Thursday 14 November 2019

My Mum's Old Books and a New Header Photo

I don't possess many things that belonged to my Mum, but somehow these books have survived the last 80+ years including all our house moves.
Toytown Frolics must be the one she would have had the longest as it has thick pages, big print and lots of little short stories. Mum was born in 1926, so this must date from around 1930. The Girls Budget is longer stories, many set in boarding schools, all jolly hockey sticks! I guess mum might have had that around age 11.


Bookano Stories is an early pop-up book, dating from around the same time I think.

These books would have been Christmas presents from one of my Mum's Aunts. Probably one of just a few presents they would receive. My Mum grew up as second oldest of 6 and her Dad was often ill so there wasn't a lot of money around. Mum's holiday each summer was a few days at a relatives farm just a few miles from home.

She always huffed and puffed if I bought books with birthday or Christmas money - to her books were just a waste of money. I'm very different to my Mum!

Nowadays almost all the books I buy are secondhand but I have a fancy to treat myself to a couple of new books from my wish list for Christmas, there are a few that the library don't have in stock.....but I'd better sort out some to pass onto a charity shop first.

The new header photo is where my lane joins the road (Quite funny that this road is called High Road!) and was taken yesterday.... early afternoon........ while the sun was shining and all the trees glowed gold and yellow.

I popped to Ipswich yesterday morning, the town was quiet and even more empty shops than there were when I last went. . Soon there will be nowhere to buy clothes except on line!
There was a time when pre-Christmas pop-up shops would fill any empty premises but not now.


Back Tomorrow
Sue



26 comments:

  1. H, memories. I have got my mums Girls Budget same era.😊

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  2. I have none of my Mum's childhood books. She was child 6 out of 7 and I don't think owning books was a priority for her family, who were relatively poor (she was born in 1924) But my Dad's parents set aside precious pennies to help their three sons obtain good books. And I still have some of Dad's Sunday School Prizes

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    1. I still have my Dads Sunday school prizes.From St Marys Priory Church in Tutbury dated 1938.Some things are just to special to ever part with,xx

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  3. I so wish I had kept my mother's old books (she was born in 1925)
    She had all the Wizard of Oz books (it was a series not just one
    book) as well as a lot of very 1920s picture books. I remember
    two called The Little Kitten who Would Not Wash His Face and
    The Little Puppy Who Would Not Wag His Tail (morality tales LOL!).
    Unfortunately she died when I was only just out of my teens and then
    I eventually emigrated to the other side of the world. You never
    know what you would value many years later!

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  4. Amazing and also delightful that your mum’s childhood books survived her childhood and yours. Maybe one day your grandchildren might cherish them too. I have books from both parents plus a rather nice blue china chamber pot from my mother after she died last year which has always been around for as long as I remember.

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  5. What a wonderful thing to have. The pop up book is beautiful.
    Hugs-x-

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  6. I miss the Polly header. Everyday I looked at her again and again and some days I even thought she moved. Please bring her back and do not be influenced by Autumn pathway pictures.

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    1. It's so easy to change headers so I just keep changing!

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  7. I am 81 now and have several books from my Nan "A Bundle of Mischief " and l had a auntie who gave me a book for Christmas. I love books.
    I live your new heading Sue.
    Hazel c uk

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  8. I have a few Sunday School prize books which belonged to my paternal grandparents. My Grandad's was from Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire on their journey 'up north' and my Grandma's was from Eccleshill in Bradford. Another book I have belonged to my Great-Grandad and I was told that the story was serialised in a paper and he had it bound into a beautiful book. I don't think my Mum had any books as money was rather tight then, (she was born in 1922), but I do have a couple of her school reports and a certificate she received from, I think, the National Lifeboat Service. All treasures!

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  9. I have some of my Mum's old books. They're Christmas gift books, I imagine; large, illustrated versions of Alice, The Water Babies and some of those old Odham's Golden Treasury books, which I used to pore over when young. The pictures are printed on my memory.
    I have my very own Bookano book! Given to me when I was very young by a great aunt. Probably the first pop-up book I ever saw and it fascinated me.

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  10. I have some of my dad's book from his childhood. Not sure what to do with books like 'The Hardy Brockdale Boys' but I'll probably write a blog post about them eventually.

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  11. Those books are in remarkably good condition. Your mom really took care of her books. I love the pop-up one! -Jenn

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  12. My mother was born in 1918. I don't have any of her books but I think one of my daughters does. In the header are we looking at the road with your lane on the left or are we looking at the lane?

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    1. My lane is on the left, it's not hard tarmaced surface. The road is turning left out of the lane.

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  13. My mum was born in 1926 too and I have a few of her old books - she still as some of them which will pass on one day. I also have the book given as a prize to her father (my grandad). They all have such a history I could never part with them.
    It is a beautiful leafy lane you live on.

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  14. Lovely new header. Lovely old books. My mum was the same - books from the library and if you did buy one with a present of a book token then make it a non-fiction book that you could learn from not a frivolous book you could borrow and return. How times have changed - well for you and me at any rate.

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  15. Those old books, would be loved, by some collectors, I'll bet. -smile- If you didn't want to keep them, that is.

    What a beautiful Header! What a beautiful area, you live in!

    Actually I buy all my clothes on line. Hate to try-on, in stores. Hate to shop at all. So I have found on line places, which I like. And they are fine. -smile- And can still send back, if something does not really fit.

    After you look around, you'll find places you like tooooo.

    🍬🎂🍬

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  16. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. Hi Sue, If there was something in my comment yesterday that offended enough to delete it I apologise.

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    2. I didn't see your comment so no idea what was in it and I;m sure whatever it was wouldn't have offended.
      It says removed by author so you must have removed it by mistake

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    3. Sorry about that, I'm not sure how that happened. My comment was that I've only just started to read your blog a couple of months ago and that I am really enjoying it. Have a lovely day.

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  17. I have a very special book- it is actually one full year of a Ladies monthly magazine which great grandma had bound into a book ( leather binding). She was born in 1856 and had this from her thirties. There are poems, stories and articles and some pen and ink type drawings. All very well done.

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  18. Love your new header picture. What a lovely place to live.

    Lovely mementos that you have from your Mom. Those books are in excellent shape.

    God bless.

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  19. Your new header photo is so pretty it makes me want to move there. Books owned by your mom are precious. I adore books and reading.

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  20. I treasured books when I was small, I joined the children's library at about 5 years of age, when I first started borrowing books from it, it was literally three little shelves in the corner of the adult library, thank goodness that by the time I had read them all a whole new room of children's books opened up.

    As for my own books, yes just a slightly more modern collection than your Mum's, mostly picked up from jumble sales, with a new Rupert Annual and Famous Five book joining the shelf every Christmas.

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