Old Photos

[Pudders]

1914-15 Star

[Pudders]

Victory and British War Medal. Not come across the acronym 'N.D.T.' before. Searches come up with Non Destructive Testing, might be relevant for his later service and yet another service number! That's my lot for the night but will dig again later in the week

[Slim]

Wow thanks Neil, fascinating stuff! Really appreciate it.

[Slim]

Found another few photos of our house from a long, long time ago. For a few years after the war the house was owned by my mum's parents. They sold it when they went to live in Bishop Auckland in the early '50s, and my own parents bought it back when it came on the market again in 1961.

This is my Aunt Kay pictured with her (and my mum's) dad outside the house in 1950. The print is a bit torn and knackered but I managed to clean it up a bit.




Kay died in 2002, lung cancer. Her dad, my maternal grandfather, died a few years after this was taken, before I was born.

[Slim]

This one was taken in (at a guess) 1972. The porch has now been assimilated into the house with a new front door and my brother's Morris Traveller is parked outside. There's a new telegraph pole. And TV aerials.

The thing I remember about the front door is that I could unlock it it by snaking my left arm through the letterbox and turning the latch built into the door knob on the inside. My mum hated that. But it was very handy. I was the only person in our household able to do this.

[Slim]

My room (or my half of the room, it was subdivided into two halves by a large wardrobe) at Woodlands, the student house I shared with about 20 other students at the end of 1979. The house was run by Huddersfield Poly as a hall of residence for first year students. I would have taken this pic with my old Practika SLR.

My roommate was a young man named Chris Peart. Chris left after the first term and I was relocated to another room at the front of the house. This one was right at the top of the house, and the window on the right in the pic overlooked the back garden.

Looks like I've just eaten a tin of hot dogs, with a fork.

The bed was really rickety and uncomfortable. I think the book on top of it is The Problems of Philosophy, if so I still have it somewhere.

[Thenop]

Pack of Gauloises, choice of champions no doubt. When I smoked I tried the tobacco (tobacco is still very popular over here), rolling my own smokes. Mostly to ensure no one bummed off of me, no one liked the taste.

Is that a stereo set in back on the nightstand?

[The Picnic Wasp]

I have no doubt that you made the necessary interrogations about Chris's surname. I had never looked up the origins of the name until tonight. I should have realised that it's Scottish as it sounds it, although I don't recall any dealings with any Pearts myself. This room scene brings back memories for me too. When i was in a long term relationship many years ago, I was very surprised to learn how student bedsits looked and functioned. I always lived in a very reserved, comfortable household. The wildness and random carefree lifestyle of several young women living under the same roof was a complete revelation to me. I enjoyed every moment in that squalid, cold, less that watertight multiple occupancy top floor. I wish I was going back there tomorrow. Alcohol, music, junk food, laughter and even better things.

[Slim]

Pack of Gauloises, choice of champions no doubt. When I smoked I tried the tobacco (tobacco is still very popular over here), rolling my own smokes. Mostly to ensure no one bummed off of me, no one liked the taste.

Is that a stereo set in back on the nightstand?

Yes, it's my radio cassette player. It had been an 18th birthday present about 14 months before this photo was taken, and it's only a slight exaggeration to say that my life revolved around it around the time. It made pretty good stereo recordings with a decent cassette tape and I captured loads of music and interviews from radio rock shows. I still have some of them.

Chris and I used to socialise a lot in the first term - we'd go to a pub most evenings, or the student union bar where the beer was something like 35p a pint. But after he left I was made to share with another student in the house, a lad from Preston called Simon. He was perfectly pleasant, but I never bonded with him. He spent most of his time with his girlfriend, a plump girl in the same house who ruled him like a stern headmistress. He seemed to like that. The other folks already had their friendship groups, so I withdrew and mostly spent evenings on my own in the room I shared with Simon. He was out nearly all the time so it was like having a room to myself. And I'd listen to Radio One for hours on that radio cassette, Mike Read then John Peel.

Actually, with hilarious timing, I met my first "proper" girlfriend the first time I went home to Hartlepool for the weekend. And after that I spent every weekend in Hartlepool.

It was a weird time actually. But it's nice to remember, and write about these long-distant times. I might start a memoir thread.

Fortunately I stopped smoking about a year after this photo was taken. But I did enjoy my Gauloises Longues, I must admit. I used to smoke Gitanes, as well.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I'm reading Geddy's memoir quite slowly. For some reason I want to draw the process out longer than I would with any other autobiography. It made me think about what my memoir might be like. I would probably be enjoyable and also cathartic to do, but that would be the only benefit as who else would wish to read it? I probably wouldn't allow that in any case as there would be a lot of wounds opened and many things I have never disclosed to anyone due to family loyalties. Maybe it would reduce the frequency of troublesome dreams. Thinking of a title would be interesting. It would need to be something to attract a Graham Norton invitation which I would respectfully decline.

[Slim]

Maybe the way I process the world is different from other people but I do feel a need to write about certain chapters in my life. Yes, as a sort of catharsis but also to make sense of them. Perhaps so that there's some sort of official souvenir, hilarous as that might sound.

For a long time I intended to write a memoir about my seven years in London. Then I realised that I just don't have the attention span to do that, so I had the idea instead just to pick aspects of it - a particular job, a particular girlfriend (I had an eye-wateringly bonkers one, I will definitely write about that episode one day) - and do it in separate chunks.

Of course it would be lovely to be famous, and to have thousands of readers. But even if four people read what I were to write on my blog, or on a message board somewhere, it would still be worth doing. Just to get it out.

[Thenop]

I have written quite some short stories, all fiction. And all of them have elements of "me" in them. I think most writers do that. Some are quite obvious, others more subtle.
And easy example is a story that pivots around our old front door, it was orange, had threaded glass in it and the letterbox was in the middle. I once kicked in the lower window when my mother wouldn't answer the door, I must have been 7, my father had just died and it turns out she was at the upstairs neighbours. But of course, there are many more events that involved our front door, being the entrance to our home. That kind of how I write about me, not directly, I don't like non-fiction, but creating stories round what I know. It's and endless source of inspiration. Have no desire to be famous for it, although a fair number of people have read my stories and one got published. All in Dutch of course..

Sorry to hijack your photo thread Slim!

[Slim]

Not at all, I welcome the conversation. About two years ago I did write a sort of autobiographical short story. It described a dream that didn't actually happen, but it was based on real people and events. I think I'll start a thread for self-authored content in the Literature section.

[captainkurtz]

You have an excellent way with words and a dry sense of humour, Slim/James.  Obviously, ridiculously intelligent too.  It seems you've led quite an interesting life.  I'd read it.

[Slim]

That's too kind, thanks Hass.