Bye till Tuesday

For me, the most enjoyable part of archival work is the processing of private acquisitions. Such as in life, some projects are more interesting than others, but the great thing is that there are generally always a few things in every collection that prove interesting. Every now and again, I get to process a fonds that completely intrigues me. This year, I came across such a gem. The physical extent wasn’t that large and only consisted of a couple of boxes of textual records. But the content was addicting and it completely engulfed me.

This fonds consisted of records created and accumulated by a woman I will refer to as “B.” The majority of the records consisted of her diaries and correspondence written by and to her. Prior to beginning the processing, I knew that the monetary value of the records largely lay in early pen-pal correspondence between her and noted Canadian author Louis Dudek. These letters were interesting and will no doubt prove to be of be great research value for academics and students in the future. What surprised me and touched me, however, was the correspondence between “B” and her husband “M.”

Her husband had a job that required him to spend a lot of time away from home, which resulted in a lot of correspondence between the young couple. There were three times as many letters from “M” to “B.” This doesn’t mean that he wrote to her more often than she wrote to him. I believe that in typical female fashion (of which I am too often guilty of as well) she merely saved all his letters. The correspondence document their courtship and first decade of marriage. His letters were written neatly and were easy to read, which is surprising for a man.

The difference in tone and content between the two sets of correspondence was amusing. In general, he was not nearly as romantic, evidenced in one letter when he asked her if she had gained weight over the holidays. I was, however, impressed with the sentiment that he was able to muster at times. On July 23rd, 1943 he wrote “Remember that I am waiting to hug you and kiss you, and miss you terribly also.” Only five days later he was still love struck when he wrote on July 28th “Well dear, this is just a note to tell you how much I miss you and love you. Need I tell you that?”

There were only eleven letters in total from “B” to “M” and what a treasure they are. I read all eleven letters several times. There letters were written between 1943 and 1948 – almost seventy years ago. The paper was rigid. Forcing them open unveiled commentary from a young recently married woman who was full of hope, romance and optimism for her future. The letters were incredibly touching in her honestly and openness. In these eleven letters, I felt her love. I can only imagine how they touched her young husband, how many times he unfolded them to read them again, and how he much have treasured them.

“However, as to us, my darling, what it makes it possible for me to flirt with you at this time – to play lightly around our love with words, is the fact that at the depth there is no need for it. We are fundamentally serious and can therefore afford to be gay with each other.” (March 6th, 1945)

“Oh my dearest, how every much we have to look forward to in the future with such a present to build on.” (March 6th, 1945)

“Golly, I love you darling and I’m so looking forward to the day when we settle down and become ordinary folk. More than anything, I want to see you in a job you love – working for yourself preferably. And for myself, to live a clean and honest life with you and ours.” (January 19, 1947)

“I am sitting here tonight dreaming such dreams for us. All the good things of life can be ours – love, laughter, satisfaction in a job well done. These are the things that bring contentment and relaxation.” (Saturday night, undated, ca. 1948).

“B” ended this letter by saying to “M” “Bye till Tuesday, and hurry, hurry, Tuesday.” Her pink kiss, now sixty three years old, sealed the letter and has stood the test of time. As the majority of the correspondence ends by the 1950s, I was left feeling like I had finished watching a movie. How did the subsequent chapters of their lives play out? Did they remain in love? I hope they did. I am grateful for that quick glimpse I was allowed into their lives.

Five Pink Roses

Over a year ago, Hilda unearthed another one of Auntie’s unfinished rug hooking projects. Auntie had completed the whip stitch border and left it at that. The rug remained unfinished over home for many years. Now that the rug is completed, it will return with me to PEI on my next trip home and will be placed in the parlour over home with the rest of Auntie’s completed rugs.

Green is my favourite colour. The celery green in this rug is my latest favourite shade of green. I found it on my last trip to MacAuslands Woolen Mill and instantly knew I had to incorporate it into my next project. I choose pink for the roses for two reasons. One is that it contrasted nicely with the green. Secondly, because my mother’s wedding bouquet was made up of pink roses.

From start to finish here it is:



























And here is Aunite.

What does your fridge look like?

My own little backlog project

Card from Beth – from Turkey (2001)

Most Archives have “backlog projects” on its annual work plan. These projects come about for a variety of reasons and most Archivists have worked on such a project at one time or another. Both personal and work projects get halted for a myriad of reasons – all of which seem valid at the time. As time passes, however, it gets increasingly difficult to both ignore and justify the reasons for not getting such backlog projects organized and completed – at least at work. Not having to report to anyone in my personal life on any kind of basis sometimes results in my own personal backlog projects lingering on for an indefinite period.

When I moved to Toronto in 2005, I brought a lot of stuff with me – a Budget truck full in fact. I tried to move up as much stuff as possible and included in the truck was one personal background project of my own – my scrapbooking backlog. I began scrapbooking in the early 1990s along with my Acadia pal Krista. We always claimed that we scrapbooked before it became trendy to do so. Although the scrapbooks of this time were not “archival” and did not have the “acid free paper” that became the standard for later books, they nevertheless hold our memories and served the purpose.

Upon returning from Japan, I made a scrapbook for each of my three years there. When I now look at them, I am so glad I did this. I received so many beautiful cards from my Japanese friends and students, and included so many lovely memories into these books I might have otherwise forgotten about. I continued to do this up until 2001, at which time my scrapbooking trail runs cold. I can’t recall why I stopped, but I did. For the last ten years I have continued to keep – but not organize. I simply kept adding “stuff” to a box. Ten years later when the box had reached its limit, I knew the time had come to bit the proverbial bullet.


I emptied the box and began organizing all the contents into its respective years from 2001 to 2010. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. Everything fell into place pretty easily and before I knew it, I had almost a decade of memories labelled with sticky notes across my living room floor.












Some years contained a lot more documents than others. Here is the 2003 stack for example:















What did surprise me going through this bundle was what I saved. This included invitations to heritage events I never went to, Christmas cards from people I really wasn’t that close to, and envelopes – for everything! I did an initial quick round of culling and then bundled everything, year by year, into oversize envelopes. The scrapbooking backlog had officially made it through its first phase of processing.



In the course of my archival work, I now realize that everything cannot be kept. The process of appraisal can be a daunting one at its outset, but gets easier and easier with practice. I now have to use my archival appraisal skills for my own personal project. Since getting all my memories organized, I have spent a lot of time thinking about what I should, could, and will cull from my collected memories. It’s always a much more difficult practice to apply to your own records opposed to those of a strangers. I am grateful, however, for a lot of what I kept. I saved all my cards and notes from Grammie and Auntie. Every time I come across one of these memories, my heart is warmed when I see their handwriting.





I am now looking forward to getting into this project and seeing what other memories I will unearth along the way.