Wednesday, October 22, 2008

It was Keryn's birthday yesterday, and that can only mean one thing- it's MY birthday today!No, we weren't born ten minutes apart around midnight; the whole story is here in this post of Keryn's.

We were telling this story to a local lady this week, and I mentioned the midwives who made sure I arived safe and sound, among them Sister Lewis who I wrote about in this post. It made me sad when I found out she'd died three months ago, in her late nineties.
To illustrate this post I decided to find a photo of us on our second birthday, so I turned the cupboards upside down looking for it. I thought I'd sorted things out pretty well but I must have done some rummaging before and not bothered to put the photos back in order because I couldn't find it. I could only unearth this one of Keryn with the Dolly Varden cake, and I know it's Keryn because she got a red doll and mine was pale blue.
However in the search I came across a small envelope with tiny pictures in it; these are about an inch across. Back in those days when developing was such an expensive business they printed tiny little samples and you chose the ones you wanted to have done fullsize. Some of these I had never seen before, and I got my magnifier (meant to view stamps I think) and pored over them quite fascinated.
Keryn and I have always loved looking at our family photos, and most of them are familiar and well-known. Quite often when we were growing up we'd beg to go through them and Mum would pull out the large brown suitcase so we could stare at the sepia and grey images jumbled inside. We loved hearing the stories about long-dead relatives;looking at strange little children who were now our uncles and aunties, and stranger still the young woman who had turned into our Mum. I couldn't quite believe they were the same people, and searched the faces for features I could recognise; not quite convinced that they'd grown up to be the family I knew.
So I was thrilled today to find a whole new set of images that I hadn't seen before, and excitedly discussed with Keryn the identity of the people in them. The detail in the backgrounds was examined thoroughly and I still own several of the objects depicted in one.
But this one made us laugh, and knowing our mum I can see why it was never enlarged.
Mum's brother was living with us at the time and I see his hand in this set-up. I rather think that is a smoked fish on the plate and I can't read the label on the bottle, but it's definitely beer.
Our uncle, big brother who was 15 and Dad probably had a good laugh at this little vignette while Mum was out of the room, but she would have hit the roof when the prints came back for this! No way of knowing whether it was Keryn or me but it must have been pretty puzzling, judging by the expression!
I'm so grateful that our Dad loved photography and that we have this family history to look back over. It was largely due to his efforts that we have so much to illustrate our early life and document the way things were. Finding that little envelope today was like a special birthday gift from him.

8 comments:

julieQ October 22, 2008  

Happiest birthday! I hope you have a wonderful day, and enjoy....and have some quilting time just for you.

Donna October 22, 2008  

old photos you haven't seen are always a gift -- I inherited some recently from a more distant family memember who had some of my closer family... wonderful to see things I knew nothing of before....

antique quilter October 23, 2008  

happy, happy birthday!
hope you have a fun day
treasure those pictures.
sure wish my parents would have taken pictures when we were young.

Jeanne October 23, 2008  

Happy Birthday, Mereth! I love the last picture!

meggie October 23, 2008  

Happy Birthday Mereth! I often wondered what it was like, to be a twin. We had twins in our town, girls, & everyone made such a fuss of them, I decided I did't want to know them! Petty child I was! They were identical, but not, ~ I know you will know exactly what I mean by that.
I too, loved the old photo box, & our mother kept them all wrapped in cloth- some old teatowels, & some old nappies!!

quiltmom anna October 24, 2008  

Hi Mereth,
I love old photos too- My mother has a collection of sepia and black and whites of my father's ancestors- I often drag them out to have a look when I am home visiting.
My gran had boxes and boxes of pictures that my mother and my aunt have gone through- they wished they had gone through them before she passed away because they are sure she would have recognized more of the people in the photos. the photos are true treasures that tell some great family stories.
I hope you and Keryn have wonderful birthdays.
Regards,
Anna

sewprimitive karen October 25, 2008  

You two were so cute! I can just imagine one of the boys putting that spoon in your (her) hand lol.

Chookyblue...... November 14, 2008  

happy belated birthday........

...what was the solution to the bees????

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