An Envelope Full of Memories

I’m back with more writing adventures from my youth!

It feels light and crisp in my hands. The paper is slightly wrinkled and yellowed with age… and there’s a weird stain in the top left corner. Inside it is a little window to a younger me.

This week, I have a letter I wrote to my Grandma when I was 10 years old. I know this because in the letter I tell her I went on a school excursion to a radio station “on the 18th of the 3rd 1993.”

Strangely enough, the date on the stamp from the post office says, “13th APR 1994.” Maybe I was just really slow telling her the news?

My Grandma is 91 and has recently moved to a nursing home. My family has been cleaning out her house. Mum stumbled upon this letter and she knew I would find it amusing.

I’m not sure why, but half the letter is handwritten and half is typed.

I remember we had one of those dot matrix printers. It was really loud and used an ink ribbon. The paper was fan-folded with perforated edges. When you were done printing, you had to rip off the sides of the paper where the little holes fed it through the printer. I could never do this without tearing the page, so I was very impressed that this letter only has a tiny tear.

Some interesting facts I talk about in my letter are:

• I’d just seen Cool Runnings at the cinema (My Grandma probably had no idea what I was talking about.)
• My Mum bought some new pots and pans for $25. Bargain!
• School was going back the next day, and I was not looking forward to it.

I also noticed the letter has a 45-cent stamp on it. It now costs $1.70 to send a letter domestically in Australia.

The best part of all this is that the letter includes two poems I wrote, which I’m going to share with you.

The letter must be written in real time because at the beginning I mention that I have some poems, but I’ve lost them. I explain that Mum is looking for them. I go on to tell her about a school assignment I’m working on, then Mum returns with the poems.

Excuse the spelling and grammar; I have kept them true to their original form.

This is the first poem.

Cats

Cats have ears.

Cats have tails.

Their not like deers

And their not like snails

Cats eat

Cats sleep

Cats have feet

And they do not peep

I’m telling you now

Don’t buy a bat

Don’t buy a cow

Buy a cat and be happy

So, there you go, a little anatomy lesson about cats.

I also have another poem about my sister’s cat at the time, Prince. My Mum was a crazy cat lady. At one point, I think we had five cats, some she showed and one she even bred from.

Prince

I like Prince

His Hollys cat

He likes to eat mince

And he likes to sit on a mat

His hair feels rough

And his eyes are green

He isn’t tough

And he isn’t mean

His just a nice cat

That we like.

Yes, I’m a little embarrassed about the rhyming scheme at the ending falling completely flat there. I wish I’d started off with this one and finished with Cats, it was much stronger.

Still, I always like looking back on these writing pieces from my childhood. They remind me that my love of writing started much earlier than I remembered.