I took this picture of our "Night Sky" petunias mainly to show you how clear and sunny the weather has been. Supposedly that's all going to change tonight. Rain is expected and will continue off and on through the middle of next week. I'm down with that -- it will save me the trouble of having to water the garden.
It cost only 70 pence to make the trip. A regular adult fare is more than twice that now. And do we even still get paper tickets? I don't, because I just scan my oyster card, but maybe if I paid cash I would. Or could I even still pay cash on a bus? I have no idea. (I tried to look this up on the TFL web site but as you can imagine there's a bewildering array of fare information and ultimately I couldn't be bothered.)
The year 2003 doesn't seem that long ago, but the kids who just graduated as seniors from the school where I work were born in 2003. So that puts it into perspective, right?
I got to wondering what I was doing around that time. I'd been living in New York City for three years, and I was dating a guy named David -- a different David from the one I eventually married. Here's my short journal entry from April 15, 2003, the day after someone rode that bus:
David and I had a great weekend -- took a quick road trip to a little town called Chester in New Jersey and went shopping. We also went to Tony's for a party on Saturday night -- a dinner, really, and a movie about a Venetian courtesan, Veronica somebody.
I remember that trip to Chester. We went there a couple of times; once I bought a little ceramic turtle and once a compartmentalized shadowbox frame, to hold and display knickknacks (like ceramic turtles) -- but I don't remember the dinner or the movie, which frankly sounds pretty awful. (I'm guessing it was this one.)
Anyway, a little blast from the past there, all prompted by a found bus ticket!
I’ve never seen petunias like that. Beautiful and aptly named. I wish I had journaled. Such a great way to go back in time.
ReplyDeleteI love these little found objects in books.
ReplyDeleteI have some nature books that include lists and jottings from their previous owners - a sort of history between the pages. I wrote a piece once called a pocket book of flowers which tells the 'story' of someone during the 2nd WW who had owned the flower book I bought - it is one of the most visited blogs on my site. https://www.viewsfromthebikeshed.com/2011/08/pocket-book-of-flowers.html?m=1
I love blasts from the past. Be they via old letters, photos, the sudden whiff of a scent.
ReplyDeleteMind you, it can backfire. Letters of decades ago in particular. Am currently dealing with a mega shit storm in my family of origin. One should, of course, be grateful once no one talks to anyone anymore (apart from me - the voice in the wilderness).
U
2003 seems like yesterday but it was of course eighteen years ago. We are all much older now and eighteen years ahead I doubt that I will even be here. If I am I will be 84 years old and still putting the world to rights.
ReplyDeleteMy friend called me. She had bought a book at a second hand book store (Bill Bryson's Home) and found some papers that belonged to me. Probably the strangest thing that ever happened to me was that I found my oldest daughter's senior portrait marking a page in a book that I borrowed from the library.
ReplyDeleteAnother David? You are a man of mystery...
ReplyDeleteOh, your starry night petunias are beautiful! I've tried to get them here on the north shore of Long Island but they are hard to find. I'm on a waiting list (!) at one of the local nurseries but I think it's over for me as for 2021. Maybe I should look into getting seeds, because I really want those flowers.
ReplyDeleteThat is a lovely flower, and I can surely see the perfect weather you've had there.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know there's an Edmonton in the UK. I've only know the one in Canada. And Chester, NJ is in my area. I've never been there but I've seen it pop up on our customer list. Good thing you saved that ticket! You've given me cause to hold on to my old mementos of trips and dates a little longer :)
My partner would immediately say stop living in the past, but then later show great interest in the bus ticket memories.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous flower picture! I like finding things in books too - it's one of the things I miss about getting actual books from the library. And marginalia - people would write the most interesting things. Ha!
ReplyDeleteThose petunias just slay me. I love them! And that is indeed a blue, blue sky.
ReplyDeleteI love finding things in books. Lists are good. Now there's a moment in time! I almost wish that more people would leave things in library books. Little poems, a feather, a strip of wallpaper...
