Sundae's Album
Some pictures from my personal album.
Dad set them up for us as babies, and I continued mine until (more or less) the present day.
I was playing around with the scanner today and used some pictures as test scans - there are many more, but I won't take up the space unless it's appropriate. But here are the ones I scanned in today. Some of them have people cropped out, but only because I considered using them for Whose Baby, rather than in a creepy "You're not my family now" way.
Apparently I have always been an exhibitionist (might get my parents arrested now)
First birthday
How could my parents EVER have thought that wallpaper matched that carpet?!
- Christmas 1975
The photo has aged, but yes I AM ginger
- Easter, in my late Great Aunt Alice's garden
They talk about inappropriate dress for children now - how short is that skirt?!
And a page from a more recent album
Full-on 80s complete with "moody" shots
I chose all 3 myself as worthy of posterity. Uh-huh. 1988 what can you say?
Forgot this one, which fits in between the two periods
Kinda comes under the heading Only a Parent Could Love
I cans see you've allway's been good looking
That carpet is like something I saw on acid once...
Great pics!
That top left pic in the 80s montage, you look like something out of one of those eighties teen movies. Like Breakfast Club or Pretty in Pink. Stunning.
I love that carpet!!
Youre such a cutie Sundae.
Thanks for sharing.
I love that carpet!!
Youre such a cutie Sundae.
Thanks for sharing.
Are you referring to an actual carpet or did SG post a NSFW pic somewhere?:D:lol2:
oh, that's so fun! Love it that you've captured all the essential phases of life--the naked baby, the cute-as-a button, the awkward stage, the . . . more awkward stage. ;)
I like the picture petting the donkey. For some reason I thought of a young Princess Anne.
oh, that's so fun! Love it that you've captured all the essential phases of life--the naked baby, the cute-as-a button, the awkward stage, the . . . more awkward stage. ;)
I have at least two pictures a year, starting from 30 mins old until approx 28
Many awkwardnesses captured :)
I like the picture petting the donkey. For some reason I thought of a young Princess Anne.
Oh I wish I were such a sportswoman! But in that pic I have my 10m swimming badge sewn on my top.
Looks like we're around the same age Sundae.....Weren't you a cutie when you were younger:D
I updated my Freinds Reunited page today (now it's free!)
Almost no-one has a photo on their profile. Tcha. Obviously not taking part in the online community age! Like I have any problems showing my picture on my profile these days.
Anyway, just because some of them are of historical value - clothes and decor - I thought you might like to see too.
First is my 7th birthday party. The 70s was all about brown. I'm far right (not in brown)
Second is me (left) and my sister in our school uniform in 1980. My best friend Monkey is on the chest of drawers. I still have her now.
Two school plays.
I am front left kneeling (looking into the camera) as Mustardseed in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
And Rock Nativity - one of three wise men. Taken in the show-biz setting of the corridor between the sports changing rooms and the stage.
And finally
Two school photos.
I'm not in the first - it was the last week of term & Mum & Dad took us out early to take advantage of the cheaper prices at the caravan park in Great Yarmouth. But I think it's interesting as a testament to how 12 years olds looked in 1984. No-one was allowed to wear make-up, but there are definitely some womanly girls in there. I wasn't. If I was there I'd have been the smallest, the skinniest and the youngest looking.
In the second I am centre front (of course!) HM is in there too but I'm not naming any names out of respect for privacy. Taken in 1988 - lots of 80s hair in this one :)
Whenever you say HM I think you mean Happy Monkey.
My new favorite thread. Moar pls.
Awesome Sundae!! Thanks for sharing
I really want to comment on the girl - front, centre in the first one....but
She's also at my birthday party...
Okay, by popular demand.
Early shots.
Don't hate me for being such a snappy dresser...
I hated ballet.
I used to cry when I had to go.
In the end my Mum decided it wasn't worth the hassle.
I seem to remember this being taken on the day I was allowed to quit, hence the smile. I think Dad figured it might be the last chance he had to take a girly photo of me - I was already a tomboy.
The first one is one of my Dad's special Injury Photos.
I'd fallen when running across the playground with a bottle of medicine in my hands. In those days you had to take it out to the dinner ladies for them to supervise you taking it. It changed after my fall - and more sensibly was administered inside the school.
