The Story of My life April 18, 2008

It may seem like the height of arrogance for someone unknown to write her story and publish it on the web - but it is precisely these memories of unknown, everyday people that are lost in the passage of time. What we would give for some insight into the lives lived by those whose stories were never told - history records the deeds of the great and the infamous, but some of us yearn to know how the baker, the candlestick maker, and perhaps even the unremembered entertainer, the traveller who passed by and didn’t leave a name or a forwarding address, lived their days.

Traveller Rose is the pen name of one of those who passed by - maybe it was your town. Maybe you will recall a skinny traveller child - or `chavvie’ in the palari, the language of the travellels - who moved on as quickly as she arrived - there may have been a visit from the circus, a variety show at the local theatre, or a noisy fairgound. These are the stories, of those events, those places, that child and the world she knew, the people, the performers, the laughter and the adventures. This is for her children or grandchildren, really - but also for anyone who wants to sit a while in the caravan, with a mug of hot,strong tea, and hear the tales.

*Traveller Rose is Gail Kavanagh, a writer living in Queensland, Australia. Born a traveller in Cobh, Ireland, in 1946, Gail is writing this blog so that her memories of a world long vanished, so the memories don’t vanish along with it.