This is a Sepia Saturday post.
Here is a photo I found (while clearing out the attic this week) of her Birthday Party ..
My Mum always spoke of her childhood as a lonely desert of a place,.My grandmother had died in childbirth.My grandad (pictured here, top/middle) was a sailor ,away from home & who had little to do with my Mum.She spent her childhood in the care of aunties in Fife & Edinburgh.She thought it a lonely existence I think.
All the more strange, then, to see this photo.It must have been her 6th birthday .Here she is , right in the middle with cake+doll.All those people around her!Even her dad!Although, I dont recognize anybody else in it.Maybe a school affair?Was "Birchlea" a school? I just dont know...........
Maybe this is the opposite of last week's post ?Just another way of "covering things up"? The camera never lies? Maybe this was just staged - managed? A cunning ploy to convince her she wasn't really alone?Am I being cynical? I'm sure ,objectively , it was more complicated than that..................
One thing for sure........most of the photos I have of her childhood , she appears clutching a doll of some kind.
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photos in Halifax tonight . Tracy's Leaving Do . A Special Thanks to Nick & Dave for arranging the evening for us all+ making it all possible......
26 comments:
interesting...maybe we are alone as we think ourselves to be?
I cannot imagine the feeling that accompanies a child growing up without a mother. It would color one's world with sadness it seems, especially with an often absent father. I'm thinking of Richie Havens, "Motherless Child."
Birchlea does sound like a school. All the boys are wearing ties, but perhaps that's the formality of an event, such as a birthday, at that time.
Little girls do love their dolls, but it might have provided her some measure of security, an expanded sense of family. We often give others, even dolls, what we long for ourselves.
Fascinating picture especially with what your mother told you about growing up. There is definitely a story there.
Hmmmmm... After reading your text and the comments, I seem to be hearing Rod Stewart in the background - "Every picture tells a story, don't it!"
what a grand picture, sugar! i only have a few pictures of my mom. i think her ugly sister took them all! *sigh* xoxoxoxo
There are some interesting faces in this photo; one or two look as though they wish they weren't there. Young girls these days don't seem so attached to dolls - or am I out of touch?
The wonderful thing about such old photographs is that you can peel away layer after layer of interpretation and never quite reveal the truth. The truth is gone, long ago, the truth only exists at that moment of time. What remains, of course, are possibilities.
There seem to be a lot of adults in the picture.
Maybe that (the photo) was an isolated incident and she was lonely most of the time.
She was such a pretty little girl! No wonder whe was always clutching a doll in pics if she was a lonely child. I'm always clutching chocolate in all my pics;-)
Your mom looks so sweet and pretty. I'm sorry to learn of her loss and sadness. School or maybe a Sunday School photo?
It is interesting how people see and remember things as they grow. I remember my ex telling me how poor they were, and when I watched some home movies of his family, they had the same things my family did and I never felt poor.
I hope that you have a wonderful weekend,
Kathy M.
Even picture-perfect birthday parties don't make up for things that are missing from our daily lives. It is such a classic, wonderful picture though.
Thank you for stopping by...Such a lovely photo.
Well it is quite a gathering for her birthday in this photo; maybe cousins and neighbors and classmates for the special event? Interesting that she felt alone. Could be the loss of her own Mom lingered. I usually always had a doll or two around, not so much with girls today.
Great photo. The cake looks like a hat.
There are some very wide smiles in that picture
a fleeting moment doesn't fill out a life...
HUGZ
What a happy looking group! It may be all the other days of the year that your mother felt alone.
What a lovely group. Certainly a larger birthday gathering than any from my own childhood. Your mother was a beautiful little girl.
What a glorious day it must have been! Looks to me like many many hearts were open very wide for your Mum!
Such an interesting and wonderful picture on its own and then with your story, even more interesting. Certainly she was surrounded by love on this day, by all appearances.
Clutching a dolly. so powerful a talisman.
If you Guugle Birchlea you get:
Birchlea
Bradnop
Leek
Staffordshire
ST13 7EZ
hi Ann
No, I did such a search & found this, But it's a different place .
I wonder if that doll was a birthday gift from the dad dropping in from some exotic port? It looks fairly deluxe with it's fur coat and hat.
Is it about 1935? They all look affluent considering world wide depression. Not too different from the clothes children wore in 1950's when my school class photos were taken. A birthday party was so special - when we got treat foods not usually allowed. These days, shopping trolleys are piled with 'treat' things daily so no kid is going to be thrilled with red jelly. bit sad really.
My work as a qualified hypnotherapist (working with both individuals and groups of people) enables me to draw upon my images for verbally creative therapies such as guided visualisations, and also allows me to use my experiences to illustrate my feelings. Both aspects of my work involves the process of transformation, whether that be on personal level or by assisting others to review and recreate aspects of their lives which cause discomfort and disease.
~
Cindy Mills
'Birchlea'
1A Trinity Place
Leven
Fife KY8 4NY
Scotland
United Kingdom
I think she's smiling at her cake! She was an adorable cutie, love the doll. I wouldn't even begin to know for sure what her childhood was like, but I know from my life and that of my own children, aunts play a real special part in their lives. Some chose not to have their own children and they have all that extra love to shower on my own children! What ever her childhood was, I'm thinking you've made a wonderful addition to her life!
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