Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Destination: Wagga - part two

Sunday was a day of work for Aunty Becky and I. First task I took on was to photograph the large Wilder pedigree chart in sections, to make do until we can get it copied. I then entered the data for the main line into my computer, so had a reference point to work from. This takes my tree back further than before and now goes 15 generations from myself and 16 from my children! Most confusing was great, great grandfather Simon Thomas Wilder, who had made life simple for himself by marrying three women called Sarah! He wasn’t a lazy man though, as between all the Sarahs, he fathered 20 children! One of these was Joshua Frederick Wilder who came to Australia. Like his father, Joshua married three times: two Marys and an Ellen!

After a break for a quick lunch, we cleared the table and Becky opened the small case of photos we hadn’t had time for on Friday and we went through these. So many treasures, including some wonderful old postcards, dating back 100 years or more. One photo Becky moved to put aside as she didn’t know the couple whose wedding photo is was caught my eye: the flowergirl was very familiar: myself, aged about six! The couple were friends of my father and mother and this photo, plus another we also found, were unseen by myself before! Becky gave them to me and I will treasure them. I was also given a few other photos of myself as a baby, my mum and my dad and a wonderful old postcard promoting a lecture for ladies in Bethungra which alluded to teaching them the facts of life … family planning perhaps?

Some treasured china that had belonged to Gran came out of the cabinet for a photo shoot and then it was time for Becky and I to add some new photos to the collection. After spending so much time handling photos from the early days of photography, it was surreal to set up my digital SLR on its mini tripod, set the self timer and snap as many photos as we liked until we got the image we wanted!!!!
All too soon it was time for my esteemed driver Bruce to collect me to go back to the Piper palace for dinner of tacos and an evening watching the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on TV, while checking emails on our lap tops. Another wonderful night’s sleep and then Linda and I hit the Wagga shops for the morning before my train home.

First stop was Spotlight, where a few scrapbooking goodies decided to come home with me and then we visited the newsagents to buy a thank you card for the family in Kincaid St. We then had a glorious time at the second hand bookshop, where I bought Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella which Linda had suggested I read and a copy of The Midwives of Tumbarumba, which Janet and Becky had mentioned the day before! A little more shopping and then back to Linda’s for lunch and to gather my bags.

We parked at the station, confirmed the expected arrival of my train (25 minutes late) and then took a lengthy walk up hill and down dale to the local scrapbook shop. A lovely time hunting and gathering, then back to the station, to be told the train was now 40 minutes behind schedule … then an hour … then 50 mins ….

Eventually the train arrived (the waiting time spent complaining about the drink machine which swiped my money) and then whoosh, I was on my way home!!!!!

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