Some of my regular readers must be wondering why I am 'quiet' today. It is almost midnight and this is my fourth post. I have not recovered yet and started my third course of antibiotics. Being unable to talk as much, I spent the last five hours going through my whole collection of photo albums and soaking myself in the memories of some of the best moments of my life.
As I went through the different cupboards to look for these mementos from the past, I realized what a terrible hoarder I am, just like my hamster.
Each morning, before I hang my clothes, I will call out "Mishy' and he will gladly climb to the top of the cage and after which I will give him his usual pat, stroke, 'manja' routine and then give him his yoghurt treat. Later, whatever sunflower seeds I give him will be hoarded in his cheeks..in fact hamster means 'hoarder' in German.
Different people hoard for different reasons and they hoard different items too. Some hoard plastic or paper bags, napkins, boxes, used wrapping paper, mementos of the past such as children's clothing, broken toys and the list is endless. Me - I hoard photos, books, paper bags and other stuff - too many to list.
Why do we hold on so tightly to these items and hoard them even though they should have been thrown away because their usefulness has expired? Surely when we die, our children will not be thrilled to inherit the tons of garbage that we left behind for them.
Actually, I think it is because for some of us who are like me, we hoard memorabilia because it showcases the natural history of our life; the stages of life that we went through and even people who touched our lives.
We hang on to them because these items can help us to relive past events by bringing to remembrance again our memories of the past. Deep inside, most of us could be sentimental hoarders stemming from a desire to know our roots and to treasure those things that meant so much to us at one point in time. Perhaps we want to leave something behind as well to tell other people about our lives and what made it so unique and unforgettable. Well, that's also one of the reasons why I blog - to allow my children and hopefully grandchildren to open a window and look into my life years down the road...
As for me, I still have my boys' umbilical cord, their hair from the first haircut, their milk teeth, favorite toy etc. because these have traces of their childhood that I want to treasure and want them to cherish when they grow up and I know that no matter how hard I try, I can never get these again because I reaped them from one moment of time in their lives.
To me, these keepsakes are definitely real and tangible reminders of what happened in our past as contrasted to our memories of the past which will fade over time.
It was with deep reluctance that I threw away my sons' kindergarten books and other stuff. However, I still have samples of their first picture drawn, samples of their writing and so on because these remind me of their childhood more powerfully than photos can.
When my dad passed away in October last year, I kept behind his clothes, old photographs and other mementos - something which I did when my mom died more than 35 years ago.Such sentimental objects keep me connected to them in a very personal and comforting way.
Recently, I reconnected with old friends. As we exchanged recollections of our younger days, I realise that as I grow older, most of us, myself included become more cognizant of the passage of time.
Time passes by pretty fast. I know I cannot hold on to moments...the same way I wish my younger boy could be 10 years old forever ....but we can hold on to things that represent those moments. Each time I give away their clothes, I will keep aside a few for remembrance sake. It is because I am aware that I do not want those precious moments to disappear and that those souvenirs from the past are all that I have left. So I hoard and hoard and hoard, gloating over my 'treasures' without the least being embarrassed by my sentimentalism.
Whenever I do spring cleaning, I never cease to be amazed by the amount of junk I have amassed over the years. If only these were house title deeds - dream on honey. Each time, I have to go through the painful process of analyzing its usefulness and utility or possibility for recycling and each time, the answer is the same - throw it away but sentimental me says - I will throw it the next time. In the mean time, let's hoard it!
One thing is for sure - I will always hoard the most beautiful memories of my life. The bitter ones I will KIV for references and revision so to speak lest I forget the lessons learnt from those experiences. Truly, I am so thankful that I have snapshots of some of the best moments of my life for me to relive those wonderful times.
These are some of my favorite photos ... my friend has not returned my printer/scanner so I had to take pics of my fav pics...This is my beloved cousin Hoy who lives in San Franciso. That's the two of us in a Japanese restaurant downtown in Frisco after we watched Phantom of the Opera. He is my closest living relative and I had a wonderful childhood because of him and his family whom I love dearly...er...I stopped wearing contact lens last year.
My aunts from US whom I miss so much. Having lost my mom at the age of 11, my First Aunt and especially my Sixth Aunt nurtured me and I do not know where I would be today without their love. Third aunt who is in her 80s is recovering in Sausalito. First aunt (who is 94 years old) lives with Third Aunt while my sixth aunt lives in Bay Area. I love this pic taken in Napa Valley...And I really miss them so so dearly...
Believe it or not, this is my ravishing sixth aunt who is already **years old but looks so much younger than me!!! She is a wonderful ballroom dancer and competes in many competitions and even in Blackpool almost every year and is the one who got me hooked on Latin American dances such as salsa, rhumba, cha-cha, merengue (which is the easiest Latin dance!!!)
