Next year the past

Like many charities, we sell a range of goods to help raise funds. Perhaps the most appropriate for a dementia charity is our “More Memories of Bristol” calendar 2013.

The title reflects the fact that we had a Memories of Bristol calendar in 2011, using thirteen previously unpublished photos of Bristol from about 1950 onwards. They were all the work of local photographer Geoff Packer, whose family kindly made them available to BRACE to help raise funds. We are very grateful to the Packer family for giving us the opportunity to use a further thirteen photos from Geoff’s collection for a 2013 calendar.

I think this calendar has a better selection of photos than the 2011 version. Most of the pictures date from the 1950s, but it’s a bit of a shock for me to realise that I’m old enough to identify with at least one picture of Bristol’s past. It is dated 1973, and I remember running across that zebra crossing after school to catch the number 87 or 88 at that bus stop. Some of the photos include strange details, such as cars parked in places where they would now cause a major incident, or buildings now hidden behind later construction which were then in plain view.

It’s a little gem for anyone who has any memories of the city from the 1950s or the early 1970s.

Redcliff Hill 1956 (October's photo)

The reason it seems appropriate is that dementia is very much about memory. Not just about memory, of course, but the loss of it is perhaps the cruellest part of the disease. The world we see in the photos is the world that older Bristolians with dementia once knew, remembered long and then started to lose piece by piece. In cases where the patient is struggling to make new memories rather than remember the distant past, this might be the city they still see in their mind’s eye. Whatever the reality in any individual case, the symbolism is poignant.

We couldn’t risk having unsold stock at the end of 2012, because few things date faster than a calendar after 31^st December. We therefore only printed 600. They are selling rapidly, but there are still some left. If you are interested, more information is available on our website shop page.