The Chronicle and the Collective
Both my parents were part of a big family in France: one of 10 children and the other of 11 children.
In 1952, independently, my two grandfathers started what one called "La Chronique" (The Chronicle) and the other "La Collective" (The Collective). This is how it worked: regularly, their children sent them a letter describing the main event in their lives, and my grandfathers sent the same letter to all of their children containing what happened to themselves and to all their children.
After the death of my paternal grandfather, my father Paul took over the Chronicle and his siblings sent regular letters to him. And after the death of my maternal grandfather, my father took over the Collective.
Originally, my father used a stencil duplicator from the brand Gestetner. At some point, he switches to a small word processor (not a computer) and a photocopier.
Both the Chronicle and the Collective were sent by mail, to my parents' siblings and those of their children who were no longer living with their parents.
In 1997, shortly before my father's death, my mother Marie took over the Chronicle and the Collective. At some point, she got a laptop and used LibreOffice instead of the small word processor.
As soon as she was connected to the Internet, my mother sent the Chronicle and the Collective through email, to those who could
The Bulletin Paul
In 2010, Marie realized that the part of her own contribution was too big, so she decided to only put a summary in the Chronicle and the Collective, and she created another circular letter that she called "Le Bulletin Paul" which was sent only to her children and independent grandchildren.
At that time, most of the circular letters (Chronicle, Collective, and Bulletin) were sent by email, but there were still a small number of old folks who were receiving them by mail.
When Marie died in July 2018, almost 20 years after her husband Paul, that was the end of the Chronicle, the Collective, and the Bulletin Paul, after 66 years of uninterrupted publication.
The Chronicle of the Old Folded
In 2021, my siblings and I decided to start again a publication similar to the original circular letters, sent as PDF by email. Contrary to the newsletters sent by Marie, the new publication would include pictures. It was to be published twice a month, on the 15th and on the last day of the month.
We called it "La Chronique des Vieux Pliés" (The Chronicle of the Old Folded).
The name is a private joke that would be too complicated to explain.
As the name is too long, we usually talk about the "CVP".
The last CVP, sent last Tuesday, October 15th, in the 97th. It had 67 pages. The 37 first pages were the contributions of my siblings and me, and the last 30 pages were an editorial by my brother Antoine (the publisher of the CVP) and various puzzles.
Antoine's editorials are titled "La nostalgie n'est plus ce qu'elle était" (Nostalgia is no longer what it was). In this edition of the CVP, he gave us a history of the French nuclear submarines, including part of the career of one of my uncles who was the first executive officer on the first nuclear submarine, the Redoutable.
Here is one of the puzzles in this edition:
Whoever is the first one that gives the solution to this puzzle will get a 50% upvote from me.
There were only 8 contributions in the CVP 97: two of my brothers did not send anything.
My contribution was only 2 pages long, much lower than the average contribution of 6 pages.
Here it is:
If you read regularly my posts, you will notice that one of the four pictures can be found in this post: Canadian Thanksgiving in Harrison Hot Springs. I had taken this picture for the CVP, and I reused it for the post.
Here is the translation of my contribution:
After I got back to Canada, I didn't do much of anything important for about a week. I had an appointment with my oral surgeon in November, so I moved it up to Monday, October 7th.
I went to Harrison Hot Springs for two days on the 4th and 5th.
For my appointment with the oral surgeon, I had an x-ray of the implant, and the dentist found that there was probably a problem. So I had a new appointment the next day and he had to remove the implant. So I lost a year for that tooth. The next appointment to put in a new implant is in February 2025. I was not charged anything.
Kati returned from Hungary on October 9th.
Péter, Timi, and their children Adam and Olivér arrived at the Abbotsford airport on the 11th. We picked them up in our two cars. They stayed in our apartment in Coquitlam until the morning of the 13th.
On the afternoon of the 12th, we celebrated Oliver's birthday (3 years old).
And in the evening, Kati and I went to Harrison Hot Springs, while Péter, his family, and Gabor joined us the next day.
This weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada. All our descendants from Western Canada were there for the traditional "Thanksgiving dinner" with roast turkey. There were 13 of us at the table, plus a friend of Betty's who took the picture.
The house was full, but I had arranged for everyone to sleep in a bed. However, Chris, Betty's boyfriend, decided to sleep outside on a folding bed that he uses when he goes camping. The temperature outside the next morning was 10 degrees Celsius.
Peter and his family left for Calgary from Abbotsford airport on the afternoon of the 14th. Kati and I returned to Coquitlam, after driving Gabor home to Vancouver.
Have a great fortnight everyone.
-- Vincent Celier
