During the culling of the cluttered Little Darwin den because of our intention to move , an astounding array of forgotten unusual items , much of it ephemera , is surfacing .
Veteran sorter of his own amazing files, Pete Steedman , in Melbourne , asked if this writer is going mad trying to recall where he bought everything .
The answer to this question is the Little Darwin sorter is obviously increasingly troppo and sweaty . Out of a box of mixed paper he found a l998 email sent to the Alexander Turnbull Library in New Zealand informing them we were holding a flying boat diary for them,listed in one of our catalogues.
The sorter went on to say more New Zealand items of interest could be contained in two other catalogues - just compiled - containing things bought during a grand tour of the country , with his wife, after attending a 60th wedding anniversary in Kiwiland.
That tour took in bookshops,op and secondhand shops , garage sales, antique shops, speakeasies, dumps,etc.
The library was informed another two cases full of books and ephemera could have been bought , but each time Little Darwin bent down to rummage through a box of potential treasures,guarded by man-eating silverfish, his wife put in the slipper , muttered about excess baggage on the return flight to Australia.