As I was mindful of breaking the precious bottle I did not use my hands to break my fall and landed on my face. I had to have a piece of stone removed from my forehead in hospital.
Second picture is three iconic symbols. Princess Leia, me and Charlie Chaplin in Leicester Square.
And finally (for now)
Me as a Brownie (US equivilant Girl Scout I assume)
For the Britsd, yes I was a Sixer. Of the Pixies. What a good girl.
And butter wouldn't melt in my mouth - me on my Confirmation Day
Oh my god don't you look proper for your confirmation lol
Lovely shots SG. I'm pretty sure my wardrobe more or less matched yours throughout the seventies and early eighties hahaha.
We have Brownies here as well. I believe they are pre-Girl Scouts, as Cub Scouts are pre-Boy Scouts.
And finally (for now)
Me as a Brownie (US equivilant Girl Scout I assume)
For the Britsd, yes I was a Sixer. Of the Pixies. What a good girl.
I was a Ghillie Dhu
Adorable. a wake of broken hearts, no doubt.
in 83 I was In Iceland , walkn a fence line in the snow !!!
In 83 I was in Burlington, vt spinning wrenches at a bike shop.
Adorable. a wake of broken hearts, no doubt.
Oh crikey no. I grew up accepting I was the ugly one in the family.
I didn't even have a proper kiss until I was half past fifteen. Or an improper kiss should I say ;)
In fact I'll post a photo taken around the age that things changed for me. Until then, family wisdom was that I got the brains and my sister got the looks. Which I now realise was unfair on both of us - my sister was a hard worker and certainly not stupid. I was lazy but bright and it pretty much evened us out in the end.
Re looks - I just wish I could go back and put myarms around my younger self and try to teach her to love herself. I grew up hating the way I look with a passion. A lot of wasted energy.
...
Re looks - I just wish I could go back and put my arms around my younger self and try to teach her to love herself. I grew up hating the way I look with a passion. A lot of wasted energy.
You're not alone there, dearie. Although I didn't hate the way I looked I didn't appreciate it either...
As mentioned before, this was the picture where I realised perhaps I had changed in other people's eyes. I was nearly 16, so in fact I had had my first boyfriend. But he fancied my sister. And anyway he finished with me. Sob.
My Dad came to find me when the holiday photos arrived (remember waiting for photos to come through the post?!) and shoved it under my nose quite angrily. "See!" he said, "Don't let me hear you saying that your sister got the looks again!" I was taken aback. To be fair to my Dad, he had always told me how beautiful I was, but Daddies say things like that whatever you look like.
Second pic is just to bring you a little further up to date. My 18th. The balloons and plastic bunting are so naff, and so unsuitable for an 18 year old. I loved them. I'd stayed over at a friend's the night before and when I came down the path and saw them and Mum & Dad jumped out of the door singing Happy Birthday I was made up. Cynical quasi-adult that I was, I needed reassuring that a woman could still be a daughter.
Have found some of my amazing changing hair colours over the years, whic I will post in a few days.
Gawd Sundae, those last two pics really show the beginnings of the stunner you are.
Depending on a strand test, I might be going back to black this weekend.
So a run through some of my previous hair colours & styles seems appropriate.
Me with long (growing out) henna'd hair - outside the cottage my ex & I bought.
Then shorter and darker, on a boat in Cuba. As you do.
With black hair, dancing in a bar in France.
My sole surviving wedding photo - you can't really see my hir but it was very dark with red streaks (see Venice, below)
Honeymoon in Venice.
Back to blonde later that year.
My favourite EVER picture of me. Going to the work Christmas party 1997.
And finally, with hair extensions, posing at my parents' in my PVC catsuit Christmas 2001.
I LOVE the Christmas party one. You look so cute in all of these -- and you certainly sound like quite the globetrotter! "Oh, here I am dancing in a bar in France... on vacation in Venice... on a boat in Cuba..."
I didn't even include Egypt & Sri Lanka ;)
I love looking at your photos. You are someone who seems I would like to have known as a young person.
Your album is pretty interesting! You always change things up! From naughty to modest, you always manage to look good. So diverse!
