Friday, September 22, 2017

Cooking class

My cousin, Aunt Beulah's oldest daughter, combed through her parents' photo albums to put together a video memorial for her mom's funeral in hurricane ravaged West Palm Beach last weekend. She found some unexpected gems, like these two cooking class photos taken back in the sixties. Then five years old, she was living with us in Jamaica for a few months while her parents toured "the continent," as Europe was known in those days. My mother enrolled the two of us in cooking classes, and my cousin has very detailed memories of seasoning chicken with vinegar and even having her picture with oversized chef hat end up in the local paper. She's a fine cook today. As for me, until I saw this evidence with my own eyes, I had no memory whatsoever of being in that class. That's my mom beside me in the second picture, her face half hidden by my cousin's headwear. I look as if I am serving her a cup of tea, while my cousin is offering a slice of cake. If you can't figure which one I am in the lineup above, I'm the chubby one, and my cousin is the littlest. I guess you can't fault my mom for trying.


12 comments:

  1. These are so cute!! I love when pictures like this are found!

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  2. So sweet! It's funny what we forget, sometimes. But pictures are proof! Hah :) I see you now in your mom's face then.

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  3. What sweet girls! Your mother looks so proud. I remember when girls were actually taught things like cooking and sewing and what we called "charm" back then which I'm still not sure about because I certainly never went to charm school. But manners were important, weren't they?
    I was always the chubby one too. We ARE sisters and that's all there is to it.

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  4. I could look at this picture for hours. There is so much going on. I especially noticed the look of love on the face with the woman with the cigarette. And everyone is smiling. I wonder what was happening in this moment? Also the look on your mom's face as she looks on.

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  5. I don't think you were chubby at all. Funny what we see. Adorableness is what I see.

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  6. Delightful pictures. Everybody is very engaged in the moment. Young girls in a cooking class. Lovely dresses, adorable. Does your cousin love to cook? She seems to be really enjoying this class. Susan

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  7. You look happy and beautiful. Love seeing these old photos. They capture a time of such sweet youth.

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  8. It's so strange to see photos that you have no memory of. I found some of those lately too. We always think that memory is so infallible, well our own anyway, and then we are presented with facts and it turns out memory is not so infallible. Love the photos.

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  9. Precious! You look so happy.
    Xoxo
    Barbara

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  10. What I see in the photo is that you were loved from an early age. I see your mother's kindness. There are childhood photos taken of scenes of which I have no memory, and yet I can remember being just over 2 years old. Fascinating what we remember and don't remember. Sweet to be a witness to a time we don't remember.

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