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| St. Mary's Church, Fratton, in 1978 |
Regular readers will perhaps remember when I published a post (in 2020) featuring photos of my time in Portsmouth in 1985. I first visited the place in 1978 to be Best Man at a friend's wedding, then returned in 1981 at his invitation for a longer stay, though another friend (both knew one another through me) also came along as he fancied a break. (His suggestion, not mine.) The three of us had hung about together back home when we were younger and the pair were my oldest and closest pals, though that was destined to end before too long.
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| And again, in 1981 |
The two photos above are of Saint Mary's Church in Fratton, Portsmouth, the first taken in 1978, the second in 1981. During my stay in 1985, I stayed in Shearer Road not far behind the church but never once thought to gain access and explore its interiors, though I've since seen inside via various images on the Internet. The main doors were a perfect backdrop for photo opportunities and that's me below (hairy-but-handsome) in 1981, pic taken on my Hanimex 110 TF camera. Not a particularly good snap, but 110 millimetre was never the best medium for photography. I've cropped the photos to zoom in on us as we were far tinier in the originals.
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| G.I.R. in 1981. Photo taken by Joe |
Same site, but the photo below was taken in 1978 on my Prinz 110 camera (Dixon's own brand) and features the late Alan Bowie, who was in the Royal Navy at the time, having joined up in the summer of '77 while on holiday with his sister and her then hubby, though he didn't leave our home town to begin training 'til near the end of the year. For some reason it never occurred to me to get my photograph taken in the same spot, but I managed to remedy that oversight in 1981 when I was down there with my aforementioned other childhood pal (the third member of 'The Adventurers'), who, alas, is also 'late', in that he passed away around a month ago.
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| A.A.B. in 1978. Photo taken by me |
And that's him below - Joe Beattie, who for some reason has adopted what seems to me to be a slightly 'girlish' stance - it certainly isn't 'Jack Kirby', is it? Anyway, three friends in the same location, but not all at the same time, there being just over two years between the pics of Alan and Joe. Okay, not much to this post, admittedly, just pure self-indulgent reminiscing, but I thought it a rather nice sentiment to reunite all three friends in the same place for one last time. That makes me the 'last man standing' and I hope that situation continues for a good many decades.
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| J.W.B. in 1981. Photo taken by me |
You can't see it in any detail, but Joe's wearing a belt which I gave him in the late '70s 'cos he expressed a liking for it. It had been given to me as a Christmas present in 1972 by an aunt and uncle and I wish I still had it today. I've got a better photo of it somewhere, taken when me and Joe were either playing darts in a local pub in Southsea or in a shop just around the corner. I might post it one day when I find where it is. (Betcha can't wait, eh?!)
G.I.R., A.A.B., J.W.B. - alias The Adventurers!
16 comments:
You big ol' sentimental softie, you. (From your doppelganger on Earth 5.)
On a 110 camera, my youthful memories were recorded, too. A 'Boots 110 Mini-grip' - with poor images resulting, more often than not. Still, misloading the film wasn't a problem (which happened frequently, with a later 35mm camera.)
The dark, ominous look that 110 camera gives the Portsmouth church, however, is actually quite atmospheric!
My youthful photos biggest disappointment, for me, is people I knew only occasionally feature in my pictures. Location photos seem less important, nowadays, almost anywhere being viewable on the internet. With former acquaintances, however - not so much! That being said, I've photographed several local landmarks ( for the sake of posterity ) which have been demolished in the last few years.
Phillip
I do that a lot, P, or used to - photograph local childhood landmarks, that is, before they vanished forever. Some got away from me, though, before I snapped them. There used to be a tree near my childhood swing-park and I remember thinking, as an adult, "Must get a photo of that before it gets chopped down". By the time I got around to doing it, it was gone. I've a feeling it's near the end of a negative, but the photo was cropped in a such a way that it didn't appear. I'll have to go through thousands of negatives at some time and see if I can spot it.
What surprises me is that my Hanimex camera, acquired in WHS in Southsea in 1981, was a better one than the Prinz (though they were both 110), yet the '78 photo of St. Mary's is better than the '81 photo. They were both taken on a little traffic island in the middle of the road (if I recall correctly), which is why they're both pretty much the same, except for one being taken 'landscape' and the other 'portrait'.
Yes, although the '78 is darker, it has more detail. With differences in road traffic and pedestrians, the shots might have been taken at different times of day (with slightly different light.)
Dixons supposedly adopted the 'Prinz' name, as German tech's rep was the best - before Japan was top - and 'Prinz' sounded German ( you probably know this, already! ) I had a 'Prinz Cruiser' ( a knock-off Walkman ), which broke, in more recent years!
Hanimex cameras were nice-looking, and yours didn't let you down here!
Phillip
The good thing about the Hanimex (which I still have - in its box) is that it had a built-in flash, plus a telephoto lens. The Hanimex pic is the first one, and I'd say it's lighter than the Prinz one, at least as far as the detail on the church goes. I'll have to check I haven't mixed them up, because what I think is the 1981 photo isn't as good as the one I regard as the 1978 pic, which is the opposite of what I'd expect. Maybe I mixed them up.
Kid, I think you have the years correct, the red car and blue van look just like the 1978 'Ford Escort 1.3L' and 'EVECO Daily' van...first issued that actual year. Wait! I'll pop back in my Tardis to double check for you?.............Yes that's correct!
Forgot to include my profile name...Apologies!
Well, I'll let you off this time, but, mind, if it ever happens again, I'll have to deal with you more seriously. (Hee-hee.)
Odd - for some reason the above comment wasn't showing when I answered the one below. Yes, jump in the big blue box and double-check the dates, if you'd be so good.
Kid, you've missed the actual message, that I've missed the profile name off? (See, I'm upsetting your Saturday night equilibrium!)
Weird? You've posted now? some system crossover lag happening here.. Thanks!
If you click 'post a comment' and respond to a specific person by using the 'reply' option, the background is white and the comments appear 'in reply to' that person, but if you just use the standard 'comment' option, it will appear below the last comment left. When you read them under the post, the background colour is the same as that of the post and a reply to another commenter isn't under the comment replied to, but rather at the foot of the other comments. Duh, my head hurts.
Well Kid, you've had an experience of Portsmouth that I never had - actually going into the grounds of St Mary's Church, even though I lived in Pompey from 1959-1988. I often cycled past in the early seventies in my quest for second-hand shops, and in 1979-1980 I used to walk past the church every day to catch a mini-bus to work at IBM where I had a student job. That whole area was fertile ground for seedy shops with piles of old comics in the seventies.
Next time I'm over I'll make a point of stopping by.
Get someone to take your photo in front of the door, B, so that it matches the ones in this post. When I lived in Shearer Road in 1985, I visited a comics shop called Wonderworld Comics (not related to the one of the same name in Bournemouth) and bought a back ish of Fantastic #7. Can't recall exactly where the shop was located, Fratton or Southsea or somewhere in between. I 'wonder' if it's still there?
Am not familiar with Wonderworld Comics, Kid. I suspect it was one of those places that appeared and disappeared within a few short months. I'll see if I can track down any info that may be around.
That would be interesting to know, B, so that's your mission, should you decide to accept it. There was a chip shop in Fratton called The Frying Scotsman, which gave big helpings, though maybe that was only because of my Scottish accent. Perhaps you could unearth info about that, too?
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