Flashback Friday...My Godson

My nephew and godson Tom is currently in Alabama working in a summer camp for children and adults with special needs.  He's done this for the past few years, giving up his summer holidays to spend his time helping others.  He loves it and dedicates his time to doing what he does so well.  I'm so proud of him.

Tom stands 6' 4" tall and sports a skinhead haircut.  But looks are deceptive with Tom.  He is a gentle soul and a wonderful boy who I love to pieces.

This post is dedicated to Tom.

He was the first baby I ever held.  My sister Carol had him when I was 17 and I adored him and was honoured when she asked me to be his godmother.

When Joe and Megan were tiny I spent a lot of time staying with my big sister.  Tom was a bit of a scallywag, but for all his mischief he still had a heart of gold.  You could tell this from how he loved cuddling his baby cousins.  

Now, he is a full grown man and he still has a heart of gold.  He is studying to be a social worker at university and I know he is going to make such a difference to so many lives.  I'm so proud to have him in my life and still incredibly honoured to have him as my godson.

This is my Flashback Friday.  Check out others at Cafe Bebe!

Flashback Friday...A Happy Time

Karin at Cafe Bebe is asking us to link up a memory of a happy time in our life.  I have so many happy memories, but I thought I'd choose something from my teenage years.  

My dad used to like taking day trips to Boulogne to stock up on wine.  We'd catch a ferry from Folkestone as foot passengers, then we'd walk the short distance from the port to the town where my dad would know his way around to find all the best bargains.  He'd have a leather holdall which was just the right size to hold his duty free allowance (as it used to be back then!)

These pictures show me and my dad having some fun in Boulogne!

 OK, so I was only 15, but my dad didn't mind me having the odd swig of vin rouge in a public park!  You can see his leather bag between his feet!  Imagine how heavy that was once filled with bottles!!  

After boozing with my dad the result would be a lot of giggling and silliness (mostly from him...he never was a big drinker.  He'd start saying "I love my kids!" after 2 glasses.)  This photo was taken on the ferry on the way back to England.  My inner exhibitionist was clearly released by the afternoon tipple.  (Another reason why it's a good job that I am now tee-total!)

These day trips were such a big part of our lives...my parents do tend to get a bit obsessive about doing things.  If something is good they keep doing it over and over...but I never complained about my trips to France.  They were fun.  I still love going to French Supermarkets....I guess it is a result of my happy memories of going there as a teenager with my dad!

Flashback Friday...Photo Booths

These days with the advent of digital photography, our children have the ability to snap themselves on their cameras, their mobile phones and their web cams at their whim.  There are literally thousands of photos that my kids have taken of themselves stored on our hard drives.  The pic in the mirror, the point at yourself and pout shot, the constant stream of comedy photographs taken during car journeys to keep them entertained. The opportunities are endless! 

Looking back at my childhood, photography was expensive and taking photographs was limited to the 24 exposures you had on your roll of film.  There was no instant gratification as you had to send the film away to be developed and then wait in anticipation for the envelope of photographs to be returned.  Probably 50 % would be rubbish, but you'd hope for at least 5 good shots that you could be proud of!

That was why the Photo Booths played such a big role in our childhoods.  Piling ourselves into the little cubicle, drawing the curtain, squeezing onto the stool before popping our cash into the slot was a ritual carried out when we went into town shopping.  Nowadays booths are really only for passport photos, producing 4 identical shots for an exorbitant fee!  Back then, it was an opportunity to pull silly faces, jump in on your friend's pose and generally act daft, capturing the moment forever on the iconic strip of photos that were delivered to you from the machine.  The anticipation of seeing the snaps while you waited, trying to guess the moment when your still wet photographs would be spat out so you could quickly snatch them up in order to be the first to see them, was such a buzz!

My Flashback Friday entry plays homage to the photo booths of my youth!