Childhood memories | Other Such Things

Happy Birthday Brother

on November 17, 2011

Today is my big brother David’s 37th birthday.

Of all of the memories in my head from when I grew up, every single one that I have that relates to David is fond. Even when I was a teeny little girl, I always remember him being kind and loving to me.

I like the way that if I ever were to talk about someone hurting me, his immediate response would be (and still is), “Tell me their name and their address. I’ll f***ing go sort them out!”

(even though we all know he’d never do any thing of the sort)

I like the way that he shrouds his body in black and leather and studs, and covers his skin with tattoos, and yet, he would give you the shirt off his back if you asked.

He is a truly beautiful brother, and I am the luckiest to be able to call him family.

Happy Birthday Brother. xx

Happy Birthday David

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Above are some photos I spent the earlier part of today collating. There’s a whole treasure trove of old 120mm and 35mm photographs and Super 8 film in my sister’s closet.

Some of the pictures above are of my mother. I cannot believe she was *that* thin after just having given birth to my sister. Isn’t she beautiful?

Some of the pictures contain my siblings, Michelle, David and Paul, and me when I was little. I am amazed at how much my niece Sydnee looks like David did when he was a baby!

I love photos!

Have a wonderful day.

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Eight Memories in a Box

on September 24, 2011

You may or may not know this, but since moving to Adelaide, most of my things (and Dana’s too) are being stored in our garage.

Every so often, I’ll suddenly remember something I have in there, and realise that I absolutely need to have it out. So I take a little trip in there to go foraging for stuff.

I hardly ever end up getting what I originally intended to retrieve.

The other day, I went to the garage to find our passports. And yes, I do agree that the garage probably isn’t the best place to keep such a thing.

However, I got distracted by some little old memories that I found scattered amongst the different boxes.

Then, absolute procrastination set in, and I decided that I just had to take photos of them immediately.

So, here are some little memories for you:

1. A bear from Lachlan.

He was my boyfriend in year seven. You know, the kind of boyfriend you would have in primary school that you would wave at across the sports oval? Yeah, that kind. We had a class trip to Canberra to see the science museums, and we sat together on the bus. Our hands inched closer together. My heart beat so fast. We held hands, and he gave me this little bear.

(I also recall that I had a different ‘boyfriend’ about a week later.)

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2. A baby mitten.

I wore these when I was a baby, and once outgrown, so did my dolls.

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3. Photobooth stickers with Amber.

We were 13 or 14, and so very badly wanted to go and see ’8 Mile’ – Eminem’s movie. We made the very fatal mistake of asking our parents’ permission, and weren’t allowed.

So we went to the mall, didn’t see the movie, and got these stickers instead.

Can you imagine my disappointment upon finally watching that movie a couple of years later? After all that waiting, it really wasn’t that good at all.

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4. A note from Rachel.

We were best friends, and would always play at each others’ houses after church on a Sunday. Rachel gave me this note when she found out that my parents and I were moving back to Australia in 1999. Oh! I cried and cried when I found out I was moving again! She was such a lovely little friend!

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5. A book from my cousin.

I must have been about three years old, and Kristie about seven. When I was born, I lived with my parents and siblings in Adelaide, South Australia until I was five.

I remember going to play at Kristie and Cody’s house all the time. One Christmas, Kristie made this book for me.

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6. A stolen road cone.

2006 was a great year. Dana and I started going out, I started university, I turned 18, and I made some of the loveliest friends a person could ever make.

For my birthday that year, all my uni friends signed this road cone for me.

I did have a little chuckle when all of our things arrived in the removalist’s truck in our new home in Adelaide earlier this year. Because the road cone was carefully handled all the way from Brisbane to Adelaide without being in a box, or packaged in any way.

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7. A charm.

This was my half of a best friend charm, shared with my friend Lisa. Minnie Mouse is on the reverse side.

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8. A lady headed swan.

This are the kinds of things I would make in high school instead of studying. It was either that, or waste countless hours on Myspace.

At least with playing with Fimo polymer clay, I have something to show for it!

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Oh, and I did end up finding the passports too – eventually. In a wallet, down the bottom of a ripped Storage King bag, alongside a mirror and some old blankets. O_O Yeah. Real responsible.

x Jessica

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Samantha

on June 21, 2011

Today I would like to post about someone who is quite possibly the most beautiful woman I know. My sister-in-law Samantha.

A week ago, on the Monday public holiday, she and I took a little trip to the Blackwood Forest Reserve. This place is amazing. Only in movies have I ever seen another forest like it.

The spindly pines reach high into the sky, and the forest floor is carpeted by lush green clover, dotted by ‘Alice in Wonderland-esque’ little mushrooms.

This particular forest is just down the road from the house that my cousin, Auntie and Uncle live. And they have lived here for longer than I can remember.

As a child, my cousin Cody and I would go on adventures into the forest. Playing here with him is amongst my fondest memories. We would make teepees out of the fallen logs and pine needles, and huddle inside with contriban pilfered from his kitchen (i.e. chocolates, chips and the like).

On the other side of the forest was a steep hill with a house atop of it. It was all boarded up and chained, and my cousin and I would spend hours trying to break in with tools we would sneak from his dad’s collection.

As I lived away from my cousin (my parents and I moved to the Gold Coast in Queensland when I was five, and then to Mississippi when I was seven, then to The Central Coast of NSW when I was 11), it became a rather serious tradition for us to attempt to break into this place.

We went through multiple attempts on multiple visits, year after year, until one day we had victory! I was fifteen. We pried away some of the corregated iron and snuck in onto the back porch. The floor boards had rotted away, so we had to step gingerly. It was very creepy. There were rooms with huge gaping holes in the floor, which we wouldn’t have seen if it weren’t for our handy dandy flashlight. Some of the walls in some of the rooms had been scorched. It was altogether creepy and amazing. For Cody and I, we had achieved a life long goal.

