Misplacing Paris: Winter Count

Telling Mum about adventures with Winter Count, the system where you create a symbol for each year and embroider, burn, paint them in a spiral outwards from birth. I said, 'You know I, for some reason, thought we were in France for the Bicentenary (of Euro-Australia), but when I put all the years down, it turns out I was there in 1986. And the Bicentenary was 1988. Isn't that odd?

She said, 'We were there in 1987, weren't you 15?'
Well I know I was in Year 9. And according to my timeline, I was in Year 9 in 1986.
The other key year was when I was in Paris at 10 with Dad for 3 months. I was 10 in 1982. But no, Mum said I was in Paris in 1983. Spring (April) in Paris, and my birthday is in September, so both are correct. I was actually 10 for most of 1982. 

I'm sure this is super boring for the reader, but it's interesting to me how badly I remember years and what happened in them and the things I've made a rough reckoning of which are not quite right. So if we (the family: parents, brothers and I) spent the last 6 months of 1987 in Europe, then we would indeed have missed the new year celebrations on 31st December 1987 and all the build up and school events of that year. 

The Winter Count is the thing that has caught Keon's imagination so we're trying out that one together. Where our timelines collide, we have the option of using the same icon.

I like the idea of creating a Wintercount for my grandparents as a way of pinning down the 20th century. My grandfather was born in the 19th century.