Nostalgia

nos·tal·gi·a (nŏ-stāl'jə, nə-)


a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his college days.

I was looking through some old photos and thought I'd share them. They are from a simpler time - how could they not be? I'm probably not any older than four in any of these photos. I was 18 months old in the above one. It was my second portrait from the Sears portrait studio; an earlier one was from my first year where my head is peaking from beneath a blanket (I do not have a copy of that photo) . My grandmother used to have 8x10's of all of these portraits in her apartment in Staten Island.

This one is from Easter of 1971, I think. Most of the old Polaroid photos that my parents have were taken before Tara, my younger sister, was born in September 1971. At the time, I was the baby of the family. That's me in the yellow coat and matching bonnet, and Erin is in the stylish red tights with the plaid kilt and Aran sweater. The women from left to right are Nana (paternal grandmother), Grandma (maternal grandmother), and Aunt Rita, my Grandma's sister. My mother always made sure we were impeccably dressed for Mass, especially on Easter. At the time, were were living in Old Bridge, NJ. The wooded area in the background of this photo is now entirely built up with more suburban houses. When we lived there, we were one of three houses on the street. That was 1980.

Summer 1972 or 1973. We were at a picnic thrown by the Friendly Sons of the Shillelagh, an Irish group that my father belonged to. That's my mother standing next to me. I've always thought it was funny that whoever took the photo (probably my father) left all the adult's heads out of the frame.

I wonder what I had stuck in my teeth. Although this was a picnic, and my mother wore shorts, she still had my two sisters and I in cute little dresses. All the other kids were in more casual clothes.



Summer of 1971. My uncle lived down in Keansburg, NJ, and we would go down there to visit. I especially liked going there during the summer so that we could go to the amusement park. This photo shows Erin and I on one of the kiddie rides - that's me in the front, 'driving.'

Although I don't remember when I was young enough to ride the kiddie rides, I do remember later visits to the park where we would ride the big slide, the one you would ride down sitting on a burlap sack so that your skin didn't burn on the hot plastic. I also won a mirror from one of the sideshow games, and we'd always get candy cigarettes where you could blow a puff of candy powder smoke.

This is probably from the summer of 1970. I know it's from a petting zoo we used to visit, located up in the Poconos. That's Erin in the stroller.

My favorite thing about this photo is how my grandmothers are dressed. They are so stylish! When I was in college, my friends and I would go shopping at either the vintage shops or the Salvation Army. Dresses like this would always be a real find. We would not wear them with white low healed pumps however. We'd usually wear them with motorcycle boots, Doc Martens, a leather jacket, or an old man cardigan. That was the height of style in Blacksburg, VA.

Summer of 1973. That's Tara in the foreground, I'm in the back with my mouth open, and Erin is next to me. This was taken in our backyard in Old Bridge. This must have been before my parents had the above ground pool installed in the backyard, but I don't recall having only a kiddie pool.

When we had the big pool installed, hanging out in our backyard was a big event for the neighborhood. Erin, who's birthday is in early September, always had a pool party over Labor Day weekend to celebrate.

These are a few of the photos taken while I was growing up. My mother had finally organized all the photos into albums, and we went through them when I was home for Christmas. I always enjoy looking through the old photos; they are a reminder of what a wonderful childhood I had where although my parents were very strict, we were raised with a lot of love, surrounded by friends and family. One of my parents always had a camera ready to capture these moments.