CATAGORIES: 126 CARTRIDGE FILM,CULTURLA & PENTURLA,FAMILY,FASHION,History,PHOTOGRAPHY,SCANNED FILM,YARBZ LIFE PICTURE DIARY,YARBZ NEGATIVE/POSITIVE ARCHIVE — Yarbz @ 9:50 am

The larger image is in the ‘MORE’ section beneath the story along with a closeup of the cars and girls!

The Story:
This picture was taken during the summer of 1973 at Huntington Beach, California on 126 cartridge film. This day at the beach included a visit from my dad’s mother, Nene (pronounced ‘Neh-Knee’). Nene lived in Dallas, Texas where my dad grew up and we’d see her once a year or so. Some years the family would pack up the station wagon de jour and drive to Texas for a visit but Nene apparently liked to travel and get out to see us often. I remember her visiting us in each the towns we lived as kids, San Clemente, CA, Golden, CO and Huntington Beach. Nene is wearing my mom’s jacket which was very funky for the time and I believe there was a matching skirt to go with it.

During any Nene visit, she would inevitably ask (read: “require”) us go with her and work in the flower beds picking weeds. I truly believe she thought this activity was fun for us. Of course, I never wanted to do it but mom would back her up and tell me to get out there and do whatever Nene wanted. I would stomp out there, get on my knees and begin pulling weeds. I would also count the seconds until I could escape like an angry housecat that clearly doesn’t want to be held. This particular memory comes from San Clemente in the late 1960’s. During the Huntington Beach years it was mostly Paul who was forced to serve on the Nene gardening chain-gang.

This beach scene with Nene, Paul (center) and me is typical of the way we spent our time at the beach in those days. Paul was about six or seven years old and had the ever present plastic bucket. The people behind us are actually double bucketed! The aluminum beach chairs were always in the trunk of the car and ready for any impromptu visits to the beach. We spent a lot of time at the beach which is what kids did in Southern California if you lived anywhere near the coast.

The cars in the parking lot east of the sand date the photo ands you will see pristine examples of the vehicles of the era; a 1966-ish blue Ford Mustang; a 1970 Chevrolet El Camino; several station wagons; a green Ford Maverick; a purple 1973 AMC Javelin; a couple Volkswagen Bugs; a red Chevy Vega; a brown Datsun 240Z; a Ford Pinto wagon and many others. I remember our friend and neighbor David Terry had a yellow 1973 Vega and within a year is was significantly rusting! The Chevy Vega and Ford Pinto were America’s first attempts at economy cars and what a poor effort they were.

In front of the parking lot and behind us are several young, sun bathing bikini girls. From what I can tell, they are good looking and wearing the current bikini fashion of the day. Cute bikini clad girls were a dime a dozen at Huntington Beach and I probably didn’t even notice them at the time. There are some more bikini girls in the back of the image walking on the boardwalk, which was asphalt, behind and to the far right. I look at this picture and wonder what the future had in store for these girls as well as the others in the photo. Did they go to college or become traditional housewives or both? Were their lives full of adventure or boredom, joy or tragedy? Were their lives a combination of all of these? I know now what was in store for Paul and me but could never have imagined the path the future would hold. For some reason, I always enjoy pondering the lives of the anonymous people who inhabit our personal photographs.

Also, you will note that I still have braces. I am pretty sure that this was close to the end of my orthodontic treatment as they would come off in a year or so after close to five years of gradual correction of both teeth and overbite.

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