Letters

Yesterday at 6 I went walking round the neighbourhood after the rain had finished falling, to deliver letters to my neighbours. I don't know most of them, but I had a stack of 30 letters with this on it:

Hello Friend!

I’m Miriam, from Block 7 #03-05, and I’m doing a project on our neighbourhood. I’ve lived here since I was born, and I have fond memories – cycling round the blocks, walking across what used to be the KTM railway track, bouncing on the trampoline and saying hello to Muthu on the 191 bus.

This place holds so much history, serving as a housing complex for British soldiers and their families from the 1940s to the 1970s, and has personal significance to everyone here as home. I wanted to combine both of these important components in a write up/photo journal to remember it all. 

I was hoping that you could help me in this project. If you could write down when you moved here, what this place means to you, and some of your favourite memories about the estate, that would be so great. If you want to, you could even include pictures, which I will scan and put into the document, and then put back in your mailbox! I’ve a form you can fill up with the questions about your perception of our neighbourhood. Feel free to photocopy it if your family wants to fill it in. Once the write-up is done (probably by the end of May), I’ll print copies and send them to you too!

If you have any questions or you just want to talk about the project, feel free to email me at miriamyeo96@gmail.com. If you don’t feel comfortable with sharing your personal stories, no worries, and thank you for reading this far anyway!

Thank you and I hope to hear from you soon!

(And the form behind)

I felt so nervous posting letters in randomly chosen letter boxes in our 28 blocks. I felt like I was intruding on the privacy of other people and giving up my anonymity at the same time. But I am determined to get these personal stories to supplement the project I'm doing about Westbourne. I don't know how much longer Westbourne will remain, and I want to preserve it, if not physically, then with words and memories.

While posting a letter into one of the blocks, I looked up and caught sight of an old man looking down at me disapprovingly. I almost tripped in fear/nervousness, but caught myself and posted the letter anyways, being careful that the mailbox didn't belong to that old man's unit.

At Block 28, I had to swat away numerous flies that buzzed around the front garden, and side step a dead worm lying in the middle of the lobby. Strange.

I walked into a cobweb and a puddle at block 2.

I haven't yet got any replies but it's only been a day and I can't wait to hear from my neighbours!