During the clean out of Mother's house, we came across Sister's certificate of membership, so she must have taken the pledge too. Who knows what happened to mine. Sister went on to the current times as a protector of the hooded plover on our beaches, as did EC who I came across in the group some time ago.
Sister and myself must have both been interested in birds as we both had these albums whereby we would stick in colourful bird cards collected from packets of Tuckfields' Tiny Tips Tea. The albums were marked out as to where each card would be placed. Note the second album has doesn't have the plural apostrophe. While it seems obvious that the album marked 1 to 96 would be mine, it was the other way around as in that one Sister had noted a couple of bird sightings. Neither albums had publication dates and neither got past being half full in spite of me urging my parents to buy more tea.
Some rekindled memories anyone?
I don't think we did have those albums. Mind you both my parents drank coffee. Tea simply didn't appear.
ReplyDeleteI do remember the Gould Society though. I wonder whether I signed up? Probably.
EC, I think Gould was promoted by the school papers that used to be published back then.
DeleteIn 1959, all grade 6ers in my school sat for a short Gould Society test. Those that passed received a certificate and a small, nicely produced book of bird images.
ReplyDeleteHels, it is good to know that care for animals was around back then.
DeleteThat's beautiful. I have a Junior Forest Ranger badge from grade school.
ReplyDeleteStrayer, missed career opportunity. You would have been a great ranger.
DeleteI don't recall every knowing about "Tuckfields Ty-nee Tip Teas" before your mentioning it here. The site below will no doubt be of interest to you, Andrew.
ReplyDeletehttp://caseycardinialinkstoourpast.blogspot.com/2019/03/fred-tuckfield-maker-of-ty-nee-tip-tea.html
Have yourself a good week. :)
"ever" instead of "every" :)
DeleteThanks very much Lee. I had no idea.
DeleteI wish I knew more about birds and such.
ReplyDeleteDora, you only have to watch them. You don't really have to know about them to enjoy them.
DeleteAh, that dreaded apostrophe again.
ReplyDeleteCro, never has such a small mark caused so much bother.
DeleteI had no idea this league even existed. We didn't hear about it when I was in school. While it is possible I just didn't pay attention, I'm still pretty sire it was never mentioned. We were too busy stuffing our heads with the names and dates of English Royalty, and why? Who knows. That knowledge never did come in useful.
ReplyDeleteRiver, interesting. We learnt nothing about English Royalty at school.
DeleteTypo! "sure" NOT 'sire"
ReplyDeleteOutstanding - Fantastic Post
ReplyDeleteCheers
Thanks Padre.
DeleteInteresting.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know of this but that's understandable where I live.
Never heard of that tea, it was always Bushells Tea now Dilmar Extra Strong for me.
Margaret, by the link above from Lee, maybe Tuckfields was very local here. Not a fan of Robur then?
DeleteWe didn't have this in the USA, but if we had I would have been a card collector for sure!
ReplyDeleteBig tea drinkers in my family. And big bird lovers too!
Maribeth, I never think of Americans being tea drinkers, but of course it is a key part of your history.
DeleteGreat memento of your childhoods.
ReplyDeleteTravel, it was a great find.
DeleteWhat a cool memory, and a great idea for getting kids interested in the natural world. I wonder if there's anything comparable now? Do "collector cards" still exist for anything besides Pokemon or Star Wars?
ReplyDeleteSteve, perhaps plastic toys in supermarkets. Bit sad.
DeleteHow cool to come across these childhood collections Andrew, I could easily have become interested in this but you know.. growing up in the middle of Africa and all that 😉
ReplyDeleteGrace, you must have had such interesting birds around in your young years.
DeleteThere were these tiny ceramic animals/birds in some tea packs when I grew up and every windowsill was choc-a-bloc with them. Also I remember the deckchairs in our garden were free from a tobacco company (Gold Flake)- coupons added up from each pack of cigs my father smoked. It was a huge celebration when they arrived.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
WWW, you have reminded me of plastic animals in cereal boxes. Before my time, but cigarette packets used to have some kind of collector cards.
DeleteThank you for sharing these treasures to us Andrew! I'm happy to have read that you have programs like those there in Australia, which really talks about how important the environment is to your society there. We have a very abundant ecosystem as well here in the Philippines but the lack of programs and awareness, especially to the youth, has brought danger and even destruction to most of our forests and wildlife. Love this collection you have.
ReplyDeleteStevenson, as you describe is a huge problem in the developing world. But the first world got away with it in the 20th century and who can blame people for wanting to improve their lives at the expense of the environment.
DeleteIt's nice that you and Sister were so interested in birds back then. I was more interested in stamps when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteGgig, I too collected stamps for a while.
DeleteI read this post 24 hours ago and it dislodged a hint of a memory in my head. I've been trying ever since to fluff it into a bigger memory - without luck. But it seems quite familiar. I think we had similar cards but of course put out by some company here in Canada. I think it was all animals, not just birds. That's it, that's all I can remember but it's a pleasant little memory all the same.
ReplyDeleteLike Wisewebwoman, we also collected the tiny ceramic animals/birds/reptiles that came in Red Rose Tea. I still have a basket of them. Some are sold on ebay now, the rare ones bring more of course.
What a lovely find for you at your mother's house.
Jenny, I vaguely remember animal cards. Our collectables in cereal packets were only plastic.
DeleteWhat lovely memories Andrew. I enjoy seeing birds in my garden, but apart from a couple of them I have no idea of what they are called. I collected and still collect stamps and coins from other countries.
ReplyDeleteCoins from other countries Sami? Can I send you some?
Delete