Thursday, April 13, 2017

Joppa


This week's sepia saturday prompt photo is of a sister & brother looking happily,lovingly at one another.
I took from this that the two  kids didnt really  care that the photographer was there or not. (S)he was incidental and  accidental .
They would have  looked  that   way anyway......
With this thought in mind .My offering for this week's post
is  below.
A photo of my Mum.Aged about 3-4? 
It's taken in a bus shelter on Portobello seafront in Edinburgh.1930-ish?
. The elderly lady is My Mum's Aunt Nellie.



I remember Aunt Nellie well from my own young  childhood.She was ,obviously much older/smaller & wrinkly then! She was  nearly 100 when she finally died.
I even stayed in her house in Joppa .We used to visit her when i was roughly to same age as Mum  in this photo.I remember travelling upon a   steam train  ( The Flying Scotsman?) directly from Halifax Railway Station to Joppa Station ( pre-Beeching )
    My bedroom   in Joppa  had a  big brass bed! If i stood on tip toes & looked outside  I could (if  I stretched!)  view a tiny corner of the sea ,' just visible from the  top  right hand corner of the  window
    There was lots of "family politics" floating about on the horizon...... .Even by the late 50's/early 60's.
    Aunty Nellie lived alone in that house near the sea.
    Her sister Aunty Margaret lived with my Aunt Brenda 100 yards away on the other side of the busy main road into the city.
    They never visited /talked to each other for  perhaps 20   years......
    (How strange  to be so close , yet so invisible........)
    We stayed at Nellie's and visited Margaret for Tea. Nellie of course never joined us.
     I still dont know the cause of the feud.They didnt have blogs then.Who Knows.......
    My Mum as a child was  passed around various family members ( Her own Mum dead in childbirth & her dad at sea and remarried)
    .My Mum showed me this photo a few years before she died.
    Here  we  see  her and Nellie.
    She said they had not been "allowed" to meet at the time......
    But evidently they did! but in secret .
    (I never thought to ask who the photographer was. )
    What is even more poignant , Nellie looks very much like my Mum did  in her final years.......
    Make of that what you will.
    Your guess is really as good  as mine.although I cant help thinking that that Me ,brother Zyg my Dad & Mum staying at Nellie's &  not at Margaret 's was meant as a "statement".......
    Meanwhile.Things are still shit for me.
    Various worries currently.
    It really pisses me off how people seem to think me laid -back . I'm not really .I keep it  too myself generally ( apart from here.now.and to the world!)     😎😎😍😎
    We even got a letter recently criticising us for posting a photo of us smiling on New Year's Eve. We must not be "that bothered" ,obviously!
    Photos hide more that they reveal. Although that is ,i    believe ,a bloody good haircut wot i got today !!
    Not bad for a bloke who is 65 on July 30th........!
    Anyway.The best bit of news I,ve had this  week is that "The Blitz" Tearooms in the Square in Hebden Bridge is closing down!
    (tripadvisor link)
    Bloody Appalling place IMHO.
    Perhaps they may now open a Tea Rooms in Syria instead?
    'Never did like the concept. Fake Nostalgia. Now, had  they served Spam& Powdered Eggs & dressed the waitresses in stripy Concentration Camp threads..well,maybe it would have worked..
    but,as it was, the place just reeked  of Brexit & Nigel Farages socks and farts.......
    Saturday update: we went to an Art Exhibition in Hebden Bridge at north light studio.I saw a very regal (royal) family hiding behind screen ,spying on us.........
     

    14 comments:

    La Nightingail said...

    It's a lovely old photograph and your memories of Aunt Nellie are wonderful.

    tony said...

    Thank You X
    My Best Wishes For This Easter X

    Kurt said...

    The Blitz -- UGH! Do they randomly drop bombs on the patrons as they dine?

    tony said...

    Yes Kurt......But onlyHumane ,Organic ones........

    Mike Brubaker said...

    A striking almost abstract photo that certainly fits our theme image. I don't understand manufactured nostalgia. It's like ersatz food flavoring. And where does it stop? There were parts of the 60s that were like the 50s, and parts of the 70s that were so mixed up that no one wants to remember. Might as well get nostalgic about the good old 13th century. Those were the days, eh?

    tony said...

    Ah !Those Wacky 1200's ! Nostalgia isnt what it used to be.......

    21 Wits said...

    Of course I enjoyed your background music, and your interesting post, always an uplifting read.

    tony said...

    Thank You Karen. X

    Alex Daw said...

    Oh Tony I hope the shit goes away soon or at the least abates. Joppa is such a weird name for a suburb in Edinburgh isn't it? Or is it? I remember seeing it on a map and thinking that sounds middle eastern. But then I am vastly ignorant of lots of things. Loved the photo of your mamma and Nellie. Family feuds....yes, they are very peculiar things. But strong feelings run deep I guess.

    tony said...

    "This Pain Is Love" someone said on the tv (albeit in a different context)the other day......
    Yea, another Joppa exists in Israel [A.K.A.]
    "...The biblical town of Joppa is today known as Jaffa. This was the main port of the coast before the Israelis constructed the ports of Haifa and Ashdod....."
    Bibleplaces

    Jofeath said...

    A lovely natural photograph showing the interaction between your mother and her aunt. How sad that the two sisters had fallen out so irreconcilably over who knows what.

    tony said...

    Yes Jo. Needless Sorrow.

    Helen Killeen Bauch McHargue said...

    When the context for the nostalgia is a happy time I can enjoy it...but the Blitz, no. Best ones we have are diners...some even with the table top juke boxes, Your haircut is splendid and I hope your problems resolve. As to the feud, I had two uncles who didn't speak for decades. It was so ingrained in our families behaviour as a small child I thought every family functioned like ours, always adjusting for the elephant in the room. The shadowy photo hides some kind of secret. Excellent match.

    tony said...

    Yea, even the photo was a secret.My Mum only magically showed it to me (as a photocopy,not an orginal) just a few years before she herself died.She only then told me the story of it..I get the impression she continued 'hiding'it long after the others involved had passed away .I never saw the original photo it came from.Maybe my Mum possessed it?
    Hence the shadowy nature has it.....

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