Among the old slides that I recently let a photography shop digitise for me were a few from my stay with an English family in Yorkshire in 1972, from mid June and into July.
These photos are not included in my photo album from that trip, and I don't think I took any slides myself back then. So I think these must have been sent to me afterwards, from the family I was staying with.
Back in my very first year of blogging (2009, my blog then entitled The Island of the Voices) I blogged more extensively about this trip in a post which you can read here.
Starting with a quote from that old blog post as introduction:
After my first year in 'senior high school', 16 going on 17, my parents apparently thought me mature enough to go off out into the world alone. They sent me on a sort of educational holiday to England, to stay for four weeks with a family in a small village [Wadworth] near Doncaster in Yorkshire. This was not a family we knew beforehand. It was organized rather like an exchange student program, except that there was no "exchange". The family I went to stay with had a girl about my age – she was in the 5th form in a Comprehensive School. I visited her school with her, but she did not go back to Sweden with me.
Mr A., if I memory serves me right, worked in the coal mines, or at least in some way for the coal mining company. Mrs A. worked part time at the local pub.
This photo of me I think must be from somehwere on the outskirts of the village.
Me and Lynne, the daughter of around my own age in the family I was staying with. Most weekdays I also went to school with her (in Edlington).
Her little brother, Lyndon, whose room became mine for a few weeks while he had to move in with his mum and dad.
Mrs A. and "auntie Lizzie" in the living room.
A first attempt to identify this image with help of Google Image search told me that it was from some place down in Kent. As we definitely did not go to Kent, I tried again, and was then told it's Bridlington, in Yorkshire. That suggestion I'll accept, as it's a Yorkshire seaside town that we did visit. I think this must have been on a day when Lynne had exams in school - which explains both why she was not with us, and why I was not in school...
The photo below is also from Bridlington. The elderly couple are "Uncle Jack" and "Auntie Lizzie". I had to go back to an old letter to recall details, but they were relatives visiting from Canada and staying with Mrs A's parents; and they accompanied us on more outings.
On another day, we went to York. I did not have to ask Google to identify the chathedral! This was probably a weekend visit, as Lynne was with us.
Here were are at an old abbey ruin. As there are several of those in Yorkshire, I consulted Google Image search again - and got a prompt answer that it's St Mary's Abbey Ruins in the York Museum Gardens. As we did go to York, that makes sense - and also helped me identify the next photo as being taken at the entrance to the Yorkshire Museum.
So glad you got these slides converted! What an interesting time you had! Alone in England with strangers...and you coped so well! I'm sure that trip influenced your future expeditions to new places. As a 16 year old I went with chaperones and other highschool girls for a week in Washington DC from St. Louis, for my first time away from home. It sure did make an impression, but most of the photos are lost.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, I also have photos I took myself in a photo album but as I had forgotten all about these slides it was nice to get to see those again now too. No doubt it was all a valuable experience for me back then, and the memories have stayed with me all my life.
DeleteAs we so often say in the blogger world, thanks for sharing! Recently I started reviewing old family slides from decades ago and was startled how old photos will re-awaken memories. However I never paid much attention to people or placenames. Fortunately my dad recorded little notes on most slides that are useful for putting everything into context. I made myself laugh when I found tiny 16mm slides that I had taken with a little "spy" camera during my first solo trip to New York City to have a holiday with my dad. Most were views from the window of the airplane or atop the Empire State building. Even though the images are grainy and super small they still reminded me of the thrill and wonder I felt on that first adventure.
ReplyDeleteMike, in retrospect I'm glad that on the whole it was a rather short period in my "photo life" that was dominated by slides. My photo albums much easier to go back to! ;)
Deletethey came out really well for being taken from slides. so glad you could get them so you can look at them on computer and not as slides.. I was way to shy to have done what you did when I was that age... you were brave
ReplyDeleteSandra, looking back I'm thinking that it was my parents who were brave... ;) No doubt it was a good experience for me, though.
DeleteHow brave of you to cope with visiting strangers at such a young age. The outfits of the family show another era altogether. An interesting historical snapshot.
ReplyDeleteAddy, it's kind of hard to grasp that one's youth was half a century ago by now! ;)
DeleteThey look like the classic English family and look at you - wow! I think back in that era people were trusted alot more than they are now.
