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And now for something completely different — 49 Comments

  1. I almost hate to point it out, this being a family blog and all, but there is something -ahem- intriguing about a recumbent woman holding a warm pistol.

  2. As a certified lifetime nra member gun nut I have to note that ain’t no pistol, its a revolver, and only an idiot would have their finger inside the trigger guard of a revolver pointed at their own thigh. However, Hepburn’s shoulder looks fine.

  3. Mother/daughter outfits! I have a treasured picture of my mother and me wearing ours, when I was about two: jaunty little green jackets that buttoned with loops of straw-ish rope. I vividly remember the fascinating scratchy feel of those loops of rope. My mother wore hers for years (of course, SHE didn’t outgrow it). We also had matching blue bathing suits w/ thin green stripes at about the same time, though I only have photos of mine, not hers. Come to think of it, I’ll bet the jackets were coverups for the suits.

    I managed to raise my own daughter to adulthood without ever putting us in mother/daughter outfits — what was I thinking? I wish I had. But maybe they don’t exist any more.

  4. Mrs Whatsit:

    Actually, women have been known to outgrow outfits, too.

    Not in height, though—

  5. Jane Russell and Kate Hepburn both palled around with Howard Hughes. He was quite the ladies man.

  6. They still make mother-daughter outfits.

    I should get one before my daughter decides she is too cool for that sort of thing 🙂

  7. From the background in the top photo I can’t help but imagine that Neo was raised on an estate with a mansion and sprawling grounds.

  8. carl in atlanta:

    Except I don’t think it was a resting face 🙁 .

    I think something was actually happening. My shirt falling off? Or some interaction with the photographer?

    I left out my friend who was actually next to me in the photo—she was losing her underpants (she had on a dress). She was very very thin—they were always trying to fatten her up.

  9. Al:

    Actually, part of that is the street (dead-end street). It was a smallish front yard.

  10. Hard to believe this is Jane Russell just a few years later, as part of the Hollywood Christian Group, which recorded gospel songs.

  11. “Speaking of peasant blouses and the off-the-shoulder look, I think I’ll put this 40s-50s icon up there. Why not attract some traffic?”

    Neo, you are such an outlaw!

  12. The only mother-daughter outfits in my family were crafted at the Singer.

    Our next door neighbor designed and sold women’s (semi) fashions.

    Do to her figure, my mother was used as his model — with compensation paid in the dress.

    He told her that at her size, he wouldn’t be selling that outfit, anyway.

    (Models always have had to be thin, I guess.)

    IIRC, mother-daughter dress templates were a popular item — back when mothers sewed at home. It’s a lost art, truly.

    That Singer antique is still floating around her house. They were expensive and built to last a thousand-years.

    My sister (the schoolmarm) sews costumes for her kids. They’re actually shocked that clothes can be made at (her) home.

    Without imports, I’d swear this nation would be threadbare.

  13. Examining the photo more closely (btw, I do look at a woman’s face before looking elsewhere) I do agree the tatas are a bit larger than KH sported. But then I have slepted for 43 years with a petite red head with petite tatas. 😉

    Toujours juge une femme par son parfum. 😉 😉

  14. Cornhead:

    Yes, I have a great many memories from that period, and some from when I was two.

    Before that it gets foggier, but I still have some. See this.

    Another oddity of my memories (which I describe somewhat in the link) is that they tend to also be visual, so that I remember the clothing very vividly. For example, the skirt in the photos above I remember not just from the photos, but I remember the heavy texture of it. I remember a great many of my clothes throughout my life, also other people’s clothes.

    And although I’m somewhat interested in clothes, I’m not a big clotheshorse or fashionista. I think my memory for clothing is for the visuals, mostly (as I explain at the link). I also tend to remember conversations, even lengthy ones, that were particularly emotional.

    My parents and my husband were not keen on that aspect.

