Tuesday, September 7, 2021

Throwback Tuesday


Here's a hoot of a throwback I ran across the other day. That's me at eighteen, on my first visit home from college in the late seventies, eyebrows plucked to oblivion, Afro bouncin' and behavin'. I unearthed this relic because my brother asked me to go into my picture files and dig out some photos of him from when he wore an Afro in his youth. You know there's always one person in the family who collects the photographs. No surprise, that's me. No doubt my brother, three years divorced, was trying to impress someone, but he wasn't giving out any details. Here are the photos I sent him, taken as we gathered for a new year's day beach outing with friends, many of whom lived right there on Paddington Terrace, in houses up and down the street from us. My brother is the cool dude in the Coke bottle-thick wire rim glasses.


That young woman on the right above, and in the photo below, is my brother's first wife, who now lives in Germany with her second husband, whom she met more than three decades ago at a nuclear science conference. They both fell instantly in love, and feel that way still. Even though she and my brother divorced back in the nineties, she's still my sister—in fact, we spoke by phone just this afternoon. All of us having spent our teen years in and out of each other’s homes on the same street, she and my brother have also remained good friends. My brother even asked her to be godmother to his oldest daughter, who is herself now married and a dentist who has just signed the lease for her own practice in Dallas, yet she had no idea until a year ago that her dad had once been married to Auntie Hilary. A footnote: Our beloved Hilary's hair is now a brilliant snow white, and it looks fantastic—definitely a photo for another day.

There is so much I could write here. I'm roiling with obsessive thoughts but they're bubbling just below the surface, hence this breezy little post, in a moment when I am feeling anything but breezy. What's the weather report where you are?



14 comments:

  1. It is so wonderful that you keep in touch with your former sister-in-law and that your brother asked her to be a god-mother to his oldest daughter. That's love in every way. These are beautiful throw-back photos.
    It is sunny here as I type this, but it was deep foggy gray for the whole morning. The skies have either been foggy or hazy smoky from the local fires. We love the sun.

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  2. All of you so young and beautiful. Those eye brows though. LoL.

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  3. You really haven't changed your looks very much at all. I mean that.

    Ah, the beauty of youth. We didn't even realize it then, did we? And I much prefer the thinner brows to today's tortured blocks. Gives my age away, what? hah

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  4. You were beautiful then, you're beautiful now. Brows and all.
    I'm so sorry that you're feeling less than breezy. I hope that perhaps the internal weather is better today for you.

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  5. Love these old photos! What a beautiful family! The weather is nice here today so I am getting out to enjoy it! Hope your day is lovely too!

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  6. Beautiful young women and handsome young men, all of you. You have such beautiful eyes.

    The weather here, sunny, breezy and a high of 24C which is 75F. I lovely fall day with a cool night. Hopefully I get a dog walk in.

    Sending hugs.

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  7. You look the same and I would encourage a grow out, I have always been jealous of afros, could not even fake it with my two thin straight hairs!
    Wow , what dishy folks y'all are. Gorgeous!! Your brother was a hot tomato, (swoon), dear lord - got the old corpuscles racing!

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  8. Anything but breezy here, too. Feeling edgy and unsettled. Still I love seeing you and your brother and your brother's first wife in those photos from all those years ago.

    Hoping for a change for the better in your internal weather.

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  9. I love these photos. ah the 60s and 70s. and you at 18 with those gorgeous eyes.

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  10. It's interesting how much your current you looks like the 18 year old you. Sorry your internal weather is less than good, and I really hope it calms down for you.

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  11. Like you, I'm the holder of all the family photos. Going down memory lane with the photos is always so enjoyed. Good times and great memories. Rain and humidity all day today in Massachusetts. That said, the acorns are falling and there is even a bit of color in the trees. Autumn will be lovely.

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  12. Indeed a cool dude - and you were as beautiful then as you are now. I laughed about the eyebrows. You should see my university grad photo - eyebrows lined up and plucked to the max.
    Yes, old photos bring back emotions as well as memories. I am working through a box featuring an aunt, long dead now, who was a suicide. So happy in the photos. So not happy underneath.

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  13. What a beautiful set of photos, and amazing quality too. My mother threw out almost all the family photos and didn't ask me if I wanted them. I was really cross and upset. As an adopted person I have no birth history, but then my adoptive mother wiped out all the history I had with my adopted family.

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  14. Love seeing photos from the seventies. I'm 70 now and there are very few pictures of me or my family from then. Boy, were you a babe! And still beautiful. My dream in 1969 was to go to New York City and seek my fortune. I ended up in a city of 1300 people in rural Wisconsin. I so much enjoy your posts about NYC. And I admit to a LOT of envy. Ah, well. So it goes.

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