Life is indeed short. I cannot imagine what my life would have been without them, my family and friends. It is not easy to grow old. We go through the different stages of life and in the twinkling of an eye, we slip into middle age and then it is a totally different ball game with different rules and concerns. It is so easy to be caught up with so many issues or distractions and then to lose sight of what is truly important to us...I only hope that by the time I reach my twilight years, I can be as robust, zestful and positive as my three aunts and the other important people in my life....
Abraham Lincoln once said, "And in the end it is not the years in your life that counts. It is the life in your years." How true indeed!!!
1: The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest
spaghetti harvest1957: The respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied, "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."
2: Sidd Finch
Sidd Finch1985: Sports Illustrated published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets. His name was Sidd Finch, and he could reportedly throw a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy. This was 65 mph faster than the previous record. Surprisingly, Sidd Finch had never even played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the "art of the pitch" in a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the "great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa." Mets fans celebrated their teams' amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more information. In reality this legendary player only existed in the imagination of the author of the article, George Plimpton.
3: Instant Color TV
image1962: In 1962 there was only one tv channel in Sweden, and it broadcast in black and white. The station's technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to announce that, thanks to a new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display color reception. All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their tv screen. Stensson proceeded to demonstrate the process. Thousands of people were taken in. Regular color broadcasts only commenced in Sweden on April 1, 1970.
4: The Taco Liberty Bell
Taco Liberty Bell1996: The Taco Bell Corporation announced it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke. The best line of the day came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold. It would now be known, he said, as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.
5: San Serriffe
image1977: The British newspaper The Guardian published a special seven-page supplement devoted to San Serriffe, a small republic said to consist of several semi-colon-shaped islands located in the Indian Ocean. A series of articles affectionately described the geography and culture of this obscure nation. Its two main islands were named Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. Its capital was Bodoni, and its leader was General Pica. The Guardian's phones rang all day as readers sought more information about the idyllic holiday spot. Only a few noticed that everything about the island was named after printer's terminology. The success of this hoax is widely credited with launching the enthusiasm for April Foolery that gripped the British tabloids in subsequent decades.
6: Nixon for President
1992: National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program announced that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, was running for President again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Accompanying this announcement were audio clips of Nixon delivering his candidacy speech. Listeners responded viscerally to the announcement, flooding the show with calls expressing shock and outrage. Only during the second half of the show did the host John Hockenberry reveal that the announcement was a practical joke. Nixon's voice was impersonated by comedian Rich Little.
7: Alabama Changes the Value of Pi
1998: The April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason newsletter contained an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the 'Biblical value' of 3.0. Soon the article made its way onto the internet, and then it rapidly spread around the world, forwarded by email. It only became apparent how far the article had spread when the Alabama legislature began receiving hundreds of calls from people protesting the legislation. The original article, which was intended as a parody of legislative attempts to circumscribe the teaching of evolution, was written by physicist Mark Boslough.
8: The Left-Handed Whopper
1998: Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."
9: Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers
Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer1995: Discover Magazine reported that the highly respected wildlife biologist Dr. Aprile Pazzo had found a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. These fascinating creatures had bony plates on their heads that, fed by numerous blood vessels, could become burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speeds. They used this ability to hunt penguins, melting the ice beneath the penguins and causing them to sink downwards into the resulting slush where the hotheads consumed them. After much research, Dr. Pazzo theorized that the hotheads might have been responsible for the mysterious disappearance of noted Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837. "To the ice borers, he would have looked like a penguin," the article quoted her as saying. Discover received more mail in response to this article than they had received for any other article in their history.
10: Planetary Alignment Decreases Gravity
1976: The British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would counteract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.
11: UFO Lands in London
Branson's UFO Balloon1989: On March 31, 1989 thousands of motorists driving on the highway outside London looked up in the air to see a glowing flying saucer descending on their city. Many of them pulled to the side of the road to watch the bizarre craft float through the air. The saucer finally landed in a field on the outskirts of London where local residents immediately called the police to warn them of an alien invasion. Soon the police arrived on the scene, and one brave officer approached the craft with his truncheon extended before him. When a door in the craft popped open, and a small, silver-suited figure emerged, the policeman ran in the opposite direction. The saucer turned out to be a hot-air balloon that had been specially built to look like a UFO by Richard Branson, the 36-year-old chairman of Virgin Records. The stunt combined his passion for ballooning with his love of pranks. His plan was to land the craft in London's Hyde Park on April 1. Unfortunately, the wind blew him off course, and he was forced to land a day early in the wrong location.
12: Flying Penguins
2008: The BBC announced that camera crews filming near the Antarctic for its natural history series Miracles of Evolution had captured footage of Adélie penguins taking to the air. It even offered a video clip of these flying penguins, which became one of the most viewed videos on the internet. Presenter Terry Jones explained that, instead of huddling together to endure the Antarctic winter, these penguins took to the air and flew thousands of miles to the rainforests of South America where they "spend the winter basking in the tropical sun." A follow-up video explained how the BBC created the special effects of the flying penguins.
