A New Blog Project: Autographs, Pins and Memories

I recently realized that I have been on Blogger since April 2010—sixteen years already! In fact, some of my blogging goes back even further, to around 2007. Over all that time, I have published about 90 posts in English (and then translated them into Polish).

Is that a lot? Perhaps not at first glance—but there are a few reasons for that. My blog has always focused on travel in Canada, the United States, and Cuba, and I simply haven’t been travelling as much in recent years. More importantly, most of my posts tend to be quite long—sometimes very long—carefully prepared, well-researched, and illustrated with numerous photographs. On top of that, writing everything first in English and then translating it into Polish is a fairly time-consuming process.

Recently, while decluttering my home, I came across several old notebooks containing my autograph collection—mostly from Poland in the 1970s. As I began leafing through them, page by page, I found myself drawn back into that time, with memories returning in vivid detail. That moment gave me an idea: why not create a separate blog where I could share these autographs—along with the stories behind them, the circumstances in which they were obtained, and some background about the people who signed them?

Once I started working on that idea, another thought followed quite naturally. Over the years I have also accumulated a fairly large collection of pins and badges, again mostly from Poland. Each of them has its own story, often connected to a place, an event, or a particular moment in time. Why not share those as well? And beyond that—why not include broader memories, where a single object, name, or encounter becomes the starting point for a much larger story?

And so, on April 11, 2026, I created a NEW BLOG:

Autographs, Pins and Memories

The blog is available in both English and Polish:

Autographs, Pins and Memories (English): https://collections-memories.blogspot.com/ 

Autografy, przypinki i wspomnienia (in Polish / po polsku): https://kolekcje-wspomnienia.blogspot.com/ 

This new project will be somewhat different from my travel blog. It will be more of a personal archive—a collection of small fragments of the past: autographs, objects, encounters, and memories, mainly from Poland in the 1970s, but also from later years and from life in Canada.

I hope to publish new entries regularly—perhaps every week or every two weeks—depending, of course, on time and access to my materials.

If this sounds interesting to you, I warmly invite you to visit and explore.

Enjoy!

INDEX OF THE NEW BLOG, AUTOGRAPHS, PINS AND MEMORIES

AUTOGRAPHS

• Bauck, Dean – Canadian track and field athlete (high jumper)
• Bractwo Kurkowe 1791 – Polish music group
• Damięcki, Maciej – Polish actor
• Duryasz, Wojciech – Polish stage actor
• Grochowiecka, Eliza – Singer
• Gadocha, Robert – Soccer player
• Hegazi, Ahmed – Egyptian actor
• Holoubek, Gustaw – Polish actor
• Lesiuk, Henryk – Polish long-distance runner
• Kociniak, Jan – Polish actor
• Krakowska, Emilia – Polish actress
• Malinowski, Bronisław – Olympic gold medalist
• Olbrychski, Daniel – Polish actor
• Rodowicz, Maryla – Legendary Polish singer
• Saunders-Mondesire, Yvonne – Canadian track and field athlete
• Walczewski, Marek – Polish actor
• Wenman, Kenneth "Ken" and Sanderson, Lyle – Canadian pole vaulter and coach
• Zelnik, Jerzy – Polish actor

PINS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND MEMORIES

• Czantoria / Silesian Beskids – Visiting Czantoria by chairlift
• Elementary School (Part 1/4) – Elementary School No. 221 in Warsaw and the surrounding area
• Elementary School (Part 2/4) – Elementary School No. 221 in Warsaw and the surrounding area
• Elementary School (Part 3/4) – Elementary School No. 221 in Warsaw and the surrounding area
• Elementary School (Part 4/4) – Elementary School No. 221 in Warsaw and the surrounding area
• Encyclopedia – Polish Encyclopedia from the 1970s
• Exemplary Soldier Badge – Polish military badges and pins
• Lubań, Gorce – Mountain shelter on Lubań in the Gorce Mountains
• Manresa, Pickering, Ontario (Part 1/2) – Manresa Jesuit Spiritual Renewal Centre
• Masuria and Przechyba – 1976: Price hikes, protests, and ration cards
• My Collection of Metal Badges and Pins – Introduction
• Mountain Tourist Badge – Popular, Bronze, Silver, and Gold
• Scouting and Diving – "Wanda" Underwater Club (Part 1/2) – Scuba diving, sailing and canoeing, Poland and Canada
• Scouting and Diving – "Wanda" Underwater Club (Part 2/2) – Scuba diving camp on Szeroki Ostrów Island on Śniardwy Lake-1979
• Turbacz – At the 1973 plane crash site