Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

It was late at night, and the Marsh family were hurrying home from an event in our bus. Yes, much of my childhood was spent on buses. They’re great! When you’re a travelling family of seven, a van or bus is a must.

In the early days, we had a Nissan Urvan, then a Toyota Coaster bus, and we had a burgundy Toyota Tarago for a while, too. The pièce de resistance was our Mercedes Benz O302, in which we travelled the length and breadth of Australia multiple times.

That night, Dad was behind the wheel, and even though he is a great driver, he happened to run one or two red lights. Mum was not impressed.

In the back, my siblings and I were messing about with a 35mm film camera (remember those?) that had no film in it. Red light cameras, with hefty fines if you got caught, had started to be introduced at Australian traffic intersections, so my brothers and I devised a slightly devious but hopefully funny plan to brighten the family’s mood in the bus that night.

Snickering quietly amongst ourselves, we waited patiently (our baby sister was an innocent bystander). Another red light happened, almost in slow motion. As Dad sailed through the intersection and Mum angrily protested, we hit the shutter button. A devastating flash of light lit up the bus.

My brothers and I thought it was hilarious. Mum did not, she was livid! Unflinching and fearing for his life, Dad stared straight ahead. If Mum’s looks could kill, Warwick Marsh’s short life would have ended that night.

Unable to contain our glee, the brothers and I exploded with laughter. If we weren’t wearing seatbelts, we would have rolled on the floor chortling. Eventually, Mum managed a grim smile. Dad wanted to crawl into the engine bay.

I’ll certainly never forget that night, and I’m so thankful for all the family memories from the times we spent in those vans and buses.

The other day I woke up to my daughters printing out digital photos and carefully compiling them into a photo album. I was inspired! In the ‘olden’ days, this was a common practice. My wife and I thankfully have several photo albums from our childhoods and early life together, but with the advent of digital photography, creating photo albums these days seems rare.

Sure, many of us regularly capture, store and ‘share’ memories online, but if like me you try to avoid spending too much time on your digital device, sharing photos and memories with your family via an old-fashioned photo album is a great idea! Hats off to my wonderful daughters, and the best part was that we enjoyed some precious time travelling down memory lane, reminiscing together.

It’s probably for the best that my brothers and I did not have film in the camera that night of the traffic red lights. That one lives on in memory only, but I’m so thankful for all the memories captured in images and footage that my family will keep and cherish for many years to come.

Lovework

Capture and keep as many memories as you can for your children and grandchildren. The keeping of the memories is one thing, but more importantly, make sure you share and enjoy them together with family and friends. You won’t regret it.

Yours for Keeping Memories,
Nathaniel Marsh

P.S. Thank you again to everyone who donated to Dads4Kids‘ EOFY matching challenge. Thanks to the generous support of our amazing donors, we exceeded the challenge – THANK YOU!!!

The team at Dads4Kids appreciates all the encouragement, prayers and ongoing support from our wonderful donors to help transform the nation by inspiring fathers to help their children be the best they can be!

P.P.S If you’re keen to make some great memories, and be inspired and encouraged further, please consider joining us for the 2024 Men’s Leadership Summit on the 2^nd weekend of August. Find out more and hear from one of this year’s Keynote Speakers, Pastor Wayne Alcorn, in this video.

___

Republished with thanks to Dads4Kids. Image courtesy of Adobe.