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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 17, 2017 19:01:10 GMT
Bixa I promised my sister before she died that her daughter could take her place, represent her so to speak when we distribute the photos.
My Mum made clothes for my sisters and I throughout our childhood and well into our teens. Her dressmaking skills were excellent (the sewing machine was hardly ever put away and dominated the dining table for years) and she could knit very well, her taste in fabric was basically 'whatever is cheapest' which led to some quite dreadful pink candy striped frilly confections that ill suited a podgy 14 year old Cheery (with plaits)
Mum would unravel old knitwear that we had grown out of and make another item...she managed to keep herself and all 5 daughters nicely dressed...our father and brother's clothes were bought from a shop. I got a Saturday/holiday job at 16 and spent my first wages on a pair of wrangler jeans...
I can sew by hand but never tried making clothes....ever....
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Post by mossie on Sept 18, 2017 16:06:09 GMT
My father worked for a tailor, so I grew up seeing all sorts of sewing machines and other tailoring stuff. His knowledge of sewing machines meant that when he joined the army in WWI he was trained as a machine gunner because he was used to fiddling with small machinery, this was common at the time. When my father took over the tailoring business from the original tailors widow we moved into the shop, my mother used to assist him by making shirts, and all our clothes were made at home. I also remember having to hold out my arms so that my mother could wind the skeins of wool into a ball, and also unpicking old woollen clothes to recover wool for knitting.
Those were much different days to today, my father had been apprenticed to the tailor when he was 14 in 1911, had 4 years in the army 1916-20 and worked for him as a journeyman tailor until joining the RAF in 1940. The old man died during the war and the business became defunct so my father had a hard slog for many years to revive it. When he was demobbed in 1945, my father then continued as the village tailor until his eyesight became too poor to see black thread against black cloth when he was well into his '70's.
They had the work ethic bred into them in those days.
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Post by kerouac2 on Sept 18, 2017 16:28:55 GMT
They probably also had no choice -- work or starve.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 3, 2017 8:33:17 GMT
Today I sorted through and dumped several kilos of family archives inherited from my parents -- all of the stuff about building, buying and selling homes, all of my father's naval service certificates, shipping lists for transatlantic moving. I know that I kept too much anyway, but there is no way I can throw away birth and death certificates, even for people whom I never knew like my stepfather's parents, marriage certificates, divorce certificates -- but I threw away all of the lawyers' documents and had no desire to read them anyway. I found one major surprise -- my (step)father's high school diploma dated 1951 when he was already 33 years old. He had joined the Navy at age 17 without a diploma. Anyway, there were plenty of pictures which I kept even though nobody in the world will ever look at them again. One of the last things I cleaned out was my father's wallet, which I don't think I had touched since he died in 2005. Kept the driver's licence, old credit cards, retired military ID card. Did not keep car insurance or fishing licence... Anyway, he always carried two photos of my mother in his wallet, dating from 1967, the year they got married. They were still there of course, so here they are. Yes, he was a leg man.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 3, 2017 14:27:05 GMT
Awwww -- that is lovely. Those are wonderful pictures, too. I hope you put them in a frame to preserve them. The wallet creases make them even more precious.
And my goodness -- you really look like your mother!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2017 15:03:49 GMT
What great find. The first one in particular is quite simply classy and elegant. Are they from the 1940's?
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 3, 2017 15:20:12 GMT
Really lovely pictures K2
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 3, 2017 15:24:45 GMT
Mossie is right above. My father could paint, decorate, do carpentry (built his own kitchen), knit, crochet, sew, alter clothes, mend shoes, garden and play cricket at the weekend!
Very fond of a gin and tonic....
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 17, 2017 12:17:45 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 17, 2017 17:15:20 GMT
Awww, the adorable little Cacti!
So nice to see a formal portrait with the kids looking genuinely happy and not just smiling for the camera. You & Mrs.C done good!
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 19, 2017 5:07:41 GMT
My mother did a radio interview a couple of days ago and I'm just so impressed with her poise and delivery that I want to unabashedly brag about it here. Maybe it should go in The Free Clinic because of the theme, but I'm really sharing it on a Family and Friends level. soundcloud.com/user-378810133/mary-ann-appleby-radio-interviewHere's yet a another birthday picture of her, with two of my nieces.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 21, 2017 13:13:44 GMT
This is my great grandfather Giles Chandler who died in 1937. Note the trendy double gold earrings - he was a sea captain and owned 3 fishing boats.
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Post by amboseli on Nov 24, 2017 19:03:49 GMT
Here's our newborn grandson. 💗 His name is Wannes (named after my dad who died when our son was 7) and he was born last week, Nov. 15.
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Post by lugg on Nov 24, 2017 19:22:24 GMT
Gorgeous baby Amboseli you must be very proud.
Do you see a family likeness Mick between your son and great GF - I thought so.
Bixa, from the pics I have seen of you , I can definitely see the family connection to your Mum and your nieces - what a star
K2 your mum looks lovely an I like that you found those pics in your step fathers wallet I think creased means treasured
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Post by breeze on Nov 25, 2017 13:42:16 GMT
Amboseli, what a bright-eyed beautiful baby.
Mick, you see the steady gaze and lips with a hint of a smile on your great-grandfather, and then the earrings come as a bit of a surprise. Was that trendy with seagoing men in those days? Earrings are trendy now with young guys here and I bet they have no clue that it's not a brand-new thing.
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Post by mickthecactus on Nov 25, 2017 17:34:04 GMT
Isn’t he lovely?
Breeze, as I understand it the old sailors always wore gold earring in case they were lost at sea and the gold earring would be enough to pay for a funeral,
He had 2 nephews lost at sea and I’ll post their pictures in due course.
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Post by whatagain on Nov 25, 2017 19:26:18 GMT
Congrat Amboseli ! Lovely baby.
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Post by amboseli on Nov 26, 2017 20:21:28 GMT
Thanks!
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Dec 6, 2017 20:27:08 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 7, 2017 21:27:57 GMT
Ah, a new person on the scene!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2017 16:26:38 GMT
Great pics all both young and old.
Amboseli, your new grandson is beautiful. And, I don't use that word lightly. Most newborns look like newborns. Every once in awhile one sees a picture of a newborn and they are truly beautiful. Yours is one of them. Congratulations!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 8, 2018 4:43:01 GMT
I am getting an enormous kick out of this picture my niece posted on fb. It's her dad (my little brother) & her dog. She says the dog has to check herself out in every mirror she sees.
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Post by amboseli on Jun 8, 2018 9:27:02 GMT
the dog ...
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 8, 2018 16:28:49 GMT
The whole thing is enhanced for me by the fact that the grainy photograph has almost Rembrandt-style lighting, lending it a certain gravitas.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 26, 2018 14:41:37 GMT
Daughter and son in law on their recent holiday - Eldest grandson and admirer -
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 27, 2018 10:20:09 GMT
You have an excellent family, Mick.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 27, 2018 15:08:24 GMT
Thanks K2. Appreciated.
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Post by amboseli on Jul 27, 2018 16:29:56 GMT
Beautiful, Mick. Meet my little family (son, daughter-in-law, husband ... all holding the same sweet baby)
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Post by kerouac2 on Jul 27, 2018 16:43:17 GMT
That is an excellent family too, but I am relieved to see other photos where the baby is actually alive.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 27, 2018 17:00:23 GMT
Thanks Amboseli!
Yours are lovely too but one person missing...
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