Elephant House Archives

VINTAGE VIGNETTES – By Vinodh Wickremeratne Vinodh Wickremeratne reminisces his childhood/adolescence and anecdotal ‘renderings’ of many ‘elders’ In the unique pursuit he is involved the ‘young’ are about ages 50-60 middle aged are 70-80 and the elderly are over 90. The challenge being to find people with good memory. (This note is disjointed, but it will be restructured in 15 year segmented periods or by subject. Also Indicated will be clear ‘cut-off’ periods of the discussion under review, the ‘hotch-potch’ placings will be ironed out, loosely thought of from 1890 to the end of Ceylon in 1972. Obviously events before the writer’s birth and childhood are from anecdotal sources >grandparents, greatgrandmother and doing the ‘rounds’ in elders’ homes’ and reference to an extensive ‘home archive’ Ferguson’s Directories, Times Books, old newspapers , there is an almost complete 1898 CEYLON STANDARD with a ‘wealth ‘ of information. The writer is a ...

“REMEMBER WHEN”? – By Des Kelly The years seem to have slipped by, too fast. Now, all we can do is try to remember times when this World of ours moved at a pace that most of us could keep up, with. In my own case, it was a simple, yet satisfying life, no “living it up” as the saying indicates, no fancy restaurants to frequent, no expensive birthday presents to expect, never enough money to keep ahead of the “bills” that came in, my dad being the only breadwinner in the family, mum being just the cook & carer of the family, still, I can never ever remember missing a single meal, simple enough, though it was. Luckily, mum, God rest her soul, was a superb cook, and anything she made, was worth going a long way, to eat. Somehow, it was a good life. You did ...