I missed out on a Sepia Saturday post last week so I have allowed myself two dips into the Family Stash this week - and I came up with a brace of walking snaps. My last Sepia Saturday post had a picture of Uncle John and Auntie Doris complete with brown paper parcels. Well, here they are again, still walking, but with no parcels this time (unless they are concealed within one of Doris's bags). The interesting thing is that once again they are striding along a street - and unless I am very much mistaken, this is the seaside resort of Blackpool. One striding photo might be chance : two such photos and it has to be a Walking Snaps photograph. Granted, the Blackpool variety has none of the polish of their Bridlington cousins, but the chance capture of a happy holiday couple doing battle against what looks like typical Lancashire weather has all the ingredients of the Walking Snap genre.
My second image is the real McCoy : a Bridlington Walking Snap of the same vintage as the one features in my Sepia Saturday 89 post. And it is a perfect match, because whilst #89 showed my mother, Gladys, and Auntie Annie, this one shows their other halves - Uncle Harry (left) and my father, Albert (right). The stylishness of Annie in the earlier photograph is matched by Harry's casual jacket and vest (it is probably slightly too early to call it a T-shirt, but what Harry was wearing in 1950, Marlon Brando was wearing a year later in Streetcar Named Desire). Albert is slightly more conventional in dress, but look at that head of hair - a mating pair of sparrows could nest in that.
Where were the two of them off to? The background doesn't match the earlier photograph of Gladys and Annie so it is unlikely that it was taken at the same time (and if it was, where are my brother and myself). From the smile on their faces, I rather suspect that Roger and I are happily playing on the sands with Gladys and Annie, and the menfolk are just about to call in for a lunchtime pint. The very thought of it makes me thirsty - so I will leave you to have a look at all the other submissions for SEPIA SATURDAY 94 (follow the links from the Sepia Saturday Blog) whilst I just go and pay a call.
I have never been to England, and have no idea were Bridlington is, but those photos make me wish I were there. It is nice that the second photo is labeled, so that there is no doubt when and where it was.
ReplyDeleteIs Uncle Harry's casualness completed by what looks like sandals with socks?
ReplyDelete"a mating pair of sparrows." Yeah, that calls for a pint. Love it.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine walking around and having your life recorded in this fashion? Maybe it should be reinstated. Oh, that's right. We have youtube, a poor cousin to these wonderful photographs.
Both those phtos would make good subjects for a short story.
ReplyDeleteWhere ever they are going...they would be great company to tag along with...they seem to be having the time of their lives! great photo!
ReplyDeletelooking rather dapper on the walk i would say...wish we lived close to town to walk the streets more...mine are usually into the woods...
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ReplyDeleteThe amount of material in those trousers is a disgrace. Don't they know there's a war on?
ReplyDeleteCB : Not as wasteful as the same comment posted twice under two different names.
ReplyDeleteThey walk briskly too over there. It must be cool temps and they have to walk fast to keep warm. They really are great photos.
ReplyDeleteAlan - an aberration caused by warp drive.
ReplyDeleteI love the image of the mating sparrows. My eldest has just had his hair cut short after 4 years of long floppiness. I'm going to inspect tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteHarry and Albert...the original 'likely lads'?
ReplyDeleteI love these walking snaps. They are so much better than pictures of people just sitting - and you get to see all the other people and the surroundings too.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a snappy dresser! And IMHO you have to be a sartorial genius to have looked well dressed at that time, so he is impresssive indeed!
ReplyDeleteStriding was the name of the game in those days. Walking too was faster. They didn't drive or talk as fast then though.
ReplyDeleteGreat shots, but I wish they'd been able to capture your dad when he was in a better mood. :)
ReplyDeleteThey were certainy dapper dressers, but what I want to know is why did Doris need TWO bags. Was one really John’s 'Man Bag’ hurriedly passed to Doris when the photographer was spotted making his way towards them?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Christine - these walkies are like no others in family collections and I think, like photo-booths, they are a great loss. There really aren't any equivalents in common use nowadays, as far as I am aware. Can we have a petition for bringing them back, please, perhaps under the Twitter for Gentlefolk banner?
ReplyDeleteI really like these walking snaps you're sharing here. You're the spitting image of your dad!!!
ReplyDeleteI never been in Bridlington before but your pics reminds me the English places where my heart belongs: Burgh Castle, a lovely village in Norfolk, Great Yarmouth, Norwich and Cromer. And with your words: "lunchtime pints" the delightful English dishes in lovely pubs have make my mouth water!!!
Love to gaze at photographs of such a happy pair! I know there was stress back then too, but nowadays even a pint doesn't seem to help....maybe we should try going for a good brisk walk with a pint the destination.
ReplyDeleteI have such an attraction for anything British that I always look forward to your submissions. Now first of all I love all the women in dresses. I admit slacks and jeans are great but I long for the dresses that look so airy feminine. Those are two sharp fellows well dressed and sitting on top of the world, so it looks.
ReplyDeleteQMM
A mating pair of sparrows? Have pity on those of us who have plenty of (curly) hair, please!
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother, Annie, had a sister Gladys. I'm taken aback every time you mention them.
Those two gents look like the cat(s) who swallowed the canary! Escaping indeed.
ReplyDeleteI do love these walking snaps and see my kids snapping with their cell phones to similar effect. But, sadly, these photos typically don't survive. They are rarely transferred and disappear with the next cell phone upgrade.
The baggy trousers were being worn in 1950 so the war was over by then. I think aunt Doris looks a bit worried. perhaps it's the hastily passed man bag.
ReplyDeletePeople don't seem to stand still in your family Alan. The walking snap is not gone but replaced now by the thousands of surveillance cameras in Britain. I can't even imagine the gazillion terabytes of "snaps" of strolling folk captured in the course of a day.
ReplyDeleteThese are both fabulous photos - priceless. They really capture times gone by. The two, going by their expressions and the way they are walking, have already had a session at the local I would say.
ReplyDeleteThe men look like they are about to consume or have consumed their pints. You certainly have the walking photos...great to have that date on the 2nd photo. These are testimonies to how much more mobile and about people were then
ReplyDeleteThey look very cool, love the hairdo of your father.
ReplyDeleteI love these walking snaps. In many ways, I find them so much more appealing than posed portraits. Candid, yet not entirely casual. They really make you wonder things like 'where are they going?' and 'what do they think of their holiday?' There's always a story to be told!
ReplyDeleteWonderful snaps -- such a great way to time travel!
ReplyDeletei don't know if people would appreciate this kind of business, being photographed by strangers for money, possibly calling it an infringement on their privacy.
ReplyDeletethough, people put themselves up on facebook and other social medias...
there's no telling!!
:)~
HUGZ
Both wonderful shots. I think all the shots I have taken by these sidewalk photographers have people either looking confused or scowling. It's nice to see such smiles.
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