"The past is not just a foreign country, but also one we are all exiled from. Like all exiles, we sometimes long to return. That longing is called nostalgia. Whether it is triggered by a photograph, a first kiss or a treasured possession, nostalgia evokes a particular sense of time or place. We all know the feeling: a sweet sadness for what is gone, in colours that are invariably sepia-toned, rose-tinted, or stained with evening sunlight.
The term “nostalgia” was coined by Swiss physicians in the late 1600s to signify a certain kind of homesickness among soldiers. Nowadays we know it encompasses more than just homesickness (or indeed Swiss soldiers)......." {read more}{Don ;a mile & a half today in Halifax swimming pool! a personal best! hurray!}
I'm "off-on one" again........This,I can confidently say, is the only blog in the whole wide world that you will ever experience (in a single post!) combined memories of 1960/70/80's Rugby League: an audio of good+rare live Americana music (the late Levon Helm):the existential angst of late 17th century Swiss soldiers: 14th century Persian poetry:the early days of Dr Who; a critiqe of British kitchen sink movies of 1963;a positive Muslim spin (in these rather stupid Islamaphobic days.....) :and good toilet etiquette while visiting the Ladies in Asda's loo in Halifax.Good for me ...Hurray!
Khwāja Shams-ud-Dīn Muhammad Hāfez-e Shīrāzī (Pesian خواجه شمسالدین محمد حافظ شیرازی), known by his pen name Hāfez (حافظ; also Hāfiz; 1325/26–1389/90), was a Persian poet.
His collected works are regarded as a pinnacle of Persian literature and are to be found in the homes of most people in Iran. who learn his poems by heart and use them as proverbs and sayings to this day. His life and poems have been the subject of much analysis, commentary and interpretation, influencing post-fourteenth century Persian writing more than any other author...........[ wikipedia]
This Sporting Life:Rotten Tomatoes
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| Richard Harris & Dr Who in the movie "This Sporting Life" which was filmed at Thrum Hall. |
You can listen here to The Rugby League Oral History Project's entry on Thrum Hall. .
Maybe you might also read the wikipedia entry on Thrum Hall.
When Alan described this week's Theme, he suggested it might be "...... one thing on top of another. It's straight lines fading into infinity. It's the stations of the cross. It's whatever you want it to be...".
I chose to interpret it as this one location, but at different times.
The composition of these photos are by no means exact .for example,they are not at the same angle.But they are near enough.(nb had i stood today in the exact spot, I would have had to whip my camera out & stand ontop of a toilet seat in Asda'a Ladies lavvy!)
Its all quite near enough tho.The terrace housing you see in the 3nd photo is part of the same terrace you also see in the 4th photo.
The 3nd photo was taken in 1979.The 4th photo i took this afternoon at Asda supermarket in Halifax.
Objectively, 2 totally different scenes.Only someone old enough to remember the Thrum Hall Rugby League ground would know it had ever been there.
I find it very strange how my architecture keeps evaporating.I always expected people I knew to die and disapear from me .I never (for some reason) expected my physical world to disapear like smoke too..
(I've already mentioned here the importance of Thrum Hall to me. ...........)
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| n.b. this was a pre-season summer "friendly" game.Hence the weeds & sparse bodies. The ground's capacity & highest attendance was 29,000. |
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12 comments:
i feel you on the loss of the physical world as well...a local bookstore i grew up with went out 2 weeks ago...and they are tearing it down today...drove by...35 years of my life i walked those aisles....young in comparison to some but...i could list quite a few
I visited the town where I went to college last week and saw many missing sites/buildings, usually replaced with something large and boxy.
What,I wonder, is the difference between Buildings that once were ,but got themselves knocked down & Buildings that were planned but never built? e.g.http://mentalfloss.com/article/53489/5-amazing-projects-were-never-built
That was a most interesting way to treat today's theme. I always marvel at the different views people take, This one certainly got me thinking about how important our photos are, even of things which we think so trivial at the time. But a single old photo can trigger so many memories.
I was drawn immediately to the photo of the hillside "stadium seating." It reminded me of the first state tournament my daughter played in when she played fast pitch softball. A little town - a little ballfield - seats chiseled out of the side of a hill. Just such a warm, hometown feeling.
I think you have created another splendid philosophical layer cake, Tony. I think the reason we all like old photos is the way they preserve not only people but things too. The physical world we remember from our youth - the buildings, the landscape - define the sensory space for our memories. When they disappear it makes memory more fragile. Photos help strength them.
When I traced my great grandfather's route through Yosemite Nat'l Park in 1870 I used old pictures of the places his group stayed in or went to or through to find those same spots in current times. The lay of the land doesn't change much so even though the wooden cabins & hotels were long gone, I was able to find each place thanks to those old photos!
The terrace choked with weeds says it all. pre-season or not. Renovations (£38million) to Stockton High Street seem to have created Britain's most expensive bus station - if/when they they finish it. A masterly take on the theme, Tony.
What a sad sight is that dreary weedy terrace! I’m so glad you didn’t have to go into the ladies’ in Asda - with your camera!!
oh, how sad. I hate it when my geography changes so radically. Especially when old beautiful buildings become modern boxes.
Nancy
Ladies of the Grove
agree with you and everybody above.
My shock at visiting after 40 years, the town I grew up in, was physical.
Total renewal into concrete and aluminium, where before had been gravel and local sandstone. A seaside town, the shoreline trees had all been removed for carparking.
You can't go home again.
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