Hot SG , VERRRRRRY HOT !!
Its really a shame you grew up thinking you didn't have 'looks'. I can relate. I always had really big glasses and bad hair cuts. And yes, I understand about wanting to go back in time and hug her. You were absolutely adorable as a young girl and really cute as a young woman. What a waste of angst that was...huh. Yeah, but I know.
Oh dear me, I hated my looks growing up! Mind you I was regularly mistaken for a boy so that probably didn't help lol.
Great shots SG. I think you really suited the dark hair.
Was looking through some old photo albums for pics of the friends who are visiting Mum & Dad today.
Found these of a trip to Blackpool.
Both around the same time as the Christmas Party photo, but without make-up.
I thought I was so ugly without it :headshake
Look at that saucy minx, sitting right on the miner's lap in public. Cute pictures!
I don't mind admitting he was hard.
Your mum hasn't aged. Wtf?
You really were sitting on a goldmine!
Well then from the pictures I conclude you have always been cute
Sweet. Not true though.
Going through old photos because one of Dad's friends is 70 this year - not the same chap who visited the other weekend.
Sorted the 'rents out with a photo card and coasters (they bought real ale as the real present.)
We plundered Dad's 50th Birthday album, put together as a celebration of his life.
This was in the Appendix; photos of the actual day.
I am 17.
And I already like a mouthful.
warning: rant starts here
Sundae, you can dismiss tora's compliment, your choice, whatever. But your logic/cellar grammar doesn't support your dismissal with the picture you posted. Seventeen, ok, young, goes to "always have been". Photo taken at mealtime by someone else obviously, you're caught mid-bite... "you like a mouthful". Um. ok. It doesn't support the "Not true though" part of your refutation of tora's hypothesis.
That picture shows a very cute girl. You resemble Gillian Anderson, and that's a compliment. I had something of a crush on her back in the day. You think I'm kidding? Here are my cites:
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/rant over
Pictures of people eating are usually unflattering.
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Thanks V (and Glatt)
But you must consider that the only photos I've kept, and those that went into my Dad's album, were flattering ones. I was joking about a mouthful - I am amazed looking back at that photo, because I remember how I felt about myself at that time.
There are other unflattering ones which exacerbated how I felt.
I used to hide when the photos came through the post.
And I used to hide behind my hands when the cine-camera projector was set up in the living room. To this day if I chance upon a smell which reminds me of hot celluloid and/or burning dust I feel nostalgic but cringe slightly.
I can't change how I felt about me then.
But a tide has turned in me since posting here.
I've discussed my ptosis, posted fat, without make-up, damn near naked, one-shot-RFN pictures etc etc.
I credit the Cellar for all of the above.
In the years before I joined I would never have met up with any other Dwellars.
Because I was fat/ ugly/ deformed/ badly dressed/ or all of the above. But I joined.
I got to know people by their minds and their decency.
The physical stopped being such a barrier for me. Online at least.
And the first Dwellar I met was DanaC who laughed at my jokes and gave me practical help for no good reason I could fathom.
Meh. Probably the wrong thread.
It's been great knowing you here, Sundae. I loved the pictures you posted, especially the NSFW ones. A good part of sexy is between the ears, and you, my dear, are sexy.
I'm you found a place here to relax. You've certainly livened things up a few times.
Take good care of yourself so you can come to Philly and give us the Live 3D version.
Mum has had Dad searching through the albums for a specific photo.
And getting cross because he can't find it ("NO! I said it was in COLOUR!")
It's quite possible she is wrong; I've remembered photos incorrectly before, only to have to eat my words when the one I've wanted has been found and bears no resemblance to my description.
Anyway. Went through a few. Got some more for my online album.
I promise, no self-deprecatory comments this time.
I've tried to keep them in date order, but as they've been pulled from about seven different albums they may jump around a bit. Not literally, this isn't Harry Potter.
Earliest aren't of me.
Nanny and Grandad's wedding day, then Nanny with Mum.
Summer and Winter.
There are a couple of similar Summer shots, but I deemed this the least likely to set off alarm bells. Simply by coincidence, my sister and I have our tuppences concealed.
Making Christmas cake and memories in the kitchen. In the house I live in now.