13: Kremvax
1984: A message distributed to the members of Usenet (the online messaging community that was one of the first forms the internet took) announced that the Soviet Union was joining Usenet. This generated enormous excitement, since most Usenet members had assumed that cold war security concerns would prevent such a link-up. The message purported to come from Konstantin Chernenko (from the address chernenko@kremvax.UUCP) who explained that the Soviet Union wanted to join the network in order to "have a means of having an open discussion forum with the American and European people." The message created a flood of responses. Two weeks later its true author, a European man named Piet Beertema, revealed it was a hoax. This is believed to be the first hoax on the internet. Six years later, when Moscow really did link up to the internet, it adopted the domain name 'kremvax' in honor of the hoax.
14: The Body of Nessie Found
1972: On March 31 1972, a team of zoologists from Yorkshire's Flamingo Park Zoo, who were at Loch Ness searching for proof of Nessie's existence, found a mysterious carcass floating in the Loch. Initial reports claimed it weighed a ton and a half and was 15 ½ feet long. The zoologists placed the body in a van and began to transport it back to the zoo. However, the police chased down their truck and stopped it under a 1933 act of Parliament prohibiting the removal of "unidentified creatures" from Loch Ness. The body was then taken to nearby Dunfermline for examination. The discovery of the carcass received worldwide media attention. The British press dubbed it "Son of Nessie." But upon examination, Edinburgh scientists identified the creature as a bull elephant seal from the South Atlantic. The next day John Shields, Flamingo Park's education officer, confessed he had been responsible for the body. The bull elephant seal had died the week before at Dudley Zoo. He had shaved off its whiskers, padded its cheeks with stones, and kept it frozen for a week, before dumping it in the Loch and then phoning in a tip to make sure his colleagues found it. He had meant to play an April Fool's prank on his colleagues, but admitted the joke got out of hand when the police chased down their van.
15: Metric Time
1975: Australia's This Day Tonight news program revealed that the country would soon be converting to "metric time." Under the new system there would be 100 seconds to the minute, 100 minutes to the hour, and 20-hour days. Furthermore, seconds would become millidays, minutes become centidays, and hours become decidays. The report included an interview with Deputy Premier Des Corcoran who praised the new time system. The Adelaide townhall was even shown sporting a new 10-hour metric clock face. The thumbnail (found at TelevisionAU.com) shows TDT Adelaide reporter Nigel Starck posing with a smaller metric clock. TDT received numerous calls from viewers who fell for the hoax. One frustrated viewer wanted to know how he could convert his newly purchased digital clock to metric time.
16: The Eruption of Mount Edgecumbe
1974: Residents of Sitka, Alaska were alarmed when the long-dormant volcano neighboring them, Mount Edgecumbe, suddenly began to belch out billows of black smoke. People spilled out of their homes onto the streets to gaze up at the volcano, terrified that it was active again and might soon erupt. Luckily it turned out that man, not nature, was responsible for the smoke. A local practical joker named Porky Bickar had flown hundreds of old tires into the volcano's crater and then lit them on fire, all in a (successful) attempt to fool the city dwellers into believing that the volcano was stirring to life. According to local legend, when Mount St. Helens erupted six years later, a Sitka resident wrote to Bickar to tell him, "This time you've gone too far!" (photo via sitka.com)
17: The Case of the Interfering Brassieres
1982: The Daily Mail reported that a local manufacturer had sold 10,000 "rogue bras" that were causing a unique and unprecedented problem, not to the wearers but to the public at large. Apparently the support wire in these bras had been made out of a kind of copper originally designed for use in fire alarms. When this copper came into contact with nylon and body heat, it produced static electricity which, in turn, was interfering with local television and radio broadcasts. The chief engineer of British Telecom, upon reading the article, immediately ordered that all his female laboratory employees disclose what type of bra they were wearing.
18: Man Flies By Own Lung Power
1934: In April 1934 many American newspapers, including The New York Times, printed a photograph of a man flying through the air by means of a device powered only by the breath from his lungs. Accompanying articles excitedly described this miraculous new invention. The man, identified as German pilot Erich Kocher, blew into a box on his chest. This activated rotors that created a powerful suction effect, lifting him aloft. Skis on his feet served as landing gear, and a tail fin allowed him to steer. What the American papers didn't realize was that the "lung-power motor" was a joke. The photo had first appeared in the April Fool's Day edition of the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung. It made its way to America thanks to Hearst's International News Photo agency which not only fell for the hoax but also distributed it to all its U.S. subscribers. In the original Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung article, the pilot's name was spelled "Erich Koycher," which was a pun on the German word "keuchen," meaning to puff or wheeze.
