I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Keith Bolderson, an 88 year old retired business man and ex-member of the Prince's Trust. Keith lives at home with his granddaughter and her partner. Keith enjoys gardening, traveling to foreign towns and cities, and going to the Greek restaurant Daphnes, in Camden Town.
Keith told me that there were many items around the house that had a story attached to them. I asked him to shortlist 5 of them (that came to mind first). One of the stories he told, that stood out to me as being some what nostalgic, was about a set of cutlery he owned. He explained to me that when his father died his mother downsized to a single bed flat. She also decided to get a single set of stainless steal cutlery - 1 knife, 1 fork, 1 soup spoon , and 1 desert spoon. Keith explained that whilst his father was alive, she would clean the silver cutlery set every Friday of her married life. Having just the 1 set made life a whole lot easier for her. Keith has since kept hold of her single set of cutlery.
The other story that I found rather mesmerising was the story of a gold clock his father-in-law Bob Karger was given during the Second World War. Bob, who I wrote about previously, was a German Jewish refugee that fled to London just before the war started. Bob worked as a jeweller in Holborn. One day when walking home from work he bumped in to a friend from Germany that he had not seen for over 2 years. His friend apparently was wanting to get as far away from Europe as possible. He asked if Bob could look after a gold clock of his until he returned to London. Bob agreed, and deposited it in his safe at work. By 1947 Bob realised that his friend was not coming back to reclaim the clock, and decided to at long last give the clock a home. Keith told me that the family’s had it since 1939, and I have to consider that it’s ours now.