Nostalgia on a Sunday

• Posted by Pauline Smith September 8, 2014 #nostalgia  #world war 2  1,465 views
  click to rate

   

  Yesterday was one of those days where I spent a lot of time looking back, and it was enjoyable and cathartic as I was feeling rather low. My day started in my nightie peeling potatoes and shelling peas for Sunday lunch - which ended up being roast chicken with all the trimmings and a few glasses of Rioja. I finally sat down to eat at 2.30 and I was shelling peas at about 9 am!!

   

  Once all the prep work was done I had a shower and a shave and got changed into Pauline; well there was not really a fairy godmother there who waved her magic wand and pouf there was Pauline. More like I put on my leggings and a top, some lippy and a wig, and started the real task of the day which was going through old family photos - from back before I was born.

   

  One of my grand nieces (is that the right word?) - is 6 and is one of my sis's many grandchildren (she has 8 and another 2 are on the way) - is having a day at school later this week about WW2 and they have been asked to bring in old photos and medals, that kind of thing. Well I knew where my Dad's medals were, and which campaigns he had fought in; he was in the BEF and finally got out of France at St Nazaire or Nantes and landed back in England on June 19 1940 - both his and my mum's birthday.  After that he was with the Desert Rats in North Africa, and then was in the campaign to free Italy and ended his war in Palestine in 1945/6. I knew there were some photos of him in Army uniform somewhere and also some of my mum, who was only 20 in 1940.  But I had 2 big carrier bags full of photos and albums from the 30s to the noughties and no logical system - a bit like my Dutch  tax returns - so I had to look through any that were in black and white, knowing that any colour ones would be too recent. Before 1960 all photos were black and white but that still left piles from after the war through to the 1960s, which I had to sort through.

   

  I found many photos of my grandparents and other family members (well I think they were family members, but who can be sure looking at a group when you dont recognize anyone) and lots of me and my sis growing up, and then struck gold.  A sort of wedding/family album with photos of my mum and dad growing up and loads of them both in 1940s stuff, her looking glam and him in his uniform. We had used some of the photos at my Mum's 90th in 2010 and also at her funeral in 2012, so I was glad to find that treasure trove, plus some individual photos and a file containing stuff about my dad's service record and photos of Jerusalem in 1945 as well as a guide to Cairo.

  

  It was very much another era. Back then photos were only taken at family events or on holidays, so there weren't all the photos that there are now. I do hope that my grand niece and her schoolmates enjoy seeing all these artefacts from 70-75 years ago.

   

  Sadly there were no black and white photos of an early teenage Pauline...as we couldn't do selfies back then....and if we did we had to take them to the chemists to be developed. About as likely as going in there to buy a pack of condoms.

   

  After a very late lunch I settled down to watch the Dam Busters on tele, and then later in the evening a programme on refurbishing parts of Victorian Llandudno, where Fiona and Debbie have taken so many happy snaps. It was on Channel 4, the link is below

  http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-britain-worked/4od#3459276

   

  My day of nostalgia was completed by watching a repeat programme about  Les Dawson, "An audience that never was" where he is portrayed as a hologram, plus some of his old television sketches.

  https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/les-dawson-an-audience-with-that-never-was/series-1/episode-1-les-dawson-an-audience-with-that-never-was

  Watching him and Roy Barraclough perform as Cissie and Ada, two Northern "women" still made me laugh 20+ years after Les's death

   

   

  Is nostalgia useful?

   

   

  

   

  You bet it is - it makes you smile and laugh and cry, remembering some of those good and bad times from the past. They were part of what made us who we are today. I am reminded very much of the movie the Way We Were, and the soundtrack is sung by Barbra Streisand when she still had an amazing voice....I do prefer the Gladys Knight version

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNEcQS4tXgQ

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgsqbY1LQHA

   

  My conclusions - Do enjoy looking back at who you were and things that you liked, but don't forget to live for today as well. As you know being a Tgirls means that life can be tough for us at times; for me I try to see the glass as half full to full and know that as Pauline I am lucky to enjoy special moments and have very special friends both here on Transtastic and in the TG community.

   

  

   

  big hugs

   

   

  Pauline xxxx