While looking for something else recently, I came across a folder of old pictures that included some birthdays.
I've been meaning to scan some old pictures for a long time. Seeing hurricane evacuees talk about losing all their pictures made me want to do it all the more. Now I am inflicting them on you.
My first. Awww.
Four generations, at the old house. Mom says I used that coffee table to teethe on. She still had those tables and lamps up until about 8 years ago.
My third birthday. I must have really been wanting that book! That's my partner in crime Janie to the left.
The calm before the storm that was my 10th birthday. For some reason this picture makes me a little sad. I have no idea why!
Playing Bingo. Basically this is every girl in my class, except for Pam who must have been sick, plus a few from the neighborhood. I remember them all very well, and am still in contact with three of them. I'm the skinny one in pedal pushers on the right, the one with the unfortunate glasses. I'm waving.
Obviously there was not racial integration in schools in my town at this time. Schools were either all white or all black back then. I think they started mixing the schools up about 3 years later. I imagine it was the same in most of the south.
Today's not really my actual birthday, but it is the birthday of one of the other girls in this picture. Back then new mothers stayed in the hospital for about a week after giving birth, so she and her Mom were still in the hospital when my Mom went in to deliver yours truly.
My little brother and sister got their own table in the front.
One of the girls at the middle table used to help me tie my shoes in kindergarten. One of them moved away, and we never heard from her again. Another one got falling down drunk at our 20th high school reunion. And one of them was the class valedictorian, and finished college in 3 years. While she was away at school, her family's house burned down and they lost all their pictures. She now lives in a beautiful house with her husband and 3 sons, has a great art collection, and is as skinny as ever.
I look even goofier in this one, but just dig all those flowery pants!
Gimme a break, it was 1969.
Nowdays kids seem to have birthday parties every year - I know my nieces do. But besides one other (that I couldn't find any pictures of), I think this pretty much sums up all my parties.
Maybe I'll have another one when I turn 100. Maybe not though. I'm not really all that big on parties anymore.
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Edited to add:
Although it galls me to have to admit that photos of my childhood are now considered "vintage", have a look at Square America for more old photos.
17 comments:
75 years is a long time to wait to have your next birthday party. I say party now. There are very few photos from my childhood that don't make me cringe, and even fewer that I would ever choose to post online. Thanx for sharing.
I love looking at old photos. It's nice to revisit certain parts of the past. I like looking not only at the clothes, but objects, like what was hanging on the walls, what knicknacks were on the tables, what kind of toys I was playing with in the photos...that kind of stuff.
I do like all of the flowery pants in your photos.
Thanks for sharing.
Pablo, I've decided to revel in the cringe factor! 75 years LOL.
Colleen, here is a site with lots of vintage photos. I think I'll go back and add that in the main post too.
I like looking for the little details also. Did you notice the "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine on the coffee table? That magazine has been around for a good while.
and whats wrong with vintage? Nothing thats what. The pictures were wonderful. Thank you for sharing them.
Happy almost, sometime in a week, birthday day. Your pictures look as though they could be one of my sister's parties. Same glasses don't you know.
First birthday: familiar toys. Didn't you just love those rolling plastic thingies? We had one that popped plastic popcorn all day long...
Maybe I'm just imagining this since I wasn't around in the sixties, but it appears that your photos are devoid of marketing content other than a coca-cola bottle held by one young lady. Nowadays kids have parties chock full of Barney, Lion King, Spiderman, etc etc, which seems to be a distraction in my opinion. I'm actually a little intimidated by kids' themed merchandise because I don't have the time or desire to keep up with rapidly moving trends.
I love the pictures! Especially the one of you when you were 10 in the pedal pushers. I think I am older than you by a couple of years, but our gatherings certainly had the same look! You were absolutely a cutie pie!
I think nostalgia sometimes comes with a tinge of sadness. The past is irretrievably out of reach and yet captured in a moment in black and white.
BTW-- No parties for me either. I think the last one I had was when I was 10.
Happy birthday, and I love those photos...though the second one made me do a double-take: what's my grandma doing in your family pictures?!
Happy BDay!
Welcome to the world of vintage photos...hop over to my blog...they are my main attraction.
I love your glasses...mine were much the same, just solid black...cat women...just not too sexy on a 8 year old. <:-)
Thanks for the wonderful post. Very fun to read the stories. =^..^=
I get the touch of sadness in the pre-party picture. I think pictures of empty rooms do that---it's the people that bring the room to life, so without the people it just seems sad and lonely and barren.
Great pictures!
Thanks y'all. Yeah Jerry I remember playing with that popper thing!
SM you're exactly right. Back then they did use commercials during kids' shows to make you buy toys (or cereal), but at least the toys weren't part of the show.
Lyn, my sister says you stole her cowgirl outfit!
Those glasses... how in the world could I have actually chosen those? Judging from the other girls' glasses though, I guess there wasn't much of a choice at the time. I do remember that I liked the color. (They were light blue.) I was the first kid in my class to get glasses so you can imagine how much I loved them (not). The next pair I got were the ever-popular "granny glasses". I worked all summer to buy contact lenses just before high school. I probably abused them, because now I can't seem to wear them anymore.
Jeez!, My childhood pictures are much the same. Same era...When I see those "catty" glasses I always think of my elementary teachers. They were all women and most wore those very specs.
Thanks for sharing the pics and the particulars.
Hey! I agree with nic, what are you doing with my grandmother in that second picture?!? :)
Happy birthday kid.
Wishing you a very happy birthday! And many more!
Love the childhood photos-- they're wonderful.
Thanks y'all!
I remember going to several reunions at my great-grandmother's house. She was very nice but her family was a different story... lots of black sheep, shall we say.
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