Tuesday, December 11

Medals

Victory Medal, both faces.
A Cousin has been doing research into our family history, & has sent me photos of several historical items he has in his possession. I have never seen these items before & was very interested to recieve these photos.


Our Grandmother's youngest brother, Frank, went to war for the British army, in the 1914-1915 War. He was crushed in an accident involving a truck, whilst in Egypt, & as a result, he suffered broken ribs which resulted in his getting pneumonia & dying.



I know our Grandmother was heartbroken at the loss of her youngest, & perhaps favourite little brother. She named her first born son after her brother, & the Cousin who has the medals, is his son.



This is the back of one medal, & I see it has NZER on it.

The front of the medal.



This next medal is a British War medal. I am a little unclear whether these were given to all soldiers who served.

The 'front' of the same medal.


This next picture is what is called a Blood Penny. These were given to families of men who'fell'- died, in fact.


This is Frank's Blood Penny, given to his parents, after his death. A terrible thing, it seems to me.

****

Today we went out to the hard slog at the Coalface of Christmas shopping!
At least the weather was cooler, & though sullen looking & grey, it did keep the temperature down.
As it happened we had a rather successful day, & have just about knocked it all on the head.
We parted ways for various seaches, & I siezed every opportunity for people watching, & resting, seeing I am off all anti inflammatories.
Some prizes for ludicrousness should be awarded. One man, standing in a booth type affair. I could not take my eyes off his twattish hat! I felt like asking him if he was perfectly happy, & did they pay him enough, to stand there looking like some giant TWIT, all day! The wretched thing had some huge goat-like ears hanging off the sides of it! What the hell it represented, I have no idea, but it made him look like some lecherous large lunatic Elf, or Saytr!!
The saddest sight of the day, for me, was a very elderly looking man, who looked as if he very seldom ventures out these days. He had got out his little old grey wig, & carefully positioned it, combed it, & wore it selfconsciously perched atop his small head. Giving it little pats, now & then. It was almost too much for me. I almost offered to straighten it up. I bit my tongue & resisted. I had tears in my eyes, I swear.
I sat & watched the many men & women who appeared to be smuggling watermelons & pumpkins about their persons. The had them stuffed under T Shirts, bulging out from chests, & armpits! They literally staggered under the weight of them. Some of them rested them on their shopping trollies. I carefully avoided any glass or mirror areas, where I might catch sight of my own smuggling crimes!!
The prize for the grossest crime of the day went to a young mother. She had a small child in a stroller, & she was transferring him from the stroller, into a shopping trolley so she could gather items, & keep her eye on the little chap. As she bent to lift the child, her skirt, & pink knickers, rode down, & her top rode up.
There for all the world to see, in full horror was a very ugly 2 & a half inches of bum crack!! Two very portly cheeks bulging above the skirt! The Horror!
I was not the only person to reel at the sight!
Translations might be in order for some of the above mentioned items. I believe some countries call shopping trollies, Carts.
As to 'Strollers' - we in the North Island of N Z called them 'Pushchairs'. When I went to live in the South Island I was surprised to find they were known as 'Sulkies', as in the sulky that is driven in horse racing! Then, on moving to Australia we learnt they call them Strollers. I have also heard them referred to as a 'Buggy'.
So I wonder what they are called in your particular part of the world?
***
How are the House Decorators in your neighbourhood?
We have a longterm neighbour who goes for the huge show every year. Now his next door neighbour seems to be competing, & another next to him, has joined in.
Of course all this show of lights, & various other decorator items all over the houses & yards, results in a huge increase in traffic flow. We happen to live on a corner, which is ideal to turn around on.
I can tell our dogs will be insane from all the traffic & foot traffic by the end of the 'Festery Season' in our little corner of the Coast!
Janis Ian, Bigger Than Real.




11 comments:

Ragged Roses said...

Itwas good and sad to see those medals. I've been reading a lot about the First World War recently and "Blood Penny`' seems to sum it all up. I agree, it does sound very insulting! Hope you've recovered from all the sights you encountered when you went shopping
Kimx

Anonymous said...

Hi Meggie, thanks for visiting and for your nice comments on my little ted and angel with the rosy cheeks.
I love looking at medals. I have my Grandfathers from WW1 and my father-in-laws from WW2. My husband also has his own collection including Northern Ireland Medal. Great Subject, I will photograph ours and post at a later date.

Jellyhead said...

What wonderful pieces of histroy your cousin has - sad but priceless.

You cheered me up no end, though, with your tales of people-watching. Smuggling pumpkins and watermelons indeed!! Tee hee!

Joyce said...

House decorating is huge in this part of the world but since we live in the country we don't have any traffic. In fact we can barely get out our lane and people who visit have to walk in. Cuts down on the visitors I can tell you. Lol.

ancient one said...

The medals and the history lesson I really enjoyed. I had never heard of blood penny before.

The shopping trip and your observations were funny. (except the old man) Over here we have shopping carts and strollers.

I once was one of the people who tried to see how many lights I could string outside, but not this year. I do love to go riding at night, though, to see everyone's decorations!

Since your Christmas comes in your summer, do you have Snowmen decorations for Christmas?

ancient one said...

The medals and the history lesson I really enjoyed. I had never heard of blood penny before.

The shopping trip and your observations were funny. (except the old man) Over here we have shopping carts and strollers.

I once was one of the people who tried to see how many lights I could string outside, but not this year. I do love to go riding at night, though, to see everyone's decorations!

Since your Christmas comes in your summer, do you have Snowmen decorations for Christmas?

Sheila said...

We call them shopping carts and strollers.
You have me interested in the medals, as two of my Great uncles died in WW1. We have some photos but now i wonder if my Uncle has anything else commemorating their service.

Mike said...

A few years ago I was at a mall in the summer time. A young woman was there with her young son. She was carrying him around the mall and at one point went to put him down. As she was putting him down, the young boy started screaming and grabbed on to his moms tube top and pulled it down exposing her goodies.

The poor woman was totally embarrassed. It didn't bother me one bit.

Harmany Quilting said...

As my Nan would always say 'the sights you see when you haven't got a gun'

meggie said...

Hi All,
Re the term Blood Money- I think this is where it originated, with the Blood Penny.
I must check with my cousin, as to the size of the coin. It looks very large, but I don't think it is that huge.

Silly as it seems, we have all the 'snow' decorations for our Christams over here, even though the temperatures are often in the high 30's! Snowmen are nice & cool looking!
I think, since Aussie & NZ were predominantly settled by peoples from the Bristish Isles, they were sentimental, & brought their tradtions of Christmas with them.

It is taking years, & many injections of other cultural ideas to gradually change our ideas of what a Christmas/holiday celebration, should be in these warm southern climes!

Tanya said...

Do you really want translations? In Japanese the shopping carts are "showpingu ca-to" and strollers are known as "baby ca-" (Baby cars!)

I don't know, either hot or cold, Christmas shopping can be exhausting!