Tuesday 8 October 2019

This is Me

I needed to fill a blog post so I'm unashamedly copying something Sue-in-Wales/England did the other week.

This is me aged about one I think - born with black hair. Big fireguard around the open fire and a very 1950's sofa in the living room of the house in Haughley, Suffolk that was my home for 20 years.

1961 aged 6  - back left -  with my little sister and our cousins. We're on holiday in Norfolk. People didn't go far for holidays then

1962, 7 years old and being a bridesmaid. Red velvet dress with gold sash. I wonder how they fixed that head dress on my hair which was always too straight and short for hairclips?

 Then there's a gap, I don't seem to have many photos of myself for lots of years. I know I was given a little camera when I was about 9 and have lots of tiny photos that I took of other people.

So  1969 aged 14 in summer school uniform for Stowmarket Grammar School. The dress was sort of pink/red and white stripes, I seem to have a heck of a lot of hair! Still black. I'm standing beside our house, same house as the first picture, we didn't have much of a  proper garden  as Dad was a builder so round the back of the house was a builders yard with shed, heaps of sand and bricks and everything else a general builder would need for building houses.

And a couple of years later in the new 6th form uniform, navy skirt, cream shirt that I never wore at school. I was ready to go back but had applied for a job as a library assistant in Bury St Edmunds Library during the summer holidays and the O Level results were late out. I needed English and Maths and 3 other O levels for the job. I got the grades, got the job and never regretted it.

Not many people have seen this photo since 1975........ aged 20 and getting married to first husband. We'd met  both aged 16, engaged at 18 and married at 20 - that's what you did back then if you wanted to get away from the family home and hadn't been to university. We split and divorced in 1978. I chucked all the other wedding photos. I don't regret getting married  then because if I'd not been with P I would never have met Colin. P and I had different ideas about life while me and Col were on the same wavelength. Plus it got me on the housing ladder 3 years earlier than it would have done - which was a huge help when house prices shot up at the same time! ( After me P married and divorced twice more and has no contact with his two sons and grandchildren- Sad.)

 And here I am with Col, the beginning of 38 wonderful years of 3 children, 6 houses and a smallholding!
 Why the heck he chose such a light coloured suit - it was sort of pale beige - I have no idea. I didn't know until he picked me up on the morning of the wedding. He never wore it again and I never stopped reminding him about it!

And the only recent photo that I actually don't mind people seeing. At Son and DiL's wedding in 2016. The hair's a lot greyer and I'm a lot fatter!


Back Tomorrow
Sue

49 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing. It's just lovely and paints a little picture of you growing up and of the times too.

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  2. You've been cute your whole life.. I enjoyed getting to know you better via your childhood photos.. plus the last one! It's good your first marriage was mercifully short if you didn't have the same goals.. glad you found the love of your life. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  3. Yes it was a fascinating glance back into your life, the highs and lows of a busy and productive life.

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  4. Lovely to put a face to a name and a lovely recap of life so far.

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  5. That last picture is lovely Sue. Thanks for the glimpse into your life

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  6. I agree your last photo is lovely.
    Our backgrounds are very similar, I met Colin on 16 and got married on 20th birthday and did not regret it.
    It's nice looking back on memories.
    Hazel c uk

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  7. Wonderful photos Sue. I have a bridesmaids photo of me in 1965 in an almost identical dress and head dress and I love Col's suit so of the time. I thought they were the coolest thing ever in the late 1970s. Very John Travolta! I love the recent photo of you, you look beautiful. xx

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    1. I suppose his suit was of the time but so funny because he was usually a dirt/oil magnet!

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  8. Loved the story of your life. In some ways very similar to mine. Hello from Portugal.

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  9. I see we shared the same hair cut at 7 years old. I too was bridesmaid with the same hair circlet and I can’t remember how it stayed on! I must dig out my old photos!!

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  10. All the photos are lovely, and so similar in looks to mine. The time period, fashions etc. Even your first wedding photo is similar to one I have from my first nuptials. I was 18 and Pete just 22, we lasted 26 years.

