The other project

From left to right, Uncle Brian, grandma, dad, Auntie Wendy, granddad and Auntie Jean, taken in the house they all lived in in Purley just before the outbreak of WWII. Grandma and granddad are long gone bless their souls, but their children are all still alive (my dad the youngest at 76 and Auntie Jean now 82). This is the granddad who was a pilot (see About Me) and who wrote two books. With the exception of Auntie Wendy, all of the people seen here have written the stories of their lives in one form or another. Auntie Wendy has recently become the custodian of the Schofield family photo archive. I’m going to see her next week to borrow the archive and scan it. I’m also going to work some more on her and get her started on her memoirs. I recently discovered that grandma’s sister, my great aunt Alice (who I loved dearly and who died when I was only 11) was an embarrassment to the family. A fervent communist, Auntie Alice used to go on holiday behind the Iron Curtain and was always entertaining people from what were at the time Warsaw Pact countries. Skeletons don’t interest me. Colour does. Auntie Alice was especially colourful. My granddad was a home-movie fanatic and shot hours of 16mm black and white material of his young family in the 1930s. All of it was lost. Incidentally, this photograph was taken by a woman. I don’t know why I’m adding this.