Aaanyway, since coming of age, I have always wanted to go back to this forest and take pictures. The old house has been demolished, sadly. As I wouldn’t mind having another crack at prying my way in.

Here are some photos of the beautiful Samantha. The funny thing is, that the more I look at her, in pictures and in real life, the more beautiful she becomes.

I would also like to point out that I do not own Adobe Photoshop. So the only processing on these photos comes from Adobe Lightroom and nothing has been ‘retouched’ – which means that Samantha’s skin is really that amazing.

Damn you incredible skin and bone structure!! And what’s worse, is that she is a genuinely lovely person on the inside too! Lucky she is related to me, or I would definitely have mega jealousy issues. Perhaps by being related, I can absorb the flawlessness via osmosis? No?

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Lomo Land

on June 19, 2011

Oh wow, I realise that I have never posted about how much I love lomography! Well, do I ever!

I have acquired two different lomo cameras during my travels across the globe, along with a menagerie of accompanying gadgets, and shooting with them is just so much fun.

Now, mind you, I am by no means an expert, but I would have to say that these cameras are my favourite things ever to take pictures with. Yes, sometimes plastic = fantastic (as in, plastic bags = bad, but plastic cameras = YAY).

I adore that each shot that is taken is its own little thrill with a lomography camera. You never quite know what exactly you are shooting because the veiwfinder is never accurate, you sometimes get lovely unexpected colour splashes, AND the best part of all is the excitement you get when you pick up your freshly developed prints from the camera store.

It all reminds me of when I was a child, the anticipation you would feel waiting for a roll of film to come back so you could look at all of the photos. In ‘those days’, before digital reigned supreme, you would take much more care with the shots you took, making sure to get it right the first time so you don’t waste the film.

I do try to adopt the same attitude with digital, but it does become all too easy to just take millions of photos of the same thing hoping to get the perfect shot. And you know what? I have noticed that out of each set of digital photos I trawl through to find the best one, it is almost always the very first one out of the set. Funny how that works.

Here are some photos from, well, here, there, and everywhere actually. I hope you enjoy.

I am off to my brother’s house for dinner now. I am sleeping over so I can look after my niece Sydnee tomorrow.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Jessica

xx
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A couple of medium format shots and a few 4×6 shots – taken with Diana F+ camera using 120mm and 35mm film:

Some more 4×6 multi-frame fotos – taken with the Action Sampler camera using 35mm film:

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Redneck Extravaganza Day

on January 31, 2011

Thursday 13.01.2011

Title inspired by Aaron LaRue

We stayed up late on Wednesday night with Aaron and his friends; Chris, Sarah, and Tubbs. After Aaron took us to his church, we went back to his house and ate THE best steak I have ever had. We stayed up late chatting, until Aaron sent them all home. “Ok, you guys can leave now.”

This boy makes me laugh.

So, we went to bed. And We Slept. Oh boy, did we ever. This was the first proper-in-real-life-for-real BED Dana and I had slept on since 26 December. We didn’t wake until 11.30 the next morning, much despite my original intention of not wasting my time here in Mississippi on sleeping.

Aaron took us to Frisco Deli for lunch. I grew up eating at this place, especially with my dad, when mum was at work, or away so she couldn’t scoff at him for feeding me such unhealthy food. I used to love coming here on dates with my dad.

And the cutest guy I have ever met, skipped over to me and asked if I would take a photo of his tattoo. I obliged (who wouldn’t). After which he asked, “Does this mean I am going to be famous on the internet?”

Well, dear Sir, I guess it does. (Sorry, the focusing isn’t quite right)

After ~~eating too much~~ a lovely un-gluttonous lunch, Aaron took us on a drive right past the school we both used to go to. We met here in 2nd grade. As we were driving past, one of our old teachers walked right out the front. I was delighted to see Mrs. Theresa! She squealed with excitement when she realised who I was, and came right up to me and gave me a big hug around the neck. I was very happy to have had this random encounter.

As a child, we actually lived next door to Mrs. Theresa. I remember going with her to see the Christmas light displays on Christmas eve, and finding a dollar note in the back of her car (yes, I probably kept it – sorry Mrs. Theresa). I also remember being babysat at her house, and playing with her black puppy named Duncan.

I am so glad to have run into this lovely lady.

Today, Aaron also showed Dana and I the finer things of Pearl Mississippi. He calls this part, ‘Redneck extravaganza’. Seriously, everybody I have met so far in the south owns a gun. And not just those hunting kind of guns, but those pistol BustACapInYo’Ass kind of guns. Aaron pulled his from under his driver’s seat, and I pretty much wet myself a little. And not in the good way. Or in Aaron’s words: I “wigged out”. A fair description.

He decided to take us to a couple of the many places that one can purchase such an item from.

And oh my. That is all I have to say about that. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Pappy had tickets to the gun show…

And more, at Robert’s Western World:

I realise this one is not in focus, but it still begs to be posted. Got Camo??

The funniest part was (and not so much in relation to the guns) Dana’s reaction. Dana was MORE excited here than when he first saw the snow in new york. Something has happened to my husband. He is turning redneck. What have I done to him by bringing him here???

I also desperately want to include something we saw on the side of the road. I was all at once amazed and disgusted, in a sense of detached vulgar curiosity (I am sorry Mum, you might not like these ones) (either that, or you’ll be severely impressed):

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Posts tagged ‘Childhood memories’

Happy Birthday Brother

Eight Memories in a Box

Samantha

Lomo Land

Redneck Extravaganza Day

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