Sunday Scans ~ Almost September

There is less of August yet to come, than is already behind us. That time of year when summer holidays are almost over and we start to ready ourselves for the start of the new school year.
When we were little girls in England, our parents would take us to Temby , in Wales, most summers. We didn't have our own trailer, but we would go to a caravan park and rent one for a week. Here is a photo of my sisters and I roughing it on the old campsite! I'd say this was about 1969 or '70. That's yours truly in pink, my sister Carol in blue and Sheila in front. As you can see, we were top notch sports. I almost threw my shoulder out, passing that ball to Carol from so far away! We always enjoyed our holidays. Daddy would take us to see medieval castles and explore mysterious old ruins. Mummy preferred the days that we would spend on the gorgeous, white sandy Welsh beaches. It sure was a wonderful place and we hated to leave it.

This is me on my first day of school. I loved this dress, and remember feeling so pretty in it. English schoolgirls always wore dresses. Over there, you started school at age four. There was no kindergarten or half days. I went straight into first grade, full days. I only ever remember loving school. Those first days of the year with new clothes, shoes and satchel. I loved new exercise books, with smooth blank pages. It was always a thrill to write the date in that first page. Of course there was always that obligatory "what I did on my Summer Holidays" passage. Then there were school photos. Your educational, unimaginative mugshots.













This is my grade one photo. At least my bangs were straight, not like in this photo.

This was taken the following year. You may want to click-to-enlarge this one to capture all the finesse of Mummys hairdressing technique! How many of us turned up in class with this classic style? And don't say anything about the length of those dresses, Carols, blue dress was actually a bit on the long side! I loved my orange dress. My Grandma in America had sent it and I felt very posh in it. Nobody else had such lovely orange frills. Carol always looked cute in whatever she wore, I was so jealous of her ruby red shoes, they were the coolest. Ahh yes! Such fond memories.
And now, our own children are getting ready to return to school. I wonder if they will look back at their childhood photos with such fondness.
Thanks Mum and Dad for getting us off to such a good start.