The Tree of Me

Apparently today, the 23rd January 2014 is National Handwriting Day. I didn't know such a day existed until it came up in a Facebook post. This got me thinking about a possible blog post. I have original examples of handwriting dating from the early 1800s amongst my personal possessions. I have photocopies of other early writing as well. However, I thought about a dictation. I had hoped to find three examples but could only come up with two. I must have tossed my Spelling book! The first is a copy of a dictation test given to my great, great uncle James Moore when he applied to join the Queensland Police Force in 1909. The results of this test indicated that his writing was "Fair". Queensland State Archives A/40562  AF 3092 The second example comes from his nephew, my grandfather's brother Matthew Moore. It is taken from his Qualifying Examination Tablet dated 10th November 1922. I was very fortunate to find this sample. In 1990 I was at Jenning...

During a recent tidy up of my filing cabinets I discovered 2 school books that had been placed in there for safe keeping many years ago. The first book was My Busy Book from 1965 when I was in Kindergarten at Jennings Public School. Perhaps some of you may remember the salmon coloured books from the 1960s. Fortunately it was a small school. The teacher traced many shapes each afternoon for us to fill in with various patterns the next day. She also wrote dotted words for us to trace the next day. It seems that jelly pads had yet to reach Jennings. Unfortunately the salmon colour didn't scan. The second of these exercise books belonged to my grandfather's brother, Matthew John Moore who attended Jennings Public School. I haven't always been in possession of this book. I attended the Jenning's centenary celebrations in 1990 and was excited to see that this book was part of the display. I asked the organisers who had donated the book for the display but was infor...

This evening I read a tweet from My Heritage about an article at the emissourian -   Society Pays Homage to the Humble Apron . After reading the article I began to consider which aprons have meant something to me in my life. The first apron that came to mind was a green and white gingham apron that I made while I attended Jennings Public School . The girls spent many weeks making the aprons after making several preparatory obligatory samples. We had to cross-stitch the pleats into place and then cross-stitch several flowers onto the material and I can still remember how particular I was while sewing. I wanted it to be perfect!  Of course, while the girls were making aprons the boys were in another room. What they were making, I can't remember, but I do have recollections of them basket weaving at some stage. I was very proud of this apron but never wore it as I considered it was too precious. After a search in my camphor chest I found my apron, still in pristine condition...