Day 2 #100DaysOfOldDays

This photo of my mother with four out of her five children was taken in 1970. (My youngest brother wasn’t born until a couple of years later)

Some things strike me about this photo. The first thing I see is my mother’s youth. She’s only about 23 years of age and already she has four children. She’s beautiful and vibrant looking. I remember that dress she’s wearing. It’s red; her favourite colour then and her favourite colour today.

This photo radiates happiness. We were happy children. Far from spoilt and didn’t have everything we wanted but we certainly had everything we needed.

I’d love to know what my brother PJ said that made me giggle…when we should have been looking at the camera.

This photo reminds me how Mam got the balance right in certain aspects of her parenting ways. I notice how clean and tidy we all are. Bright clothes and shiny hair. She took pride in her family’s appearance. Yet she allowed us to be dirty when we needed to be. I have many happy memories of running around the fields in mucky wellies. Coming in at supper time to get washed at the sink. A bath was once a week. No bubbles, just soap!

Look at the pram. No bells and whistles on the prams back then. But that pram would have done all five of us. People took very good care of their things in those days because they had to last for a long time. Broken things got mended, not thrown away. And when you did get new things, you passed your old stuff on to someone else.

There’s one thing about this photo that makes me laugh; the length of my dress. Sure it is no length! But I can bet you it was the fashion back then.

I know that it was my late dad who took this photo with their big black box camera. It doesn’t make me sad to think of it. It makes me smile and makes me feel warm inside. We had many family days out. Simple outings but memorable.