  15. I, too, was struck by the detail of those memories. I really don’t remember that much from before the age of 5 or 6, and not all that much till adolescence. My wife remembers much more of her childhood, especially her early childhood, than I do, and can recount incidents and situations in similar detail. And my observation has been that women in general remember more of their childhoods than men do. Maybe it’s just the instances I’ve encountered, but it’s enough of a pattern for me to notice. My wife, for instance, established to her mother’s satisfaction that she remembered something her mother didn’t believe she could remember, namely the birth of her little brother when she was two. The proof was that she remembered physical details of the place where she was staying even though they changed soon after that (walls knocked out, etc.)

    Footnote regarding the Hepburns: I love Audrey but never have liked Katherine. First I just didn’t enjoy her screen presence, then I grew to dislike her because she seemed to be the rich self-righteous New England WASP liberal type. Which it turned out she was–not sure about the ASP part, but she certainly fit the socio-cultural profile. (Also never thought she was that attractive–too angular for my taste.)

    Jane Russell was something, wasn’t she?

  16. Le parfum d’une femme aux aisselles révé¨le sa sensualité.

    Indeed, there is nothing in the least bit wrong with petite tatas. Most males focus on the wrong places using their eyes, not their nose. 😉

  17. Proportion is key. Shape is key. I have never been enthralled by a pick up with monster tires.

  18. Wonderful photos! Thank you for sharing (except for the still of Jane Russell in the haystack). I also grew up in the era of film, and the lack of immediate feedback along with the expense caused most family photos to be somewhat staged, like the photo with you and the umbrella. I think that’s why I really appreciate the photo of you and your mother. It looks like the photographer captured an ordinary, private moment between you two. The moment where your mother was getting you ready to have your picture taken. That seems to tell more of a story. Isn’t it funny when you look back on moments like that with the benefit of age and experience and understand how young your parents were?

    My wife’s family live in Germany and my wife loves to take pictures. The first time I visited her relations I noticed they would not pose when she would ask for a photo. Or, rather, they would pose, but it was more like creating the setting of a painting than sitting for a photograph. They never look at the camera, almost never smile, one or more of them will often hastily search for something relevant to grab or focus on. I think that is common in a lot of European countries; however, I notice with the advent of instant, digital photographer the younger generation is comfortable with taking smiling photos standing in front of landmarks.

    For some reason neither of my parents were interested in photographs, even as the expense came down with cheaper cameras and mail order film processing. Aside from the annual, school picture, there are very few photos of my sister and I until we were in our 20s. I sometimes wish I could get a glimpse of what I looked like during childhood; it may help me better remember who I was. More than anything I would like to see film of me playing football or running at a track meet. People would comment at how fluid and effortless I looked (and I remember the feeling of joy when I ran), but I’ve never really gotten to see what that looked like. My track coach used to say, “Firefly, if a Martian came to Earth and asked me what running is I’d show him a picture of you.”

    My wife and I have thousands of pictures of our children and hundreds of hours of movies and, naturally, our kids are completely disinterested. Maybe that will change when they are older.

  19. Regarding the second topic, on the female form.

    First, it’s always amazed me how few women truly understand men. The few women that do have wonderful lives. Women have immense power in Western society but most never figure that out. Men are not hard to understand. I think most women way overthink their relationships with men.

    I agree with those who have stated there is no ideal form. Energy, confidence, empathy, intelligence… those traits are what makes one attractive. A woman caring for a young child draws men like a magnet. And the opposite is even more true. When our kids were infants I would joke with my wife about the attention I would get when I was out with them when she wasn’t along. If there are any bachelors out there looking for a mate borrow a friend’s infant and go to a shopping mall. You’ll be inundated with women stopping to talk to you.

    There are physical attributes that make some women and men more likely to be noticed in a crowd, and there are some people who only want that, but those “trophy” relationships are destined to be superficial and unrewarding. When someone is truly looking for a partner, beauty drops way down on the list of necessary qualities.

  20. vanderleun:

    No, no, no—it was like this one (only minus the turquoise, and with the background more of a blue). Very much like it.

  21. Rufus T. Firefly:

    Interesting observations on the family photos. In my family, however, my uncle was a movie-taking buff, and so there are an unusual number of early movies, including one of my parents’ wedding reception, which occurred in 1940!

