Aw, ikkums…

By shendy2 Comments
I suspect that the reason for the major holiday in 1964 is explained in these photos - offspring #1, born in November 1965 This is the very first photo of him. Four generations I love this one - considering he's only a few weeks old, it's a fabulous expression. "Yes?" There is a card you can get that says "Life would be so much better if only Mother would stop knitting"... And just to prove that I'm not just picking out the less flattering ones... Now, dear brother, how much is it worth not to send a link to this post to your colleagues? I'm sure he never looks at this blog, so he'll never see these ;-) When we get to my arrival, at least I get to choose all flattering shots!...
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Cefalu

By shendy1 Comment
In September 1964, the parents went on a 3-week Club Med holiday to Cefalu in Sicily. I believe that it was on a 3 weeks for the price of 2 end of season deal, and they both had to take some unpaid leave to make use of the third week. There's quite a few photos in this post, but it was a substantial holiday. It was a proper straw hut Club Med affair with communal dining, out in the open air. There are loads of photos of people water-skiing - strangely, quite a few of them appear to be of bikini-clad young ladies... Interesting seas for swimming And this just looks plain dangerous! Nice view for sunsets And we couldn't finish without a nice colour shot of bronzed 1960's types in bikinis, could we?...
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Mother

By shendy1 Comment
A couple of Mother from 1964. Not really sure what's going on in this one - it looks like she might be taking some medicine. She still pulls faces like that if you feed her cheap red wine. A look, she's using a mangle. A mangle! I thought they went out in the 1800s. I know she's old, but even I didn't think she was that old....
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Honeymoon

By shendyNo Comments
Marriage put an end to the petrolhead holidays in France, but in June 1963, the parents went to France on their honeymoon, ambling around the Alps and the Loire. When the French say "chausee deformee", they really mean it! La Grave. The parents stayed here for a few days, SWMBO and myself went a couple of times in the early 2000s, and in 2008, the whole family went back (see previous posting). Looking at this photo now, we reckon that the low building is the restaurant for La Meijette, the hotel we stayed at in 2008. It looks like my parents stayed back up the road, possibly in the Hotel des Alpes. This is down in the valley, by the Romanche river. I've been down to the same spot myself, and that water is bloody cold! While my parents were in La Grave, the Alpine Rally "just happened" to pass through town. Hmmm, coincidence or planned? We shall never know. And from the Loire, Azay-le-Rideau....
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Domesticities

By shendyNo Comments
March 1963, and what I suppose is a tolerably important landmark in several people's lives - including me. "Do you, John Cristopher Hendy, take..." Yep, the parents got married. I've never seen any wedding photos, and there are only a few from what appears to be a very small reception at the Green Man pub near Silverstone. I imagine this is because my father was otherwise occupied on the day. The Green Man is/was a long time favoured haunt of racing drivers for decades. Now, a racing driver's pub near Silverstone - I wonder how that managed to get chosen for the reception? It's got a modern Premier Inn tacked onto it now, although it burned down just before the British Grand Prix this summer. Mother, on her wedding day... This is probably a unique photo - my father's mother and my mother's father. He was proper Northampton shoe industry working-class. She wasn't. The rest of my mother's family - twin brother, mother and younger sister...
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Very important photos

By shendy1 Comment
I can't overstate how important these photos are. Having moved to Northampton for his job, my father carried on with the amateur dramatics thing, joining the Masque Theatre in 1960 (we actually have the letter confirming his membership). He remained a member for the rest of his life, sometimes acting, sometimes helping backstage, and taking photos of many, many productions - I totted up and something like 300 of the 850 b&w films are of Masque productions. I don't propose to scan many of these, but will probably hand them over to the Masque archive. Anyway, the young lady in these pictures, Greta, was stage managing this production (The Entertainer in 1961), and I think he took a bit of a liking to her - rather a lot of a liking in fact. A sort of married for 45 years with two children liking... Yep, say hello to my mother. You know the membership letter I mentioned above? She signed it. The chap in the...
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