Friday, September 19, 2014

Cemeteries and flower power

Here are two photos of me in 4th grade, age 9, at Mystic Seaport CT on our annual field trip. One photo shows 'my group' (we were divided into groups of five). You can guess which one is me, goofy looking with pixie cut in daisy pants. I was heavily into the daisy motif, it was also my bedroom wallpaper. I can't emphasize enough how so much everywhere in the 70s daisy flower power saturated us in fashion and graphic design.

The gal next to me is Susan, COOLEST girl of all right up thru high school. Love her trippin' psychedelic miniskirt. Notice the large buckle shoes so in style then. I called mine 'pilgrim shoes'. Susan with her leather jacket, and macrame leather purse (harbinger of 70s macrame plant hangers that became so popular) carried off her outfit so much better than I did, which was simple and functional. Susan's different colored pigtail ribbons caused a mini-controversy, so cool and stylish then. She was the first to do it, trend setter that she was. We were exiting the 60s with miniskirts and flower power, so in 1970 those fashions were still hanging on. 70's Bohemian hadn't hit us yet.

In the other picture is me with my teacher Miss May. We were all fascinated with her hair, she wore it in a bun for 189 days and there was much discussion as to whether it was even real... and on the last day she wore it long. We were floored. Doesn't take much to fascinate us, eh?



Saturday is supposed to be just about perfect. The heat has broken and the humidity is way down. There is predicted to be much sunshine... and I'm stoked. So thrilled that I may actually GO OUT and do something Saturday morning.

I'll go to the Farmer's market in town and buy a loaf of crusty bread. Then head 1 mile south to the cemetery, I want to take pictures of statues. I only have one or two in my photo bin and I want more. Then I'll head to the old cemetery 4 miles up the road and take some more photos. The old cemetery has lots of carved granite statuary and ornate tombstones, too. These two pictures below are from a trip to the old cemetery I took 7years ago. Time for a picture refresher.




I'll do all this while sipping coffee and grooving to some tunes. It won't take me long, just an hour or so, and then I'll be home. Not too much gas, not taking too much time, not being around too many people ... a field trip just right for me!


4 comments:

Grace to You said...

Mystic was the first place I ever went in New England! We drove up from Virginia the summer before my sophomore year in high school; my brother was working at the navy yard in Groton for the summer and we went to see it. I thought it was the most beautiful and quaint place I'd ever been...so different from where I had always lived, near Virginia Beach. Southerners consider anything near a beach to be paradise, but I loved the rocky coastline of Connecticut.

Did you ever read the book Night of the Moonjellies? It's set in New London on the waterfront, and it's just exquisite. We stopped there on our way back to NC and I got to see Mar-Gra's hot dog stand, now Fred's Shanty. I think I cried all the way to New Jersey. Not because I'm that big a fan of hot dogs. :) Because I knew it was the last I would see of New England for a long time.

Elizabeth Prata said...

My cousin worked at Groton, on the subs. I prefer the rocky coast, too, very much. I haven't read Night of the Moonjellies! I'll look for it on Amazon. Another town I liked in CT was Sturbridge. New England is full of those little towns along the coast. I grew up in RI and we used to drive to Galilee, the end of the line, and have clamcakes at Aunt Carries. LOL, the town across the harbor was Jerusalem. Those Ole Puritans...

Grace to You said...

If you haven't looked already, Night of the Moonjellies is a children's book. :) I love children's books when the art is good, and in this book, it's very good.

I never knew there was a Galilee and a Jerusalem in the US! If I had known, we would have stopped there on our way down as well, for sure. :)

Anonymous said...

How Lovely you were as a child, God has his hand on you. What good memories it must bring back to you.

God Bless