    That last photo is beautiful, you might be greyer and fatter, but there is so much happiness shining out of those beautiful eyes ♥️

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    1. P went off with a fellow bell ringer! and they had 2 sons who he doesn't keep in contact with - despite still living in Suffolk somewhere

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  11. Carrying on from your post ... 'also a lot wiser'. Your hair in the last photograph is similar to how I used to have mine until the thyroid kicked in, lol. I love looking back at old photographs, remembering the people and the times, ie fashion and how simple our lives were then. I think that is one of the reasons it's taking me forever to organise the mountain of photos I'm still (with intervals) trying to organise.

    Credit where credit is due though, it was Hester Afloat who was the first with a This Is Me and Sue copied her.

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    1. Whoops apologies to Hester( yet another Sue in real life!)

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  12. You look wonderful in the last post, now I can put a picture to the future posts.
    Briony
    x

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  13. The last photo is beautiful.

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  14. So jealous that you had a red velvet bridesmaids dress......mine was lemon satin.
    You look beautiful in that last photo.
    Hugs-x-

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    1. I can picture the colour of it - but no coloured photos - which is a shame

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  15. Lovely to be able to look back so positively (as I read it). I find with old photographs that the details in backgrounds can often be as interesting as the subject.

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  16. Most of us are greyer and fater, it's called living your life so full of children, grandchildren, family and friends.

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  17. Lovely photos, and your smiling face is as sweet today as it was all those decades past.

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  18. Oh, what lovely photos, Sue, and how wonderful that after your early marriage you met Col and went on to have a wonderful life together. I also married at 20 and in two days' time we celebrate our 55th anniversary - we don't push out the boat for such things, we will go out and have fish and chips! (Mind you, in a 4 star hotel, ha ha!)
    Margaret P
    www.margaretpowling.com

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  19. Thank you for sharing these Sue!
    They are lovely. Lots of memories for you!
    xxx

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  20. Enjoyed your photos...especially the last one. Lovely.

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  21. Ah, lovely pics - where do the years go? Not surprisingly I have similar photos of life events - even a "pancake" bridesmaid headdress - and yes we all get fatter and grey! PatC

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  22. The sixties style fashion pics remind me of me. I had skirts up to my backside. You and Colin look lovely in the wedding pic.

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    1. And they reckon girls wear short skirts at school nowadays. That skirt I'd planned to wear in 6th form is ridiculous!

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  23. Really lovely photos Sue, I enjoyed this post, thank you for sharing.
    Pam in Texas.

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  24. Lovely photos. Didn't we wear our skirts short in those days!!!

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    1. I'm trying to figure out how my legs got shorter!

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  25. Wonderful pictures. Thank you for sharing them.

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  26. A lovely snapshot of your life up to now and the recent photo is beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

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  27. Lovely post, your legs look really long with the short skirts.

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    1. I'm not sure how they look so long I'm only 5 foot 6. Now they are more like eric morecombe (or was it ernie wise?)- short fat hairy legs!

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  28. Still as pretty Sue in the last photo.

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  29. Lovely photos. You are bonny.

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  30. Such wonderful pictures! Thank you for sharing. You have been beautiful all your life! I love seeing age progression photos like this. You last picture is gorgeous. I am much heavier and greyer now too!

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  31. Oh my goodness. Wonderful photos. I see so many parallels to my own life but I am not brave enough to share any photos on my blog!

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    1. be brave! It's only for a day and then everyone will have forgotten!

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  32. Lovely pictures of a lovely lady!

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    1. Be prepared for the real life shock when you get retired to Norfolk!

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  33. Love this post and all the photos - and I agree you look fantastic in the last one x

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  34. Lovely photos Sue! It's lovely to see you. Sounds like the divorce was a good thing! I'd have to dig hard to find photos of me. My Mum has most of them.

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  35. What a nice post. I think the photo of your at your sons's wedding is lovely. xx

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  36. It's v different now! My daughter has just got her first paid job after a degree, a masters degree and 10 years of volunteering and huge amounts of job applications. It's minimum wage, no contract. A job as library assistant would be a dream job. She has been turned away from jobs in retail and in coffee shops, also minimum wage. She will never own her own home either or probably afford children. Baby boomers are very fortunate economically speaking.
    Sandra

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  37. This is a lovely post, and now I feel a little more properly introduced to you. And your comment about not traveling far on holiday rang true with me. When we were little thought it was a big deal to take a day trip "to the country" to visit my Grandmother and have a picnic in the park of a nearby town. It was only a 90 minute drive.

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