Passing the Passion

As a single parent and a full time student, sometimes my financial means can become a little thin. Its not always comfortable, but to have built my independent adult life from simple beginnings has nurtured something I now find profoundly rewarding. Although, its also been partly inherent by nature, with parents as passionate as I about the relics and often forgotten simplicity of those beautiful lives of the past. I cherish my now well developed resourcefulness, it has become a way of life that I would not change for all the money in the world. It has coloured every element of who I have become, and it greatly influences both my appreciation for the simple things in my life; and the way in which I present my philosophical views of life in how I raise my little man.

And then there are things like maintaining Leonard, our temperamental 1950's fridge. He's a jolly reliable old chap, ruggedly handsome for his age, and was an absolute steal. Though lets put it this way; he's Not equipped with a frost free freezer.

But there's something so fulfilling in emerging from one of my friendly little secondhand stores, my meeting places with others discardedness, tightly clutching something precious and helpfully inexpensive. I rather dislike the disposable societies that are establishing themselves all over the show; throw away packaging, throw away plastics, throw away people... Although the one and only upside, is for those of us who enjoy the excitement and reward of the forage. Searching for the beauty amongst others rubbish.

It has become effortlessly part of most days for my little man and I. He knows where to look as well as I do now, and oh how that enthralls me. He disappears to his own little hidden boxes and tables before I've seen him gone. I can see that passion growing in his eyes. He loves doing anything I do, but I can tell with his few jingly coins in his pocket he's started to love it for his own enjoyment. So this week we went, as we do, and we found, as we hope, more of the things that fill our house with life, and character, and our beloved vintage. Being the school holidays, the best thing he could have found was something that would entertain him for a few moments at a time, while I wrote by very brief and small installments a lengthy politics essay...

But this Whizzer and Chips Annual from 1977 that he bought for a dollar full of quirky little comic strips, captured his attention for hours upon hours. To the point that it needed confiscating so that he could eat, and he loves to eat.

I discussed with him a few weeks back about the production of things in China. A few days later as we foraged, he stopped himself in the middle of asking to buy a small plastic toy, quietly returned it to where he'd found and we left. As we walked away from the shop he told me he wasn't going to buy it because he'd realised that on the bottom it said 'made in china'. Life's all about choices, even when your a child.

 courtesy of the seventies. whizzer and chips.