And postcards...last summer, on the beach, we found a pile of someone 's holiday cards, all written and addressed. I took them home, bought stamps (!) and posted them - but not untill I had read and copied each one, and mentally made a whole story out of them 😀
Oh Janey, you’re a lovely, lovely human! What a wonderful thing to do - I love that!
I remember when my parents went to somewhere very far-flung with no postal service - I think it was an island somewhere very remote - and there was a box for visitors to post their postcards into. The idea was that any visitors to the island would look in the box to see if there were any addressed to people from their home country - in which case the suggestion was for them to take those postcards away with them and post them to their recipients when they got home.
I thought it was a really lovely system! People would have no idea when - or even whether! - those cards would be on their way. I think that’s rather wonderful in its own way.x
Another list adventure! Perhaps your “yogurt” list maker was American with that spelling. I have a confession to make: whenever I’m walking on the beach or anywhere in nature, I keep my eye out for interesting lost lists… because of you, Rebecca!
Oooooh, well, if you DO ever find a list, I’d be really glad to see a picture of it, Jen!
I think ‘yogurt’ is pretty much the prevailing spelling over here these days, but I still prefer ‘yoghurt’! It’s one of those words - both are - where the longer you look at it, the crazier the spelling seems to be - regardless of the h/no h thing!
I was wondering if the dots were marking off as they were found, but there really aren’t enough of them for that, so I’ll bow to your greater experience. Grin. Always fun checking out other people’s lists. Hugs my dear. All the best.
Oh, that’s interesting, because nothing’s crossed off as such! But I think if they were to mark whether an item has been put into the shopping trolley or not they’d perhaps be more obvious! Who knows? It’s amazing, actually, how very different lists from different people are. Oooooh, now, that’s an idea - maybe I should interview some friends about their list practices? Do they cross things out with a line? Do they just put an x after - or before - the listed item to show that they’ve picked it up? Do they prefer to do the latter because it means they can still see what had been on the list, or the former, to delete all evidence of it - as a kind of ‘right, I’ve DONE that, so I never need to see what had been on that list in the first place’ thing?
Beth, you’ve got me even MORE interested in lists, now! And hugs right back atcha, lovely lady! x
This post is classic Rebecca Holden. So perfect for a first-thing-in-the-morning-along-with-a-crossword-puzzle-and-coffee hour. Light-hearted and entertaining and staves off consciousness of the reality of the world for a few minutes longer. I love hearing your detective work. Thank you so much, Rebecca.
I love your "list stories"! Now if you were a handwriting aficionado, you could also tell even more about the person who wrote the list: male or female, are they in a relationship, etc...
In my chair side studies of handwriting, I'm looking at the very last list on your post with "Home Bargain" written at the top. I would say that by the style of writing, rather neat and scrollish, that the first four items were written by a female hand and the bottom line by a male. Also, the woman seems to have some issues with separation, or commitment as evidenced by the spaces between the "o" and the "m" and the "g" and the "a" in the two words Home Bargain. She also has a hard time keeping a secret as evidenced by the non-closing of the "a's" and the "g" in the first two words. At the bottom, her mate is rather impatient and already ahead of her out the door. LOL! She is also a lot tidier in her home and demeanor and he is not one to be a follower of fashion.
I'm afraid that's about it on my amateur handwriting analysis, although I could be entirely off base. ;-)
Oh Gail, this is a fascinating analysis - and you’ve really pricked my interest in the study of handwriting! There’s a new rabbit hole for me to explore - oooooooooh, that’s so cool!
Funnily enough I’ve been gathering some material over recent weeks towards writing a post about handwriting - I’ve come across several articles, and also I'm always interested in left-handed versus right-handed writing. I’m going to be having a look, based on what you’ve said here, about the kinds of ‘hidden’ things that handwriting can show us, too! Thank you so much for sending me on this journey…..! xxx
What a delightful post!!! Thank you!!! And now I will wonder all day long whether the shoppers lost their lists before or after shopping. I hope after... I don't enjoy the feeling of standing just inside the grocery store patting myself down for my list, realizing it's not in any pocket but is on the counter at home... 🤦♀️
Thank you so much! D’you know, I wondered that too - particularly with the Monday list which I’d found right in the entrance to the supermarket! Nothing on it had been crossed off, so I’m wondering if had been dropped PRE-shopping?
