13 Jan 2011

LITTLE NOTES

Jenny Matlock
more participants at Jenny Matlock's Alphabet Thursday

N = Notes

When we were first living together and then a freshly married couple, Mr. G. worked in the Hilton Hotel and had completely other working hours than me. I worked from 8.30 am til 6 pm, he had shift hours and we saw each other only for a few hours. He worked then from 3 pm til 11 pm or from 11 pm til 6 am. That's why I used a little book for leaving notes.

Of course in 1968/69 we didn't have a cell phone to quickly give a call or send a little text, in case you needed or wanted to tell something.

Just before Christmas I was looking for the very first album of my son as a baby, he had just become a daddy and he wanted to compare of course. And there I found this little note book together with other things from the past.

I didn't remember that we wrote such cute little notes and that I made little drawings and our very big concern was our cat Piccola. So day after day I wrote a note, what he had to buy or to do, or he wrote me to sew a button on his shirt. They were always signed with funny little names and of course lots of kisses.






This is the agenda we used to leave notes for each other, like

- You must be tired ! I'll buy a gift for Mukki today, take off the colar from the cat when she is not going out

- I come back with the tramway if it doesn't rain

- the Electrician had come, coffee is on the stove, if you are hungry, buy bread

- there is a soup to be warmed up ...


We wrote in German, because at that time Mr. G. spoke only very little French, but fluently German because he had lived in Germany for 3 years where he was working for a big company with a lot of Italian workers. Being Italian himself, he translated for them and also wrote their letters to their families, because lots of them could not read and write.

These times of little notes are long gone, because from hotel work he changed to Analyst and Programmer. This kind of job had just been created and you only needed 3 months of Computer classes in 1971 ! Today you have to go to University for 4 years to do the same job.

As he worked in an office now, we had the same office hours, our little notes were not needed anymore. Our offices were in the same street, and we could even have lunch together.



Today I use my mobile to write little notes, they are short, in French and they have no little drawings. Kisses take too much space after 41 years of marriage, for just asking to buy a bread.

19 comments:

  1. Sad to think that little notes like these are never written now. It's so nice to look back and reminisce with notebooks like yours. Now text messages are deleted and fly off into space to be forever forgotten.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow Gattina;) what BRILLIANT memories. Glad you kept them. You ARE thinking of writing a book, not so? Mr G is such a clever man too. Imagine translating and writing home for those men he worked with. Thanks for a lovely post today. (((Hugs))) Jo PS has it stopped raining/snowing and has the sun appeared - I know how yoiu pine for the sun. I wish you were here in SA with me now - halcyon days xxx

    ReplyDelete
  3. What wonderful memories you have kept!! simply lovely. Love those little drawings too :)

    Real life is keeping me busy and away from blogging... Happy Thursday!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love this post! My fiance still leaves me little paper notes everyday when he goes to work. It's one of the things that makes him wonderful. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a cute memory! Nice you kept thes notebooks!!! It is always funny to read them after years.
    mon dos commence me faire souffrir!!! vivement que je puisse remarcher normalement!

    ReplyDelete
  6. How wonderful to be able to look back at simple messages and remember.

    ReplyDelete
  7. How dear that is. Thank you for sharing that with us.

    ReplyDelete
  8. That is so lovely, I love technology but also wish we would 'write' more.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That book with all your little notes to each other is a treasure!

    =)

    ReplyDelete
  10. How sweet! I wonder if couples write love letters these days? I suppose not, it's all texts and phone calls. The trouble is that you can't keep those and reread them . . .

    ReplyDelete
  11. Gattina, I love your little notes! Rod travelled every week before he retired, and I would always put a note in his suitcase for him to read when he reached his destination.

    Thank you for your comment on my post. I have to be very careful what I say when I am at our golf club, but when I am with my fellow artists, I can say what I think!

    ReplyDelete
  12. So interesting how life has changed.
    My husband travelled so I had to wait 2 weeks to get a letter from him and they were long letters. And he also left me many notes which made me smile. It's nice to be loved.
    In the past anyone cold join the army but today they want the best people, smart people with the capacity to learn, so this leaves the people who really need to learn,and not quite making it in school, high and dry.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love this! What a treasure to find and look back at the notes.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I like the idea of writing notes in a book to each other. I think it shall be the husband and my new thing for the year. It doesn't matter that we're with each other 24/7. :-) Thanks for the inspiration, Gattina.

    ReplyDelete
  15. What a precious discovery!

    My younger son sometimes leaves me little notes and doodles. Sometimes he will write them on a page far down my scribble pad and it will be a week before I find them.

    It's fun and rather sweet.

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a lovely family keepsake! I love it! My daughter and I write notes to each other in a book that finds its way under the pillow whenever it's needed. I love it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. What a beautiful little post! You have to go back to writing notes again!

    I still leave them for my husband and he for me!

    Those notebooks are absolute treasures. How wonderful that you saved them.

    Thanks for sharing them.

    A+

    ReplyDelete
  18. That is so cool! What instant memories (that might otherwise have been forgotten) that would bring back!
    When my daughter was young, we had a small book in which we wrote notes back and forth to each other. ( I blogged about journaling not so long ago and included a snippet of a page.)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Forty-one years!! Congratulations, Gattina, that is wonderful in this day and age. Those little notes and the kisses must have been a good start in that marriage!!!

    ReplyDelete

Dear Anonymous,
Please do not be shy and leave your name, otherwise you will end up in the bin !