A recurring theme of late on this blog - maybe Covid and the general state of the world (and my head) has something to do with it* - is time; as in where does the time go? One minute I'm reaching for the stars, the next I actually make an audible noise when I reach for the salt**. And what really brings it all into sharp focus is photographs. Finding photographs of ourselves as we used to look; maybe some of us are still clinging on to the misguided notion that we still do look like our younger selves. Young. Carefree. And the world at our feet.
When someone on Twitter recently posted a photograph of the stunningly beautiful Susan Penhaligon taken in 1974, it was Ms. Penhaligon herself who came back with the following two word response: "Good Heavens!" Thinking about it, what other possible two word response could there possibly have been?
The Connells - '74/'75 (1995)
* It's certainly fucking up my sleep patterns, that's for sure.
** I don't actually partake of salt, it was a merely a way of demonstrating the onset of my impending decline!
I had forgotten this song so many thanks for the reminder, it's so good (I think it was used for an advert, or a trailer, recently too?) Gorgeous pic of Susan Penhaligon too. As for our younger selves, I was only saying to Mr SDS recently that as we get older and older and sadly all start to look much the same (a sea of grey/white or no hair, glasses and wrinkles) that we should carry around with us some photos of our youthful selves to show anyone we meet, and that will tell them far more about who we really are inside (and in our minds?!) For that reason, I really love it when you see pics of very old people as they were when they were young, so fascinating, revealing and beautifully heartwarming.
ReplyDeleteThat's actually not a bad idea: your Photo ID cards that you carry could have the two - like a before and after - side by side. It'd certainly be an icebreaker when you get pulled over by the police for driving too slowly!
DeleteThat's a beautiful song and for C, she probably also remembers it from Rol's Hot 100 countdown?
ReplyDeleteIt is tough isn't is, the passage of time and what it does to the outside, whereas in our heads we are the same people as we were as youths. But it's life isn't it. What gets me nowadays it that when I check myself in the mirror before leaving the house I think I look fine (because of my short-sightedness) but then I see myself in the high definition pictures DD takes and I look bloody ancient!
Maybe that's why we like to blog and write about the music of our youth, it reveals the person on the inside. C is right, as you get to middle-age and older you become somewhat invisible so being sociable and talking to people becomes the way we get our personalities across - This blinking year has hampered that no end (Edinburgh?).
That's a lovely picture of Ms Penhaligan but don't think I would have recognised her - Different hair and the angle of the shot I think. We all have pictures of ourselves we particularly like above all others but sadly they are usually the ones where people say, "It doesn't really look like you". Pah.
I can't remember if I mentioned it before - I think I may have done - but it was James' 30th in February and I spent three back-to-back days at the end of January going thru hundreds and hundreds of photographs.
DeleteI was putting a photo book together and in the end condensed 29+ years of photos (between 1,500 and 2,000) down to just 80! It was probably one of the most emotional things I've ever done. Not just James' life, but the whole family (immediate & extended), friends, acquaintances, cats (always cats!), work colleagues, and of course a liberal splashing of strangers.
And each photo captured a time & a place, and, obviously, a look; even just the photos from 1990 onwards saw me first as a 29 year old fresh faced(!) boy holding his first born to the grizzled old man who wonders where the intervening years have gone...