(I wonder what the shopper might have come home with? What were they hungry for RIGHT THEN? Peaches? Corned beef? Popcorn? They might have come home with loads and those of those, and no bacon or cucumber AT ALL! 🫣)
Yes!!! I can see that happening!!! It's certainly happened to me: arrive at the store having forgotten my list... impulse buy and after getting home and finding my list on the counter realizing that I got nothing from my list! 🤦♀️😆
Ha! I can sooooo relate to this! I do 99% of my grocery shopping online…. and half the time still don’t refer to my list! And impulse buying is still just as much of a risk…. ha! 🫣
Whenever I find a discarded shopping List, I Circle the spelling and grammatical errors (in red), give it a mark out of 10, and then put it back where I found it.
I love your Listograms. The thought and detail you put into such banal items makes them at once exciting and thought-provoking. I mean, what WAS the writer really like?
I must keep my eye open for lists and then when I have a few, I can mail them to you as a source of intrigue and amusement at the Aussie way.
Thank you so much, Prue! Lists are such fun! And gosh, yes please - any time you find a list I’d be really glad to see it! An e-mailed snap would be amaaaaazing!
There are so many Aussie things that are different to things over here. I only very recently discovered that TimTams are very like Penguin biscuits (which don’t exist any more - sob!).
I wouldn't call them digestives. They're chocolate-coated biscuits, sometimes sandwiched with chocolate. Absolutely the creme de la creme of commercial biscuits in Australia. But then our biscuits are different to American ones, I think.
The ones I'm thinking of are UK, I believe. We get them in the Bahamas. Delish and that is actually their name, Digestives. Always a delight to compare delights! xo
What a joyful and fun post, Rebecca, so light-hearted, so finely written, so delightful to read, I'm wishing for more. Love your list posts and your loving lists, and how my Jim and I say in unison, "Rebecca!" when we see a list of any sort abandoned on the ground or in a shopping cart. 😊
Awwww! I’ve still got one of yours in mind to write about! My next post (which I’m sad might not be ready for Saturday!) is going to be about a book I found! I’ve been having great fun researching it, but no words have quite made it onto paper yet, LOL!!! x
Delightful, Rebecca, imagining alongside you who these folks are and what their pages say about them. When I come across a wayward list, I wonder if it's been lost before or after the shopping is complete. I picture the person digging into pockets and handbags: "I know I left the house with it...where's it gone?" And if their provisioning wasn't quite complete, I wonder if they make a new list or just wing it from there on out. For me, the act of writing something down often helps me remember, whether or not I have my list.
Does anyone else write a list, do some task that's not on the list - and then write it on the list, and solemnly cross it off? Or is it just me? Regularly 😂
It’s really useful, actually. At the end of the day my list for that day is a record of all the to-dos I have to-done - with many tasks being logged after the fact. I’m a very big fan of the to-done list!
Good glad you know about that book!!! BTW I just got a copy of Brandreth's "Dancing by the light of the moon" !!! Thank you again for suggesting it!!!!
Oh gosh, how lovely - I do hope you’re enjoying it! I’m following some of his tips for learning poems, and absolutely loving the voyage of discovery through his wonderful selections. I’m even tempted to try writing some of my own! ❤️💚
I love this post. Inspiration from discarded list brilliant, and the potential back stories. I can feel a few black eyes coming on looking down the pavement for lists rather than avoiding lamp posts 😂😘
They are crucial, I think to me as a writer as I am always having some sort of epiphany and then listing what happens next when I write the story and then....where on earth did I leave that? I know it's right here somewhere.....I am a leader of lost lists. J
Love other people's lists and letters!
And postcards...last summer, on the beach, we found a pile of someone 's holiday cards, all written and addressed. I took them home, bought stamps (!) and posted them - but not untill I had read and copied each one, and mentally made a whole story out of them 😀
Oh Janey, you’re a lovely, lovely human! What a wonderful thing to do - I love that!
I remember when my parents went to somewhere very far-flung with no postal service - I think it was an island somewhere very remote - and there was a box for visitors to post their postcards into. The idea was that any visitors to the island would look in the box to see if there were any addressed to people from their home country - in which case the suggestion was for them to take those postcards away with them and post them to their recipients when they got home.
I thought it was a really lovely system! People would have no idea when - or even whether! - those cards would be on their way. I think that’s rather wonderful in its own way.x
I have to wonder if the recipients received two cards, Janey. The ones you sent and the new ones the original author recreated! 😅
Oh wow, that’s a really good point! I wonder if they did? How lovely!
Another list adventure! Perhaps your “yogurt” list maker was American with that spelling. I have a confession to make: whenever I’m walking on the beach or anywhere in nature, I keep my eye out for interesting lost lists… because of you, Rebecca!
