I can’t look at this photo without smiling. It’s been propped in a vertical file on my desk for ages, ever since it fell off of some silly identity poster that I had to make for one reason or another many years ago. It was a very fitting entry for that poster, it expresses the roots of my identity pretty well, I think.I love the photograph itself – the square shape and white border easily distinguish it as an archive from the 70s. And if you needed more proof of that, well hello wall-to-wall orange shag carpet!
I love the girl, I love being the girl. The unbearable cuteness, the messy braids, that grin, and Lord help me, that outfit! Oh, what I would give to have those clothes in my girl’s drawers.
I love the room, the den. Those built in shelves with the albatross of a tv that you had to actually touch to change channels. Those shelves that held so many treasures.. that Japanese tea set that you see up there above the funky angled desk lamp was set up out of reach in 1973, but in later years it was banged around with abandon by the next generation. I wish we could see Beethoven’s bust or that weird three-faced golden dog. The cabinet by the tv that first housed a reel to reel tape recorder, which eventually retired to make room for the CD player.
I love the house that enfolded that den. The house of my memories, the house I visit in my dreams, the house of my childhood. I wish we could have our upcoming family reunion old-school style, with Dad hauling kids down Jackson in his lawn mower trailer contraption. But I think the one we are planning will be great – how can we miss, all inhabiting the same acre or so of land? The Poconos are not going to know what hit them.
7 comments:
Oh, Jacquie. This is so great. I love that den. I can practically smell it. I, too, wish we could dive into that photo and check everything out more thoroughly. The Beethoven bust that broke, and Dad glued, but you could always see the seam. And I think that 3-headed dog was at Uffie's house.
Has anyone ever told you that you and your girl, um, look exactly alike? I have a photo of her taken in the Tavern last summer, and she's got the same posture, with her hands in her pockets.
But you. You were the cutest girl in the world. We all just beamed with pride, trotting you around. *So* stinking cute. And oh, so groovy.
Ellie
I love this too Jacquie, I really miss that orange shag! When I first looked at this picture I thought it was your little girl -sorry about the braids....... love mom corey
Jacquie, you’ve captured our childhood so exquisitely. I remember my baby sister of that picture so well (and, as noted previously, your girl looks like that now!). I remember threading those reel-to-reel tapes on the huge tape deck, especially the musicals — I still know every word to Fiddler on the Roof, South Pacific, A Chorus Line, etc. etc. And feeling like a grown-up when I finally got to read the novels on that up-high shelf full of books (loved Marjorie Morningstar!). Whatever happened to that bust of Beethoven, anyway?!
Totally groovy, Jacquie. And I am just wowed, once again, by the wonder of DNA. That could be Clara in that photo, especially if she lived back east and her hair did not see the sunshine everyday like it does here.
Does she know she's a mini-me (uh, that would be mini-you)?
Honestly, though, we had orange shag carpet too, in the family room, and green shag in the living room, and I do not miss that. Not at all.
That picture melts my heart. What a future lies in those eyes.
I love women who think they're hysterical because, of course, we're right!!
Wish I could see the photo. For some reason Blogger is constipated tonight. Found you from Pioneer Woman. I inject her regularly and when there's nothing new enough I troll around for new sites to peruse. Glad I found you!
I was telling someone yesterday that most of my dreams take place at 26 Bettswood. I actually did have the dream that we took the house back over for the reunion. It somehow transformed itself back to the way it was before the pigs bought in and everything, it was awesome. Great post, jacq.
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