 |
| It's been 32 years since the chair on the right of the picture has occupied that position. I brought it downstairs to recreate the scene. On the floor is WHAM! #134 (cover-dated 7th January 1967) which lies open at the FANTASTIC FOUR tale, "MASTER Of PLANET X!" Just think, that was 46 years ago - where did the time go? |
When I was a boy, I lived just up the road from my primary school and sometimes nipped home for lunch. As I sat at the table, I would steal surreptitious glances at whatever comic I happened to have, lying next to me on the floor as I scoffed my midday meal. Even when we moved some years later, I maintained the habit of putting a comic on the floor to look at as I ate. I couldn't read it of course, but I'd leave it open at a favourite page and just gaze at it between stuffing forkfuls of food into my gob.
The other day, while browsing through a 1960s back issue, I realised I could easily be sitting on the exact same chair on which I perched while looking at my original copy of the same comic back in 1967. We had four dining room chairs, two of which were given away (along with our original dining room table) when my parents bought some new ones in early 1981. Two chairs were kept as spares though, and eventually found their way into other rooms, one of which happens to be my own.
In fact, I'm sitting on the chair as I type (the other one currently residing in the loft, being in need of minor repairs), and the notion that there's a one in four chance it may be the very one I sat on back in 1967 as I read that issue is an extremely comforting one. (I'd have sat on each of the chairs at some time or other, as I didn't always sit at the same table-place, depending on who else was present.)
There's something about a sense of continuity that's immensely reassuring. It connects us to our past in such a way that allows us to occasionally forget that we're farther along in life's journey than we care to consider. And, if you ask me, that's a good thing.
Is there another blog like this somewhere ?
ReplyDeleteIf there is I have not seen it.
Fascinating wee radio in the window sill,and what make are those batteries?
They look like the ol black n gold duracell but surely they were not around then.
I've inadvertently confused you, Baab. The photo is one I took earlier today. I brought the chair down from my room and laid the comic on the floor to recreate the scene (to a small extent). The batteries are indeed Duracell. I thought the photo caption made it clear.
ReplyDeleteIt did make it clear, I read it before coming here again.
ReplyDeleteI spent some time convincing myself of what I thought I had read and that is why I asked about the batteries.
I was also going to ask about the carpet and a couple of other things.
i just concluded that your family could afford finer floor coverings than mine!
I could only find carpet over linoleum at the edges in my memory banks.
Sometimes,I just dont know.
I also convinced myself that you truly lived in a home where you had drawn a line under time and captured a time period with either exact replicas or the original artifact.
We used to have lino sticking out from under the carpet in the house previous to the one in the photo. It was in that house I put Wham! (and other comics) on the floor as I ate. I also did it in this house with MWOM, etc.
ReplyDelete