    I even have two short clips, one of my father’s family and one of my mother’s, from the 1920s. It is highly unusual. They are extremely fragile. I had a video made years ago from them, but it is of very poor quality. I keep thinking I should try again. But the movie has only gotten more fragile in the years since.

    By the way, my parents weren’t young when I was born. They were considerably older than my friend’s parents. My father was 40 and my mother in her mid-30s, which was somewhat unusual back then.

    (I just realized I used the word “unusual” three times in this fairly short comment. How unusual.

    That’s five.]

  22. Regarding sewing at home:

    My mother worked and made sure my sister and I were as autonomous as possible, as early as possible, and that included sewing. When I was a boy I did a lot of sewing buttons, sewing patches on clothes and embroidery (mostly handkerchiefs and the like for family gifts). I even sewed a shirt and added embroidery.

    At around age 9 one of my kids had an idea for a Halloween costume and drew a design (this was around the same time her and my wife were watching a lot of Project Runway). I told her the next time she visited my mother she should ask for help sewing it and thus began a several year tradition of my daughter designing a costume and sewing it with my mother. Last year my mother was unavailable so I decided to take up the helm. I was shocked at how much patterns and material cost! I was also dismayed by how much sewing terminology I had forgotten. I hadn’t followed a pattern for decades!

    I think one of the reasons sewing at home has fallen out of favor is one can typically find something in a store for less than it costs to make at home.

  23. RogerInMN, there is something magical about black and white photographs in particular. We have a series of 8″ x 10″s of our kids done over 3 consecutive years, 1 per year, and there is more personality in those photos than any of the color photos we have.

    There is also something haunting to me about photos I’ve seen from the Civil War, WWI and WWII that have been colorized. There is something anachronistic about it that seems to add to the stories captured on film.

  24. Rufus T. Firefly: “I think one of the reasons sewing at home has fallen out of favor is one can typically find something in a store for less than it costs to make at home.”

    Easier, faster, and cheaper to flip a switch on a stove than to gather firewood, too. Even so, I think sewing – like firemaking – is an important practical self-sufficiency skill that everyone – boy and girl – should learn, at least the basics.

  25. Eric,

    I agree, and I get a lot of personal satisfaction from doing things on my own. However, I know my mother and her mother sewed out of financial necessity. Overseas textile manufacture is so ridiculously cheap that, even when you factor in shipping costs, it’s often cheaper than what one can do in one’s own home.

    And I’m embarrassed to admit I have never learned to start a fire without a match or lighter.

  26. Rufus T. Firefly, I learned how to start a fire with friction but now all I use is a match or lighter. The blowtorch starts easier that way and the wood is on the way faster. /almost true

  27. I recall a line from “Pat & Mike” (IIRC; she’s a star tennis player and he’s a sportswriter), Spencer Tracy says “There ain’t much meat on her, but what there is, is cherse.” (Cherse = choice.)

    Can’t tell in the first pic of Jane where the hammer is, but I’m pretty sure it’s uncocked. Definitely uncocked in the Paleface pic. Pull the trigger all you want, it will not fire when uncocked.

  28. Neo, I, too, remember a great deal from the first few years of my life, more than many people seem to, and a lot of it is tied to clothes and the feel of fabric — the rough-but-soft tweedy hem of my mother’s long swinging wool coat as I followed her through some store, the fine stiff pale blue net? taffeta? chiffon? of a dress I had as a baby (maybe 12 or 18 months in the pictures) and how the light shone through it and it smelled a little like dust, the tobacco smell of my grandfather’s corduroy shirt (though I didn’t know that word then for the ridged soft fabric.) Like you, I’m not especially tuned into clothing as an adult, though I certainly like it about as much as most women do. Isn’t that thought-provoking.

  29. Holy Smokes, Neo!! As a ‘yootful ‘yoot your photos look like my Sicilian BIG Boss(Now, 98-lbs & 4’11”) which automatically qualifies them for VASTLY Cute. Nope, I ain’t talkin’ about Janey. ((-:

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