Your found bus ticket reminds me of the ones we used to get from conductors on the old London Routemaster (doubledecker) buses--entered by climbing--or taking a running jump--onto an open platform at back of bus way back when. The conductor walked around as people got on the bus to collect fares (rarely missing anyone-even though they had to cover upstairs and downstairs). They wore a heavy ticket machine around their neck and would ask you where you were going; they'd turn a few knobs and then crank out a stream of thin paper about an inch and half wide--your ticket. The length of the ticket seemed to reflect the length of your journey.
ReplyDeleteYou can see the machine by googling London bus conductor ticket machine or Gibson ticket machine. You can even find old conductor training films on how to use the machines--always seemed such a mystery to me back then how they determined what your ticket should cost.
Those flowers are gorgeous! Lovely color.
ReplyDeleteI read "2003" and think it's not that far back, but then I realize it's nearly twenty years and suddenly I feel the need for a sweater and a rocking chair.
Love seeing those petunias against the blue blue sky. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteIt is such a fun adventure when an old ticket or receipt or something triggers a memory, a trip down that memory road. Seeing that ticket from 2003 reminded me of the days back then when I worked at the university advising students who published the campus newspapers and poetry journals. Best job of my life.
Time really does fly by, doesn't it? Your ticket find from 2003 inspired a trip down memory lane!
ReplyDelete2003 sounds like yesterday to me, and yet i know it wasn't because both my kids were in elementary school then, and now they are grown people. I think I've said it before, you are an archeologist at heart.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking you could have taken that photo in Arizona with that sky but actually our sky is very, very hazy these days because of a wildfire east of the city. Pretty petunias!
ReplyDeleteThat ticket gave you a nice trip down memory lane. I looked up my travel history to see where I was in 2003. I was in London in April of 2002 but in 2003 I took the Canadian cruise. That's the one where I learned I hated cruises.
In case you didn't know it, we're every where.
ReplyDeleteWhen we ran our bookstore (for 7 years) we amassed a huge collection of bookmarks left in books that were traded in. I still have many of them.
ReplyDeleteYour petunias are just gorgeous against the night sky, such a pretty shade of blue. I love the evening blues. It seems that the color is never quiet the same and is something that I always enjoy.
ReplyDeleteA Blast From The Past... I don't really remember what it was that I was doing in 2003 but I know that I had moved from Texas to Nevada and I was 44 at the time and I know that I loved the era of my 40's so I am sure that year must have been good to me.
Reading thru the comments I was reminded of one of the strangest things I found in a library book which was a order receipt from the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana Texas. They are not a chain and are in the town where I grew up. I kept the receipt because at the time I was living in Las Vegas and two, I am sure that it was an order that my precious niece probably filled as she worked with the orders (mainly the Fruit Cake orders) which the bakery was famous for.
My precious niece is no longer with us, but her daughter now is working her mother's job. They still call it the Call Center but Misty said that she sends the online orders downstairs to be filled.
A few months after I found the receipt I was inside a thrift store and came across a tin that held the Collin Street Fruit Cakes. I still have that tin as well. Some things that happen are just too hard to explain so I don't even try any more. I just take my finds with a smile to my heart.
Thank You Steve for my trip down Memory Lane. Have a great day and lots of hugs. xx
pretty petunias, and unusual too. in 2003, I was 53, had retired from the river guide stint and just before starting my stint as a gym rat which lasted about 8 years.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll bet you're keeping that bus ticket! Funny how one object can be used to tell a story.
ReplyDeleteThat's an enjoyable look at the past in transportation and your journal. I'm sure you had no idea then that you'd end up with another David.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
2003 seems like five minutes ago!
ReplyDeleteI can not believe how expensive everything has become, Even staying at home i spend too much money- stupidly! I just ordered a tray of periwinkle from ETSY. AND there are orphans to rehome...
The ticket find is great! Use it for art, maybe.
I checked out the movie, and i do believe i would have walked out, not my gig.
Your night sky petunias are gorgeous. I've never seen any like them. It's always amazing how something little can bring up fond memories. Enjoy your day, hugs, Edna B.
ReplyDeleteI love petunias and those are spectacular!
ReplyDelete