Oooooh, well, if you DO ever find a list, I’d be really glad to see a picture of it, Jen!
I think ‘yogurt’ is pretty much the prevailing spelling over here these days, but I still prefer ‘yoghurt’! It’s one of those words - both are - where the longer you look at it, the crazier the spelling seems to be - regardless of the h/no h thing!
I was wondering if the dots were marking off as they were found, but there really aren’t enough of them for that, so I’ll bow to your greater experience. Grin. Always fun checking out other people’s lists. Hugs my dear. All the best.
Oh, that’s interesting, because nothing’s crossed off as such! But I think if they were to mark whether an item has been put into the shopping trolley or not they’d perhaps be more obvious! Who knows? It’s amazing, actually, how very different lists from different people are. Oooooh, now, that’s an idea - maybe I should interview some friends about their list practices? Do they cross things out with a line? Do they just put an x after - or before - the listed item to show that they’ve picked it up? Do they prefer to do the latter because it means they can still see what had been on the list, or the former, to delete all evidence of it - as a kind of ‘right, I’ve DONE that, so I never need to see what had been on that list in the first place’ thing?
Beth, you’ve got me even MORE interested in lists, now! And hugs right back atcha, lovely lady! x
🤗🤗❤️💕
I had a similar thought to Beth's and came to the same conclusion as you!
😁
This post is classic Rebecca Holden. So perfect for a first-thing-in-the-morning-along-with-a-crossword-puzzle-and-coffee hour. Light-hearted and entertaining and staves off consciousness of the reality of the world for a few minutes longer. I love hearing your detective work. Thank you so much, Rebecca.
LOL and thank you so much, Sharron, for reading! I love a list, and I also love going a little bit silly with them! x
I love your "list stories"! Now if you were a handwriting aficionado, you could also tell even more about the person who wrote the list: male or female, are they in a relationship, etc...
In my chair side studies of handwriting, I'm looking at the very last list on your post with "Home Bargain" written at the top. I would say that by the style of writing, rather neat and scrollish, that the first four items were written by a female hand and the bottom line by a male. Also, the woman seems to have some issues with separation, or commitment as evidenced by the spaces between the "o" and the "m" and the "g" and the "a" in the two words Home Bargain. She also has a hard time keeping a secret as evidenced by the non-closing of the "a's" and the "g" in the first two words. At the bottom, her mate is rather impatient and already ahead of her out the door. LOL! She is also a lot tidier in her home and demeanor and he is not one to be a follower of fashion.
I'm afraid that's about it on my amateur handwriting analysis, although I could be entirely off base. ;-)
Oh Gail, this is a fascinating analysis - and you’ve really pricked my interest in the study of handwriting! There’s a new rabbit hole for me to explore - oooooooooh, that’s so cool!
Funnily enough I’ve been gathering some material over recent weeks towards writing a post about handwriting - I’ve come across several articles, and also I'm always interested in left-handed versus right-handed writing. I’m going to be having a look, based on what you’ve said here, about the kinds of ‘hidden’ things that handwriting can show us, too! Thank you so much for sending me on this journey…..! xxx
What a delightful post!!! Thank you!!! And now I will wonder all day long whether the shoppers lost their lists before or after shopping. I hope after... I don't enjoy the feeling of standing just inside the grocery store patting myself down for my list, realizing it's not in any pocket but is on the counter at home... 🤦♀️
Thank you so much! D’you know, I wondered that too - particularly with the Monday list which I’d found right in the entrance to the supermarket! Nothing on it had been crossed off, so I’m wondering if had been dropped PRE-shopping?
(I wonder what the shopper might have come home with? What were they hungry for RIGHT THEN? Peaches? Corned beef? Popcorn? They might have come home with loads and those of those, and no bacon or cucumber AT ALL! 🫣)
Yes!!! I can see that happening!!! It's certainly happened to me: arrive at the store having forgotten my list... impulse buy and after getting home and finding my list on the counter realizing that I got nothing from my list! 🤦♀️😆
Ha! I can sooooo relate to this! I do 99% of my grocery shopping online…. and half the time still don’t refer to my list! And impulse buying is still just as much of a risk…. ha! 🫣
Whenever I find a discarded shopping List, I Circle the spelling and grammatical errors (in red), give it a mark out of 10, and then put it back where I found it.
😂
Typical. 🤣
😂
I love your Listograms. The thought and detail you put into such banal items makes them at once exciting and thought-provoking. I mean, what WAS the writer really like?