19: The Sydney Iceberg
Sydney Iceberg1978: A barge appeared in Sydney Harbor towing a giant iceberg. Sydneysiders were expecting it. Dick Smith, a local adventurer and millionaire businessman (owner of Dick Smith's Foods), had been loudly promoting his scheme to tow an iceberg from Antarctica for quite some time. Now he had apparently succeeded. He said that he was going to carve the berg into small ice cubes, which he would sell to the public for ten cents each. These well-traveled cubes, fresh from the pure waters of Antarctica, were promised to improve the flavor of any drink they cooled. Slowly the iceberg made its way into the harbor. Local radio stations provided excited blow-by-blow coverage of the scene. Only when the berg was well into the harbor was its secret revealed. It started to rain, and the firefighting foam and shaving cream that the berg was really made of washed away, uncovering the white plastic sheets beneath.
20: The 26-Day Marathon
26 day marathon runner1981: The Daily Mail ran a story about an unfortunate Japanese long-distance runner, Kimo Nakajimi, who had entered the London Marathon but, on account of a translation error, thought that he had to run for 26 days, not 26 miles. Reportedly Nakajimi was now somewhere out on the roads of England, still running, determined to finish the race. Various people had spotted him, though they were unable to flag him down. The translation error was attributed to Timothy Bryant, an import director, who said, "I translated the rules and sent them off to him. But I have only been learning Japanese for two years, and I must have made a mistake. He seems to be taking this marathon to be something like the very long races they have over there."
For #21 to #100 Top Hoaxes, please click here. And it is no April Fool's Day joke ok? That is a real link. REALLY!!!
The following events actually happened but were mistaken as April Fool's Day pranks. No joke.
On a Tea Break (2006)
Holiday-makers flying back to Britain from Tenerife were told by their pilot that they could not land because an air traffic controller was on a tea break. The passengers initially thought his announcement was an April Fool's Day joke, but it wasn't. The plane had to circle for almost half an hour before the air traffic controller came back to work.
Stupid Safecracker (1960)
An attempted robbery was reported in El Rio, California. A burglar spent hours using an acetylene torch to try to cut open a safe in the Leonard Anderson Well Drilling Co. office. When he failed at this, he tried to guess the combination. Finally, he gave up and left. Fred Rush, manager of the company, commented, “He just wouldn’t believe the sign. We put it there because we don’t know the combination. Now the joke’s on us. When the yeggman tried to work the combination he set the lock and now we can’t open the safe ourselves.“ The sign on the safe which the burglar ignored read, “This safe is not locked.“ It wasn’t. [Los Angeles Times, Apr 2, 1960.]
There’s an elephant in my yard (1960)
George Morris of Safford, Arizona woke to find a full-grown elephant eating lilies in his backyard. He assumed it had to be some kind of elaborate April Fool’s Day joke. It wasn’t. But when he called the police to report the animal to them, they initially refused to believe he was telling the truth. Finally they sent over some officers. It turned out that “Dumbo” had been accidentally left behind by a circus that had pulled up stakes the night before. The circus was notified and a van was sent to pick up Dumbo. [The Ada Evening News, Apr 3, 1960.]
Four Perfect Bridge Hands (1959)
At London's St. James' Club, on April 1, four perfect bridge hands (a full suit) were dealt at the same table. The odds of this happening were estimated to be 53,644,737,765,488,792,839,237,440,000 to 1. The players had to convince other club members that the perfect hands were not a hoax. The duke of Marlborough, with 13 spades, held the winning hand. [Chicago Daily Tribune, Apr 3, 1959.]
Jurors believe summons to be a joke (1959)
Residents of St. Joseph, Missouri who received a notice on April 1st informing them they had been selected for jury duty thought the notices were a joke and none of them showed up. Deputy sheriffs had to make a special trip to their homes to inform them that the summons were real. The Sheriff's Department later made a special plea to the circuit judges: "Please don't draw a panel of jurors on April Fool's Day again." [The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune, Apr 3, 1959.]
Firemen Don’t Respond (1950)
When fire station No. 2 in High Point, North Carolina received an emergency call from fire station No. 1, they decided not to respond, thinking it must be an April Fool gag. They were incorrect. It turned out that fire station No. 1 really was on fire. An explosion had resulted in flames which damaged their truck. [Waterloo Sunday Courier, Apr 2, 1950.]
Escape of the Duke of Lorraine (1632)
According to French legend, the Duke of Lorraine and his wife were imprisoned at Nantes. They escaped on April 1, 1632 by disguising themselves as peasants and walking through the front gate. Someone noticed them escaping and told the guards. But the guards believed the warning to be a "poisson d'Avril" (or April Fool's Day joke) and laughed at it, thus allowing the Duke and his wife to escape.
This story is occasionally offered as an early example of the custom of April Foolery. However, there is no evidence the story is true.
Extracted from here.
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