Sepia Lives – Journeys 3.1

The campus in this photograph became the main offices for a British government ministry in 1948. You could be forgiven for wondering if it was a prisoner-of-war camp, repurposed as The Ministry of Truth, The Ministry of Plenty, or The Ministry of Peace. The campus was originally built as a wartime hospital for wounded servicemen… Continue reading The Ministry

The Show Had to Go On

Posted The Show Had to Go On.

The Show Had to Go On

When she was a child, my mother was acting up. My grandmother pointed to a little girl sitting passively across the room: “Why can’t you be like her?” My mother retorted: “Nobody is paying attention to her.” She was probably a little older than the toddler uncomfortably propped on the chair in the photograph at… Continue reading The Show Had to Go On

Lost Stories

My mother-in-law has acquired a photo mat with 17 cutouts. 17 just happens to be the right number for her to be surrounded by baby photos of her children, her children’s partners, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchild. 16 babies, one matriarch. My partner’s photo is a vertical-format portrait, which means he’s deprived of his cranium… Continue reading Lost Stories

My Favorite Childhood Photo

Rediscovered this today: I had filled a birdcage with snow, and was pulling it on a cart. Is this art?

Independent Scots

She stands resolutely in front of her home in the “mucky wee port” of Port Glasgow, Scotland. My Aunt Madge, helmet and gas mask at the ready, standing against the Nazi threat. The threat was real. Bombs rained down on the nearby shipyards, and on British, American, and Free French bases. My mother and aunt… Continue reading Independent Scots

A Cold Beer in Passchendaele

World War 1 erupted 100 years ago. About 50 years ago, I decided WW1 was a travesty. I remember my father’s sadness and my mother’s rage when I announced my (paternal) grandfather died at Passchendaele for nothing. Teenagers are not known for tact, and I am not proud of that outburst. Man of the House… Continue reading A Cold Beer in Passchendaele