Photographic
Memories
Have you ever dug
out the old family pix?
Or even the 8mm
jumpy old flix
Looking back through
all the years
At all the
laughter, fun and tears
Parents,
grandparents, cousins and friends
The memories flood
back and nothing offends
The clothes that
we wore and then we threw out
Are in fashion again. It’s all turn about
The crinoline
ladies with bustles and wigs
Would turn a few
heads with their waist-line like twigs
The gents with
their top hats, their wigs and their ruffs
With fine suits,
silk hankies and boxes of snuffs
Walking down
Me and mates at
the Cavern on a
Playing on the
beach when I was a kid
Mum and Dad in
deckchairs, do you remember what you did?
Paddling in the
sea and not wanting to come out
Kicking sand on
the sandwiches and getting a clout
Burying my brother
with tons of sand
When we built our
castles we were kings of all the land
The school photo
line-up, every one a scruff
But survival in
those days was for those who were tough
Many pictures of
my parents at every point in life
Always smiling for the camera. Never showing any
strife
Long dead great aunts and uncles. Most of whom I never
met
They come to life
in uniform, their marriages and with pets
Pedal cars,
tricycles, mobos and prams
Bought from the
hard graft of our dads and our mams
Babies in perambulators,
dad’s with their first cars
Charabanc trips to
Wartime pictures
of our fathers in some far off foreign land
Seeing places they
would never see if war did not demand
From black and white to colour. What a difference it
did make
But there’s still some fingers on the lens and occasional
camera shake
People on bicycles
with flat cap and cigarette
Nude babies on
hearthrugs; embarrassing, I bet
Here’s one
of me in uniform, looking rather smart
I’m marching
with my head held high and really look the part
Paternal Granddad in the quarry. What a thankless job
Forty years a
“getter”, for a few measly bob
Maternal Granddad
was a miner, whose lungs were full of coal
Silicosis killed
him, from working in that filthy hole
Family posing in a
studio, or with stuffed lions or fast cars
Backdrops for anywhere. A country lane or even Mars
If it’s cold
outside and there’s nothing else to do
Dust off the
family album and find yourself a pew
Make sure you have
a hankie, as many tears may flow
The long lost
souls will spring to life and give an inner glow
The biggest
question of the day: “Did I
really look like that?”
“What ever
possessed me to wear those shoes, and that stupid hat?”
If you’re
feeling embarrassed and feel you want to die
Remember, that in
those days, “the camera didn’t lie”
Copyright © 2006 Evad Repooc
Inspired after searching through a box of many family
pictures
Written in the same way as the jumbled pictures came
to light
Hence the description in no particular order and the
insertion of the odd memory
ER