Helen Oldfield

My Grandmother's Scissors

Normally a very obedient child, there were some things that I simply could not resist - like scissors. Long before “scrapbooking” became a thing, I entertained myself as a small child by cutting out pictures from newspapers, magazines, and the Green Shield Stamp catalog, and gluing crazy collages into my big red scrapbook. (It came from Wooly's on the high street, and had large grey construction paper pages and a big pair of scissors printed on the cover). I remember being given a pathetic pair of safety scissors to use; small and dull, with rounded tips. I always rejected them whenever I could in favor of the forbidden, larger, silver pair, which were pointed, and much sharper and more exciting. The sound and feel of shearing into the crisp paper was such a thrill for a five year old. (That must have been before they found their way down the back of the sofa and were lost for several years before their triumphant rediscovery, when we had to deconstruct the sofa to empty the stash of hamster food that had accumulated inside it... but that's another story...)