London in 1941 was just how I imagined it would be. Even seeing it in colour for the first time did not enliven the overhanging sense of the past, which had seeped out of the atmosphere and stained the very walls a drab black.
I don't know where I started from, but I instinctively knew the way to the registry office as I pushed past the crowds of men and women. Everyone wore hats and everyone carried a gas mask. I wanted to just stop and stare, but my time was limited and I had to hurry on.
I arrived just as they were coming out of the building, and joined the small group of onlookers who had stopped to admire the smiling couple posing for a photograph on the steps. A man with a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth pointed a camera at them and within moments it was all over.
At one point I briefly caught my mother's eye and her smile faded a little as she struggled to remember where she had seen me before. My father noticed her distraction and looked from her to me, thinking he understood the cause. A flash of jealousy came over him and for a second I thought that he might come down to confront me, but he was never one for making a scene.
Time to go. Time is a precious gift. Time heals.
Old photos are priceless treasures, allowing us to step back in time, just like you did here.
ReplyDeleteWas it Avus or Tasker who had the software to animate old photos?
DeleteTasker
DeleteThe general conclusion was that it was awful. Colourisation has its interest but the animation was creepy.
DeleteI liked the creepiness. The dead come to life.
DeleteStrangely This moved me greatly
DeleteNot so strange. It was supposed to.
DeleteIt did
DeleteLovely Tom and nostalgic and sad at the same time. I was seven when the war started and I remember a village girl called Hilda Wilson marrying and I remember going and standing outside ourvillage chuch to see the bride and groom come out of chuch - very ptetty girl, handsome man, beautiful bouquet of red roses. He was in uniform - a fighter pilot - a month later he was dead.
ReplyDeleteMy mother was called Hilda.
DeleteStrange, I was only thinking about the name Hilda yesterday. It was a name of a certain time.
DeleteStarnge.
DeleteHilda is the old German name for a battle axe...
DeleteTime does heal but not completely.
ReplyDeleteReading your story made me think of Aldous Huxley and his hallucinatory experiments.
Oh good. For a minute I thought you were going to say it reminded you of Ian McEwan and A Child In Time. Oops. Shouldn't have said that.
DeleteWhat an interesting daydream. I am glad you thought to jot it down.
ReplyDeleteDaydream? This is all real.
DeleteYou are a wonderful story teller. I am really enjoying your concept of stories and photos.
ReplyDeleteI am probably enjoying the telling more, but thank you.
DeleteMy mother was also called Hilda, it must have been a popular name back then.
ReplyDeleteIf I had a daughter now I would call her Doris. Maybe Fanny. Bring back the old names.
DeleteTo me she looks like a Carolyn or a Vivian
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, her family nickname was 'Steve', Just like Paul Temple's wife. I will leave you to work out why.
DeleteLol Steve was a spunky gal
DeleteYou must have told us this story before; how else can I know it. Everyone had a gas mask? Everyone?
ReplyDeleteI can't remember when I remembered it. I say 'everyone' loosely. Would you accept almost everyone?
DeleteIn my opinion, some people can not be pleased and/or carry a grudge. I accept that and stop even attempting to please them. Remember: It is they that have the problem and nobody else. Time heals but the memory is there.
ReplyDeleteYou sound as if you have a recent experience on your mind.
DeleteI wonder if anyone will show photographs of us from the past and keep our memories alive when we are gone ? XXXX
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately that is none of our concern, but it may be the main reason why some people seek fame above all else.
DeleteMaybe a descendent of yours has paid you a visit as well. Have you ever seen someone looking at you in a crowd and got a weird chill down your spine and a feeling of having seen them somewhere before? If so, that's why. Maybe they came to visit from the year 2100.
ReplyDeleteMy parents came to visit me a couple of years after they died. I have already written about that, but I am not sure about the future.
DeleteTime loops and spools in ways beyond us - and yet through stories we can come to sense that otherwise numinous quality. Painting can do this too I think.
ReplyDeleteI'll respond after I have looked up numinous.
DeleteI've just looked it up. I see what you mean. I've always liked that quote: composing (music) is remembering a melody which nobody else has thought of.
Delete