The wallpaper no longer makes my eyes bleed though.
Historical interest: look at that TV!
And the mugs in front of my sister and I would have contained tea. Weak tea, yes, but it's still caffeinated. And we had it with a spoon of sugar.
I am teh serious driver.
Not for me the manic waving at parents as the roundabout comes round.
And in the second pic, that's the Cutty Sark in Greenwich.
I don't remember that trip, but we went a few times. I was familiar with the tourist area long before I lived and worked there.
A rare treat.
I won't harp on about how poor we were; compared to now, everyone in the '70s was poor. You didn't just let your children have an ice-cream because they wanted one, it was for a really special occasion. And yes, I remember sulking and even crying because I wanted one.
We didn't have a freezer back then, so ice-cream was like something from The Promised Land (America, where they even had it in different flavours.) Well okay, I hadn't even hear of the USA back then. But its flavours were drawing their plans against me...
And then outside the front door.
Looking cute in a skirt so short it shows my knickers (nappy).
Dressing little girls in bikinis sexualises them.
I say sexualisation is in the eye of the beholder. My body-issues did not kick in until I didn't reach puberty at the same age as my friends, not because I was a carefree little girl running about on a beach.
Sorry :rant:
It was obviously a rare sunny day on holiday. We have such a thing as Robinson Holiday Weather. Usual characteristics being Winter weather in the midst of Summer.
Laura and me at the Alfred Rose Park. Somewhere I walk around to this day.
I suppose it helps that I live in the same house and so it is still the nearest green space ;)
Family photo.
There is a story behind the dress.
I saw it in a catalogue (you paid weekly, and Dad was also paid weekly) and wanted it as my Summer dress.
No, sez Mum. No way. You will never wear it, you will be too embarrased to wear it out in public etc etc.
After much creating on my part she ordered it, on the understanding I would send it back when I saw how awful it looked on me. It did, I suppose, but in hindsight I carried it off. Without the whole fight I probably would have surrendered it. But I refused to be told I couldn't wear it.
I got it. And it was all I had new all summer. No other new clothes at all. Still, there were no such things as cast-offs then. Mums looked after their children's clothes in order to hand them down. Getting a bag of clothes from another family was a treat, not a humiliation. I did regret getting the dress when my sister got new jeans and bumpers (sneakers?) though.
Anyway.
I'd love to say I wore it everywhere and anywhere, but that's not how I rolled back then. Self-fulfilling prophecy; I wore it three times including that photo. Second time to a party and I felt fab. Third time to a family do and heard my Mum apologising for me. Never wore it again. Still, I've made Mum's eyes pop with many fashion choices since :D
Second pic, no back story, just a school photo.
'Cept you can see the Princess Diana influence on Laura.
Gosh, really rocking along now.
Me au naturel.
Said I wouldn't criticise myself, but just a little one..?
I HATED this photo. Given the choice I would have burned it.
I couldn't believe Dads bought it (and Mum did make it clear he bought it, not her) and framed it.
It's not so bad when I look back on it. It was how I looked. I think I just hated the fact that most of my classmates looked like women and I still looked like a little girl.
Me under the influence of the '80s.
Growing out a perm and experimenting with Sun-In. OMG. I was happy though. I've never been all that enamoured of my hair in its natural state, in fact to this day I prefer it slightly damaged as it means it doesn't lie as flat.
I'm enjoying this! Keep it up! x
Love the smiles and the stories. Thank you for sharing these, Sundae!
(That is some god awful wallpaper in that kitchen though, yeesh.) :)
I'm loving these pics. And look at your dad with hair!
(That is some god awful wallpaper in that kitchen though, yeesh.) :)
Yeah. That's some wallpaper.
My Dad with even more hair in that case!
And Mum when they were courting.
Great Yarmouth holidays.
In the clubhouse at Vauxhall Holiday Park.
Where Abigail and Connor have taken the twins for a 5 day break this week - certainly good the weather for it. That's five generations who've holidayed there from this family...
