I am really enjoying working with elders group. Today we were reminiscing about the places people lived when they were 10 yrs old. This question caused much wracking of brains and protestations of “that was 76 years ago! … I can’t remember that”. But with a little bit of inspiration and perspiration the memories started to come back.

 

 

 

There were some great stories – particularly when they were asked to recall a smell from that time. ‘Soup cooking on the stove’ ‘fruit dumplings boiling’ ‘the fishmongers next door to our house and the fishy wooden crates outside’ ‘ we lived in a pend with carthorses stabled in it, people collected the dung’. ‘I hated the smell of the old underground – dank and frightening, I never used it’ . Joan couldn’t quite seem to tell me what the smell was – it smells a bit better now apparently, although she still doesn’t use it.

 

 

 

Winifred told me a lovely memory of watching the gaslighter lighting the street lamps and gradually zigzagging the light up the hill. She said she used to dampen her eyelashes with her spit and squint so that the dampness made little halos around the line of lamps.. This is just the spirit I hoped to catch in the Masalamix.. the games that don’t require expensive toys.

 

 

 

These pictures show the  postcards they made to send back to their childhood self.

 

 

 

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