ReplyDeleteAmy, not having children/ grandchildren of my own I realise I haven't really kept up with if it's still common for teenagers to go abroad on trips like this. I think this particular arrangement was kind of unusual even for it's time, in that while we left Sweden as a group, and had a couple of days of as a group in London to start with, we then each went off to different places in England, seeing no other Swedes for 3+ weeks.
DeleteI have really enjoyed all of the scenery. And especially in the first photo; you still look the same!
ReplyDeleteGinny, well I suppose in some respects one remains "oneself" even if also a lot changes over half a century...
DeleteOld photos revive so many memories, don't they? I imagine you really enjoyed seeing your memories refreshed.
ReplyDeletePauline, I do also have quite a lot of photos in an old album from that trip, but I had forgotten about those slides, so was curious to see those again :)
DeleteThese rediscovered images feel like fragments of a life once lived, now gently resurfacing with new clarity and meaning.
ReplyDeleteRo, not sure about "clarity", but no doubt one's perspective of the past keeps changing a bit over the years...
DeleteLovely photos bringing back memories for you.
ReplyDeleteRiver, no doubt photos do help to both bring back and consolidate memories.
DeleteDon't you look a cheerful bunch on that photo from Bridlington :-D
ReplyDeleteKiddig aside, I think this is a great set of picture, good time-travelling. Lynne and Lyndon... and the estate looks like it was very new back then, probably only a few years old with the houses very modern at the time.
Since it's only been last summer that I have been to the ruins of St. Mary's in the museum gardens in York, I recognised them immediately in your picture. Also, it makes sense that Mr. A worked in coal mining in some role or other - there hardly was anyone who didn't at that time in South Yorkshire.
PS: Your pretty card arrived on Saturday - thank you!! I love your handwriting and wish I could write as neatly and beautifully as that.
DeleteMeike, wow, that was quick. So long since we got mail delivered here on Saturdays that I did not even consider that a possibility...!
DeleteNot sure how old or new the family's house was. I think to me it seemed old-fashioned rather than new, as one thing I do seem to recall (if memory serves me right) is that they did not have central heating, just the fireplace in the living room. (Standard to me was a boiler down in the cellar...)
DeleteI read your original blog post and was impressed by your confidence. The photographs evoke memories of times long past. How different things were, and yet, in some ways, how similar - outings, lying around on the grass and roller-skating!
ReplyDeleteJanice, roller-skating was/is something I never tried neither before nor after! (I never learned to ice-skate either.) And I'd never even heard of a Rolarena in Sweden (still don't know if we ever had any). In England I felt more or less obligated to "try" - and some of my temporary class-mates probably also felt obligated to help (as in holding me firmly and dragging me along for a bit...)
DeleteIt's so interesting to see these photos Monica. That was an achievement to go to stay with a family you didn't know, in a foreign country. The French group at my school went to France on a similar scheme, but there was no way my mother was letting me out of her sight! I think I would have been 13 or 14 at the time, yet we had been to Europe on family holidays.
ReplyDeleteIt looks as though you were "blessed" with typically English summer weather! Judging by the style of house, outside and in, it looks to be 1960's style outside but very much more old-fashioned inside and central heating was something of a rarity
By the way, I have been following your blog but had problems with Google allowing me to comment!
Thanks Carol. Hard to figure out Google's "moods" sometimes - I periodically find myself subjected to them as well...
DeleteI think it was actually my mother who came up with the suggestion of sending me on that "language trip" (Swedish: språkresa) to England. I might add that as a family we had been on two previous trips to England - a week in London in 1969 (by plane), and three weeks by car in 1971. (And we went on another trip in 1974, that was my last "family holiday" before moving away from home. And actually, as life turned out, my last trip to England at all.) But touristing will of course always be different from actually being immersed in "everyday life" in another country.
Definitely Brid, had many daytrips there. I've lived my whole life in the South Yorkshire area and although I've never actually lived in Doncaster. I love these pictures.
ReplyDeleteThanks CK :) That month spent in Yorkshire did kind of give that area a special place in my heart, too. Even if I also loved other parts of the UK visited with my family.
Delete