Back in the Clubhouse. One of the main draws of a family holiday park is free evening entertainment you see. We've always been about live performance in this family, whether it's stand-up, theatre, street artists or show tunes. We love a bit of it. Well, it seems to have skipped Laura a bit, as she finds that sort of thing quite embarrassing, but Samuel enjoyed his school shows and Abs was really interested in a career in sound/ lighting before the twins made an unexpected appearance; she'll probably have to look for a more conventional/ secure job now.
The only downside of the Clubhouse was the price of drinks and snacks.
We'd be allowed one each. Then anything else had to be decanted under the table :lol:
Second photo, out and about on the streets of Yarmouth. I assume taken on the same day or I really loved that t-shirt. Even though I have no memory of it whatsoever.
School musical Dracula Spectacular.
Shot of the whole cast, then detail of me.
Your mum was a striking looking young woman. That pic of her on her own is beautiful, she looks haunting.
And your nan was a looker too!
Also: your Dad had something of Charles Dance about him when he was young.
Finally: you were an adorable kid.
Nice pictures. You have a great family.
Scanning photos for a card for Father's Day.
Bless Dads for getting the albums out.
Cropped my sister out of all of the photos :lol:
To be fair, the frames on the card are very small, and it is my card after all.
So a couple of lickle pics.
Benidorm (Spain).
I didn't go abroad again til I spent time in a French school.
Great Yarmouth (surprise!)
1st birthday
Christmas about 2 1/2.
Dad looks like a serial killer in the above.
I can only assume it he was caught trying to instruct Mum how to take a photo.
I've done the same, but it's easier to rectify with digital.
BIG jump in age here; these are Dad-and-I-specific-photos and he was almost always behind the camera.
Our next door neighbour's daughter's wedding. Sounds like a loose connection but in fact we still have the same next door neighbours, and they came to all three of our weddings ("we" siblings I mean.)
Confirmation Day - you've seen a pic of this event before, but this time it has Dads in it.
Not quite a photo bomb, but I am obviously craning to get into the shot.
As I hated having my photo taken, at that age, my guess is that I felt safer "making an effort" than flat out refusing.
I ended up in shot, but am now pleased about that.
Me at the Christmas That Never Was.
I'd been dumped by The One, had picked up two others I really didn't care for, lost so much weight my friends worried about me, and had Christmas dinner in the Student Nurses' accommodation block. That was planned btw, not a bizarre medical emergency overspill.
Ended up with a foodfight, and getting so stoned I thought my legs had been attached backwards.
And even though I wasn't even a social smoker, apparently I cried out, "Doesn't anyone have a normal cigarette?!"
Well if you don't do it when you're young...
No photos of me running round in my bra stoned.
This one is on Boxing Day.
Got some older ones of family, which might have some historical interest.
Will maybe scan and post them some time before the albums are put away again.
Top pics: Dad's school photos.
Below, him in a new suit, walking along the prom in Great Yarmouth. Aged 13-16, hard to tell because of the way fashion has changed these days.
I can't imagine a teenager on holiday with his parents in an English seaside town dressed up in a suit these days.
The numbers at the bottom show the photo was taken by a professional photographer.
They snapped you in tourist locations, gave you a card with the number on and you went back to check the photos in the photographer's window the next day.
You could buy them as they were, or enlarged, or even if a special presentation pack.
This still applied when I was on holiday in Yarmouth 20+ years later, and especially at holiday camps. In fact I was caught out by a photographer at a B&B in Blackpool when I was only recently separated from my husband.
Seems a world away now.
But not everyone had a camera, or could afford the film/ development costs for something that might end up with someone out of frame/ focus.
Dad with his parents in Yarmouth.
Nanny Robinson met me, but died very soon after my birth so I don't remember her.
Grandad Robinson didn't even live to meet my sister, let alone me.
Note Dad's laptop!
Oh, okay. Portable record player, probably.
And yes, he was 18 and already losing his teeth. Thank goodness for the NHS.
Dad being a matinee idol at Butlins.
With his mouth closed.
Christmas circa 1960? 1961?
Dad on the left of course, Edward in the middle and Charles on the right.
Ted is the eldest son, but Charlie lost his hair early and life hit his body harder.
He stayed at home with his Mum and lived a dissolute bachelor's life, which in those days involved late nights, heavy drinking, heavy smoking and everything fried to absolute buggery. Not dissimilar to now, except it was every single night and came on top of TB and malnutrition.
