BreathlessinOrewa: 120. Kim's Game: The Archaeology of a Box (19)

1. Lunar Module A - Watercolour, 2007.

This is the last of a series of archaeological explorations introduced on November 11th 2013 with some broken shards of a china Snoopy vase.

In the course of digging through the box strata over the last twelve months numerous artifacts have been uncovered that have not yet been catalogued. These are listed here.

When I was a child Kim's game was very popular at family parties and at cub and scout events. This involved setting a number of items (usually about twenty) out on a tray. After a minute to view them they were covered up and you had to write down descriptions of all those that you could remember. The name of the game comes from Kim, Rudyard Kipling's 1901 novel about a teenager being trained as a spy. In his book Scouting Games (1921), Baden Powell, the founder of the Scout movement, advocated the game as providing useful training in observation and memory skills. (Needless to say there are now a variety of versions that you can play online - but I needed to say that!)

Much of my blogging is about memory, especially in the blogs triggered by the mementos drawn from items stored away for years in my box of treasures. So this blog is a Kim's game for you. Scan through the items for a few minutes and then see how many you can remember. They are organised chronologically from the most recent to the oldest.

2. Leaflet promoting croquet at 50 Plus Lifestyle Show, Auckland Showgrounds, 2009, sponsored by Esquires Coffee, Stuart and Lewis' business.

3. Opening of Gill Gatfield Exhibition, Rotorua, 6th March 2002.

4. Menu for Sharon's son Blaine's 21st Birthday Dinner, Birkenhead, 4th September 2002.

5. My Retirement Dinner 2002.

6. Sleeping Neck Cushion - Gift from Kate, 2001

7. Postcards from London, punk fashion 1980s.

8. Paris Postcards 1982.

9. 1981 Postcards from Luxembourg and Huntington Library Art Collection, San Marino, California (Gainsborough's Blue Boy, Constable's Salisbury Cathedral and View on the Stour near Denham).

10. Snoopy Vase, Los Angeles 1981.

11. 1970s Diptych

12. Lunar Landing 1989.

13. Sacha's School Report 1977.

14. Cards from Stuart, Sacha and Lewis 1970s.

15. Story and Poems by Sacha 1970s.

16. 1950s Postcards from the British Museum - from early 15th century French manuscript about the 1399 capture and imprisonment of Richard II by Henry Bolingbroke who becomes Henry IV.

17. Schoolboy Watercolours, 1950s

18. From my schooldays interest in Heraldry, 1950s.

19. National Handwriting Test Certificate, 1954.

20. First Communion, April 1954.

21. Dad's letter from Southern Railway, General Strike 1926.

At the very bottom of my box is a stamp album plus a variety of stamps in packets, including a number of first day covers. Some of the stamps are mounted on loose leaves and three of these are shown below.