushions in his nest.

The Pig (cat) has gone quiet, fat and depressed.

The lavatory has blocked again. Every time I come back, the water is rising and the tank is dripping.

An old student told me he was on the toilet when the bomb dropped and smashed the school windows out. I blame him for the blockage.

• 
• 

A shame to publish such private and personal letter contents without permission of the writer/recipient.

– Adam, Hong Kong, 9/12/2009 1:08

Click to rate Rating 79

Maybe it was the SAS dude with all the medals?

– Thud McGuffin, Newtownards, Northern Ireland, 9/12/2009 0:38

Click to rate Rating 34

The photos are from the 1960s, not the 40s.

– Athena, Greece, 8/12/2009 18:51

Click to rate Rating 52

I empathise with the situation …

In 1954 she was 15, I was 18, and we fell in love. Unfortunately her father disapproved of me. I didn’t join the Foreign Legion but the RAF fitted the bill all the same.

In Oct 1956 I got posted to Cyprus and she continued writing. But then in June 1956 all letters stopped. I Returned to the UK in April ’59 but by then she and her family had both disappeared from the radar – never found any trace.

By a series of coincidences – plus some help from the internet – we were reunited in November 2002. She’s now 71, I’m 74 and living happily ever after.

Any good love srtory either starts happily and then ends sadly – or vice versa …

So all in all this story got to me and I hope there’s an ending appropriate to the circumstances which brought it about in the first place …

miromike london england

– Miromike, London England, 8/12/2009 18:23

Click to rate Rating 179

Those were far better days, people had so much more style and finesse.

– Barry, Shevington, 8/12/2009 17:13

Click to rate Rating 129

Geez, you guys really need to clean out your buses more often, at least after every major war.

– Mike Bonner, Ottawa, Canada, 8/12/2009 16:41

Click to rate Rating 71

How sad that the contents of these , clearly personal letters have been used in the newspaper like this !
whilst I appreciate it would be nice to return them to their rightful owner, the private nature of the letters should have been kept that!! PRIVATE !

– justjospain, spain, 8/12/2009 16:34

Click to rate Rating 97

“In the poem the author speaks of his longing for Anna by asking: ‘Simply to gratify my Anna’s curious pleasure is / It really honest to loot poor grave’s golden treasuries?”

Nice try. That’d be PALGRAVE’S Golden Treasuries, after Francis Turner Palgrave, anthologist of English lyrical poetry. He put the first Golden Treasury together in the 1860s. They still print them, as I recall.

Handwriting’s tricky, you know. Just ask Gordon Brown.

– P. Algrave, Oxford, 8/12/2009 15:00

Click to rate Rating 69

What lovely souvenirs from a lost age! I do hope they are reunited with their owner or her heirs. If nothing else, the story would make the basis for a marvelous screenplay.

– A J, Ex-pat, Missouri, USA, 8/12/2009 14:31

Click to rate Rating 94

Interesting story – it sounds to me like maybe the woman in the photos died and someone was moving some of her belongings on the bus and this bag fell out of the box. You probably wouldn’t miss things like letters and a birth certificate if they weren’t yours.

– Anon, Earth, 8/12/2009 13:52

Click to rate Rating 103

A real romantic puzzle eh?

Carlotti in Spain lay off the Sangria because you sound rather detached from reality. Pray tell, where is the filth that you see in this story?

– Doreen, London, 09/12/2009 09:23

Click to rate Rating 3

How wonderful to have know such love and affection.

Letter writing was so important then and people used their imagination to write beautiful words. Nowadays it’s all emails and texts- so impersonal.

I hope the letters and photo’s are reunited with the owner and/or family.

Wonder if they should try the Australian press?

– jojo, Swansea, 09/12/2009 08:47

Click to rate Rating 12

Carlotti, Spain – you sound like a very bitter person. Where is the so-called “filth” in this? What is the matter with you?

– Liz, Brussels, Belgium, 09/12/2009 07:59

Click to rate Rating 22

The young lovers are standing in front of the Spanish steps in Rome………………………………..which is not in Portugal.

You guys need to get out more often!

– Mark, Beverley, East Yorkshire, 09/12/2009 07:52

Click to rate Rating 92

With this kind of explicit filth articulated a generation or two ago, is it really any surprise that we now have a feral society the members of which stop at nothing for self gratification. Such stuff was a time bomb which has now gone off.

– Carlotti, Spain, 09/12/2009 07:37

Click to rate Rating 93

Why has it taken them a year to try and get help?

– Adam, Dorset