I had a difficult time finding an old photograph of myself, partly because I have never liked to have my picture taken, and partly because I had trouble locating one more than a year or two old. This exercise did give me a chance to revisit some older photos of my children and vacations, with me behind the camera rather than in front; it was a sentimental, nostalgic walk down memory lane.
I finally settled on using a picture my friend and ex-sister-in-law posted on facebook from our Home Economics class senior year of high school.
The picture is from my home economics course in 1989-90. I can tell because in the background there are two electric blenders and the corner of a stainless steel sink is poking into the image frame one third of the way up the right side of the photograph. There are labeled pressed wood cupboards stained a dark brown along the wall above the long counter, separated by the island counter top we are congregating on and around. The neutral cream colored walls demonstrate the usual decor withing and institute of learning, such as an American high school. I can date the photo easily because I only took one course in a classroom containing sinks, blenders and long, bleached white counter tops.
The time period is also extremely, definitively obvious based on the hairstyles seen in the picture. The picture has six women, two, myself included, are standing on two feet leaning against the solid cabinets and counter top and the other women. Two of the women sitting on the stark white counter have their legs hanging over the precipice with their right lower limb hooked over their left lower extremity. The other two women on the counter must either be sitting or kneeling because the four people on perched on the counter are all approximately the same height, with a discrepancy of only two or three inches. My hair was bleached a light shade of blond, that almost matches the color of my hair when I was a small child, before time and age began to darken my natural hair color to a darker, dishwater, dirty blond, which I found unacceptable and vowed never to wear my hair that shade again. I have since found I much prefer my hair darker with red tones rather than the blond of my youth. My hair is also BIG, which is a combination of current fashion and the humidity of the East Coast combined with my extremely, kinky, naturally curly hair. My attire shows my tastes in music during that time period, as well as the fact that I went to concerts regularly. The Scorpions are still a favorite of mine and I still have that shirt tucked away as a memento of both the concert and my youth.
Well, I am not sure how successful I was at a Nabokovian description of the above photograph, but I have definitely stepped out of my comfort zone to post and describe this photograph of myself in high school in the 80's.
I hope any comments or replies with be carefully crafted to elicit the least amount of anguish when I read them. I wonder if I would have been less embarrassed and insecure if I had located the photo of me as a toddler in the high chair wearing a bowl of soup on my head and body. I did not have to make that decision because I could not locate said blackmail photo, plus if I had found and posted said photo, I probably, in all likelihood, would have had to black out part of the photo, since I was dressed in all my glory in only a diaper, and perhaps a bib, reveling in my experiment. If I find said horror, I may, potentially, consider posting it, but no promises.
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