Jam Jar of Memories

When you go on holiday or go on a day out, do you collect souvenirs? Create scrapbook pages? What do you do with tickets, maps, trinkets, and other bits and bobs that you accumulate during your summer fun times? I remember being encouraged by Peter Jones who wrote How to do everything and be happy to pin everything I collect over each month to a cork board to demonstrate very obviously all the things I’ve been up to and help keep hold of the memories associated with them.

Think Money have come up with another idea which may work better for some – jam jar memories – popping everything you have gathered from a trip or holiday or experience into a jar, to keep those bits and bobs together. This memory project is great for kids (perhaps a bit late for me to be telling you this at the end of the summer holidays, sorry!), but also for adults too; I think as adults we are very good at getting rid of certain things that might be the key to reminding us of the best moments. Kids might enjoy decorating their jam jars too, but for me a nice clear glass container seems an ideal place to keep things so I can see them on display without them gathering dust or looking messy.

For me, most of the trips I have done recently haven’t been the kind when I can treat myself to a souvenir. There just isn’t space on the back of a motorbike. Actually I think maybe I’ve grown out of souvenirs now – I used to buy a pencil from every place I visited (and family did the same), but that’s stopped now and I’m in to the phase of working my way through them, and am enjoying the smiles as I remember where they came from. But, I do have things that make their way back home with me.

While we were touring around Europe on our motorbikes I made an effort to keep hold of bits and bobs that would remind me of certain places. My toll ticket to ride across the Timmelsjoch Pass, my gondola pass to get me up onto Hohe Mut in Obergurgl, city maps with scribbled circles and lines on showing places we wanted to see and the location of our hotel, Eurotunnel letter hangers, and so on. All of them have now been placed into my jar and are sat there on the shelf as a constant reminder of the awesome trip we had. They will all also help me write a blog post about the road trip, as there is nothing like something physical to bring back memories.

Actually when I was looking through all the bits of paper when taking these photographs I spotted a ticket for the street car (tram) in Mainz. The ticket machine was broken so we boarded the tram without buying one, wallets in hand ready to buy one from the conductor when they boarded. A couple of stops down, the conductors did indeed board although it turns out you can’t buy tickets from conductors on German public transport. We should have purchased one from the driver (although didn’t see any one else do that!). Oops. After a brief conversation the German lady with her very official ID and stern face, she established we were definitely just stupid English rather than locals trying to avoid paying, so she let us purchase a ticket for our journey. Rather embarrassing but never mind!

What’s in your jam jar of memories from this summer?

This post is in collaboration with Think Money, who provided the Kilner Jar and some spending money to help me fill it this summer. Find out more about their jam jar ideas here: http://www.thinkmoney.co.uk/jam-jars/