God, I love those old dresses, and check it out, my mom's even wearing gloves.Oh kids, I keep feeling like I'm letting you down. I'm still sick and dumber than ever, so I've decided to rely on my new favorite crutch - that's right, more retro photos. My old favorite crutch was alcohol and abusive men, so I feel like I'm making progress here.
I was supposed to go out with my friend G. to celebrate the birthday of this guy who works at Dirty John's Grocery and used to work at Gabes, but I'm on day eight of this annoying cold and so I had to lame-out at the last minute. I'm sad because I haven't seen my friend G. in forever. She truly is the world's best salty broad and I love that about her.
So, since I've grounded myself, I thought I'd throw a pretend cocktail party on my blog. You know, the old fashioned kind from the late fifties, where all the women had on funky hats and the men wore suits, and everyone (even the kids, apparently) had a cocktail in hand.
Most of these are of Irish people from the Southside of Chicago, so you know they can drink. I love it that I even have a picture of my grandma tying one on.
The back of this one says it was taken at my Uncle Peter and Aunt Liz's wedding in 1957, so my parents wouldn't get married for another year yet. My mom would have been twenty-five back then. Isn't it weird sometimes to think of your folks being so young and newly dating? It's almost like they were real people and not just your parents who weren't allowed to have lives outside of your existence.
This concludes my blogtail party. Now, go smoke yourself a Lucky Strike, and drive home drunk in your '57 Chevy.
13 comments:
I love the old photos! You've inspired me to get a new scanner and do a "12 Days of Christmas" with old family holiday photos later this month. :)
Yay! I love the retro photo posts. It's also kinda neat because my Grandpa grew up in Chicago so it adds a bit of realness to the cyberworld. Like wouldn't it be weird if someone in Churls' family knew a member of my family back in the day?
Oh and I totally look forward to your posts so thanks for making it through every day of November:)
Churlits,
I really think you were born twenty years too late;)
rel
Those old photos are precious time capsules in itself...by sharing them in your blog you may have immortalize a part of your life and your family in the net...you could even start a whole website of old memories captured in these vintage photos... it brings you to a space-time continuum that could only occur once based on the laws of physics...a generation which seem lost through the long years and kept inside old and dog-eared photo albums...but now brought to life in the cyber world by your blog...blogging now has evolved and become your gift of life...
Jane,
Thanks. I'll have to stop by your blog and check it all out. I love other people's photos just as much as I love my own.
LYITF,
Wouldn't that be cool? Did they live on the Southside too? Thanks for the kind words, too.
Rel,
You know, I love all the retro stuff, but I also really love the year I was born. I would have chaffed at the conformity of twenty years earlier. I was raised during and after the whole "free to be you and me" movement and I'm glad of that.
Major E Flat,
I wish I had enough old photos to keep a blog going indefinitely, but the amount of pictures I possess is definitely finite.
They are fantastic photos! I love the glamour of that era. Your mother was a very elegant woman.
Michelle,
Thank you so much. I love the glamor too. I can't say that I could get all that dolled up myself to go out. That is one trait I definitely didn't inherit from my mom. I'll always look scruffy.
I wish people still dressed for nights on the town. Not that I do now, either, but if EVERYONE else did, I would too.
Maybe we can start a formalwear revolution?
Retropolitan,
Nice to hear from you again. Yes, it is kind of nice and there is that whole exciting ritual about getting ready that I like. I remember when my mom used to get dressed-up and "put on her face" when I was younger and the transformation used to fascinate me.
You go first on the formalwear revolution and I'll follow.
I've tried to comment on your blog, but it won't let me for some reason. I still read it, though.
Won't letcha comment? Hm. Anything at all?
Cripes. Maybe I accidentally blocked your IP with some spam. You kinda stop checking the spam queue one by one after they start coming in batches of 300s.
Either that or you keep hitting one of my blacklist words. Are you offering me free C!alis, by any chance?
Comment again in the next coupla days, and I'll check the queue to see if it's getting caught. If so, I can unSpam you.
Retropolitan,
I was trying to offer you some viangrza!, do you think that was it? Just kidding.
It may have to do with the fact that I changed my blog info.
I'll try again in the next day or two and let you know.
i love this post. i too am an anachronism.
bring back hats and gloves and the true cocktail hour!
mffishdog,
I just saw this comment now. I'm not sure when you left it, but yeah, we should all dress like that for New Year's Eve and impress the hell out of people.
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