I must keep my eye open for lists and then when I have a few, I can mail them to you as a source of intrigue and amusement at the Aussie way.
Thank you so much, Prue! Lists are such fun! And gosh, yes please - any time you find a list I’d be really glad to see it! An e-mailed snap would be amaaaaazing!
There are so many Aussie things that are different to things over here. I only very recently discovered that TimTams are very like Penguin biscuits (which don’t exist any more - sob!).
Rebecca - can you access TimTams in the UK? The double choc ones are delish and I'm a bit partial to the coffee ones as well.
I’m not sure - probably, though! We can get most international things online. I shall have a look (and order some - LOL!!!!!!). x
Are those like digestives?? Crave them. Rare here!
I wouldn't call them digestives. They're chocolate-coated biscuits, sometimes sandwiched with chocolate. Absolutely the creme de la creme of commercial biscuits in Australia. But then our biscuits are different to American ones, I think.
The ones I'm thinking of are UK, I believe. We get them in the Bahamas. Delish and that is actually their name, Digestives. Always a delight to compare delights! xo
I also honed in on the list-ending period…your British full stop is so much more appropriate in this case. Finis!
😁 It’s funny, isn’t it - I think in a list a full stop means so much more than a full stop! Hard to explain, but I think I know what I mean! x
I LOVE your list essays! There's something about sneaking a peek into other people's lives, even if it's in our imagination.
So kind, Donna - thank you! I think lists are fascinating…. so there will be more, I’m sure! Thanks for reading!
Have you seen "Lists of Note" by Shaun Usher? It's a big thick coffee table type book with photos of all kinds of lists... typed, handwritten etc...
What a joyful and fun post, Rebecca, so light-hearted, so finely written, so delightful to read, I'm wishing for more. Love your list posts and your loving lists, and how my Jim and I say in unison, "Rebecca!" when we see a list of any sort abandoned on the ground or in a shopping cart. 😊
Awwww! I’ve still got one of yours in mind to write about! My next post (which I’m sad might not be ready for Saturday!) is going to be about a book I found! I’ve been having great fun researching it, but no words have quite made it onto paper yet, LOL!!! x
😂 Written words are secondary to concepts and ideas! 😀
Delightful, Rebecca, imagining alongside you who these folks are and what their pages say about them. When I come across a wayward list, I wonder if it's been lost before or after the shopping is complete. I picture the person digging into pockets and handbags: "I know I left the house with it...where's it gone?" And if their provisioning wasn't quite complete, I wonder if they make a new list or just wing it from there on out. For me, the act of writing something down often helps me remember, whether or not I have my list.
Speaking of lost, this week's Chicken Scratch is one you'll relate to, Rebecca, when time and interest allow. :) https://elizabethbeggins.substack.com/p/providence-and-vermont-avenue
Does anyone else write a list, do some task that's not on the list - and then write it on the list, and solemnly cross it off? Or is it just me? Regularly 😂
YES!!!!!!! ALL THE TIME!!!!!!!!
It’s really useful, actually. At the end of the day my list for that day is a record of all the to-dos I have to-done - with many tasks being logged after the fact. I’m a very big fan of the to-done list!
Rebecca have you seen the book Lists Of Note by Shaun Usher ??? https://guardianbookshop.com/lists-of-note-9781782114529
I love your fun playful way of describing your found lists (and a book!!) - Shaun is more formal but still interesting.
Ooooh, I have, and I stalk him on Substack, too! I really enjoy his Letters of Note as well!
Good glad you know about that book!!! BTW I just got a copy of Brandreth's "Dancing by the light of the moon" !!! Thank you again for suggesting it!!!!
Oh gosh, how lovely - I do hope you’re enjoying it! I’m following some of his tips for learning poems, and absolutely loving the voyage of discovery through his wonderful selections. I’m even tempted to try writing some of my own! ❤️💚
I love this post. Inspiration from discarded list brilliant, and the potential back stories. I can feel a few black eyes coming on looking down the pavement for lists rather than avoiding lamp posts 😂😘
LOL, thank you so much, Jo!
(Jim nearly fell over trying to catch it under his foot under my hastily-yelled instructions - it was a breezy day!!!!)
They are crucial, I think to me as a writer as I am always having some sort of epiphany and then listing what happens next when I write the story and then....where on earth did I leave that? I know it's right here somewhere.....I am a leader of lost lists. J
I can sooooooo relate, Janice! 🤣
'Leader of lost lists' - well now, that's a title right there!