He had his romances, but never married.
I cared for Uncle Charlie a great deal, because he told told rambling stories and therefore had time for mine.
Uncle Ted's still alive, but in a very bad way these days.
Second pic is Dad bowling.
He was a bit of a demon-sportsman back in the day.
Rarely beat Charlie at anything though.
Then again, they were almost different generations, thanks to WWII.
very enjoyable, Sundae. Thank you. :)
This is currently my favourite ongoing thread.
Thank you for sharing this, Sundae. It makes me want to find my old albums with pics of my dad and relatives. Good memories.
Cheers, peeps.
Another of Nanny & Grandad's wedding.
In those days, weddings were family affairs. Dresses were handed down and resewn to fit slightly more current styles. Wedding parties walked from home to the church and back again, receptions were held in the parlour, or garden if the weather was good. When I say wedding parties, we're talking about ten people in the church, then about 20 (because it included the neighbours) afterwards. Funerals were the big, grand affairs.
Of course a traditional East End wedding would have had its reception in the pub. Numbers the same, but still close to home. Not really possible for WWII weddings in London.
Nanny and Grandad were so proud of Mum's wedding, because they held the reception in the hall beside the parish church. It was still catered by friends and guests and Grandad supplied all the booze (through hotel/ restaurant connections) but she had a car to get her there.
As a child I honestly believed it had snowed on their wedding day (in February.) Mum was quite puzzled as to where I got this idea.
It was only when I found this photo I realised that this was the image I had in my head.
Much as I laud the advent of digital cameras, there was something special about a photo booth.
Cutting the cake. It is very grand; made by Auntie Jess (their next door neighbour.)
She apparently made the best bread & butter pudding in the world.
Nanny couldn't cook. Even she admitted it. Except Yorkshire puddings, which is weird because they are oddly easy to get wrong. Anyway, Mum used to be in and out of their house all the time, and if bread & pudding pudding was baked, Jess would give Mum some to sneak back to Grandad.
Nanny thought it was a common (poor-person) dish. But then she couldn't cook it :lol:
[COLOR="White"](Neither can I)[/COLOR]
Dads camping in Rimini, Italy. He took Mum there after they were married, but this was on a lads' camping holiday. He took advantage of the burgeoning travel package industry which made foreign holidays available to working class people in the '60s.
The second is a more traditional holiday in Butlins after they married.
The callow youth is Uncle Jim, Mum's younger brother.
Uncle Jim and Mum last year.
From the
Australia thread. Also contains photos of Aliantha.
Rimini again.
But they both went this time. Well they had met and married by then!
Many photos of Mum in her bikini. Hardly surprising.
Chose the most playful and least personal one.
The coaches.
Air travel was still beyond their means.
In fact we have a history of coach travel in this house.
Because if you really want to travel in Europe you can bear it.
I'm glad someone finally put a sign up on that hotel. ;)
Alert: sandy thread-drift coming...
Here is a satellite view of the long sand beach along there.
The effect of jetties on currents and waves is remarkable.
Mum & Nan.
Can't get over how Mum & I had the same smile when she was younger.
But she was cursed with bad teeth. Not the front ones. And like many of her era she's spent a fortune at the dentist just to maintain them. And she really, really takes care of them.
But she became self-conscious because she ended up with so much work done on her back teeth.
Hard to say where my robust chompers came from because diet, smoking and the cost of dental care did take a toll on the Grandparents. Note: no fillings, no teeth extracted and no dental work to this date. I thank you. 'Cept it has to be luck in my case.
ETA - unfortunate flaw on photo means it looks like Nanny is missing a tooth.
She's not, but hated smiling in photos because nicotine had stained her teeth brown.
And back to me!
I know you were just hanging on for that.
Two more from the vaults.
Mum is packing up for the move, which means finding and discarding photos.
1) Mum with Father Christmas in Bodgers department store in Ilford.
I love the zip-up boots.
2) Grandad at work. Probably not in his essential war role of keeping American airmen in booze; much later.
Aw... I know you and your sister don't get along, Sundae, but I just love that photo of the two of you. It just exudes the joy of young childhood.