Having a blog means never having to say you're sorry. I've been going through an old folder on a computer and looking at stuff I wrote over the years. I came across this list.
I don't know what to do with this list. It's a list of things that give me what Coca-Cola executives (regarding their nostalgic marketing) call "the warm fuzzies". I've wondered whether I can work it into a poem or an article or-- well, goodness knows what.
I spent a fair amount of time and energy writing it out, a few years back. I remember I decided (being rather addicted to random and mildly strange behaviour) to read it out when meeting some friends at the pub. One gentleman present (who I'd never met before or since) was a German with all the stereotyped Teutonic earnestness of that race. (He is a communist, to boot, which only deepens the earnestness.) I smile when I remember his polite but perplexed expression as I read the list. My other friends were well-acquainted with my whimsical ways and didn't bat an eyelid.
I wasn't kidding, though. I was (and I am) just as earnest after my own fashion.
Here is my list of things that give me the warm fuzzies. (Or rather, the idea of them gives me the warm fuzzies. I have no direct experience of many of them.) Who knows? It might make you smile or cry, "I feel exactly the same way you do!". Here's hoping.
Christmas trees
Christmas decorations
Christmas baubles
Christmas carols
Christmas wrapping paper
The jokes in Christmas crackers
Christmas dinner
Christmas pudding
Decorated Pub Mirrors
Hanging Signs
Ships in Bottles
Snowglobes
Nursery Rhymes
Fairy Tales
Old Wives’ Tales, and the term "old wives' tale"
Playground Songs
Proverbs
Woolly jumpers, especially colourful and chunky woolly jumpers
Artistic Window Displays
Sandwich Men
Sepia (the colour, especially in photographs, but also the word)
Bonfires
Halloween bonfires
Fireworks
Office sweeps
Fireplaces
Big white mugs for tea
Cloth caps
Cardigans
Slippers
Handwritten Signs in Shops, especially when they have spelling errors
Jumble Sales
Coffee Mornings (though I hate attending them)
Trainspotters
Lipstick
Headshawls
Dust motes dancing in air
Seeing out a back window through a front window
Rubber Ducks
Hot Water Bottles
Pyjamas
Gingerbread Men
Charades
"& Sons" in the names of companies
School Uniforms (not in a pervy way, obviously)
Cinema Usherettes (though I've never seen one and doubt they exist anymore)
Round Towers and Greyhounds and Harps on copy books, shop signs, pencil-cases, and so on, as symbols of Ireland
Flags
Bunting
Singing in the Bath (though I don't)
Jukeboxes (though I've never used one)
Peanuts in pubs
Popcorn in cinema (though I don't eat it)
Cigar store Indians
Barber poles
“Licensed to sell beer and malt” etc. on pub signs
Campfire tales
Photo albums
Jokes, especially formulaic jokes
Regional accents
Regional jokes
Movie studio logos
Family jokes
Nicknames
In-jokes
Trade terms
Clockwork toys
CB radio
Trainspotting
Toffee Apples
Ornamental biscuit and sweet tins (Quality Street, Season's Greetings, etc.)
Silhouettes, and the word silhouette
Mythological and Classical names for Restaurants, Entertainment Venues, etc. like the Odeon, the Apollo, etc.
Commonplace Books
Shadow Puppetry
Town Rivalries
Discussions over the Proper Making of Tea
Sitting Down Together for Meals
Hopscotch and All Other Children’s Games
Debating Societies
Amateur Dramatic Societies
Knitting Circles
Sleepovers
The past imperfect
Ballads
Riddles
Pub Debates
Board Games
National Personifications (Uncle Sam, John Bull, Kathleen Ni Houlian)
National symbols (leprechauns, bulldogs)
House Names
Vehicle Names
Breaking Champagne Bottles over Ships
Names for Occupations, such as Clippies, Gofers, Trolley-boys etc.
So, if you can cobble a view of the world out of all that....well, that would be my philosophy of life, I suppose.
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