Monday, June 02, 2014

Buckets Full Of the Sands Of Time


The print this is a scan of was tiny - no more that 6x4cms. It was scratched and dog-eared as was its right after surviving sixty odd years in the bottom of a box. But it dates from a time when photographs were solid and enduring, not something to be wiped off a sim card at the drop of a digital hat.  So I scanned it and I restored it as best I could and that involved getting up close and personal with the image. And whilst I painted over the dust spots and smoothed out the creases, I somehow absorbed some of the history fixed within the silver chloride salts. That's my mother on them left, looking relaxed and happy being close to her beloved sea. And that is Uncle Harry next to her holding a two year old curly haired cherub (yes, that is me). And that is my brother Roger sat next to his perfectly sculptured sand castle - an artist in the making, even back then. I can't recognise the rest, although there is probably a paper pattern of them somewhere in my memory banks.. But that is Bridlington in the background - pushed into the far distance by a trick of a short focal length lens. But more than anything else, I remember the buckets, there in the foreground. I remember the look of them, the feel of them, I suspect that if I tried I could remember the taste of them. I remember filling them with sand - the sands of time.

9 comments:

  1. Funny - I could have sworn I'd posted. It just didn't show.

    As I was saying before I was interrupted - it's strange how all seaside towns look the same from the beach.

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  2. What a wonderful photo...most definitely worth restoring. You did a great job! Everyone looks to be enjoying themselves...so much to look at here. Love it!

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  3. Alan, you and I are of an age where the old family albums are full of shots like this - try getting kids of that age to wear short pants and sandals nowadays.

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  4. I marvel at the amount of clothing worn to the beach, children and adults. The sea shore apparently is chilly. But it's almost as if there is no sand in the shoes or to brush off a child's backside.

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  5. You appear to be wearing a dress?

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  6. I guess we all had such photos once but not many of us are lucky to still have them. You did a great job of restoring it.

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  7. The South Side, with the Spa in the background. We used to go to the rep theatre there. Lots of happy memories.

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  8. Nice one, Alan. Days when dads wore jackets on the beach. I have similar memories of Southsea and Ryde, where the days and the sand (in Ryde - Southsea is a pebble beach) seemed to go on for ever. But the issue of your dress needs sorting out.

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