Photo Friday: High School Sweethearts Edition

Good morning!

It's Friday, and you know what that means. Time to flip through somebody-else's-family-photos via the magic of the internet. Caution: today's is almost too sweet, you might want to brace yourself for sentimental overload. Don't say I didn't warn you!

This Flickr stream was the first thing to pop up when I typed in "Mom 1951", and wouldn't you know...it's a keeper. Folks, meet Lewis and Lorna:

This snazzy couple is dressed to the casual nines to go on the senior class picnic in 1951. I know it happened a lot back then and still happens today, but isn't it kind of shocking when you think of someone getting married to their high school sweetheart right out of high school? Not dating someone in high school, spending ten years doing this, doing that, reconnecting at the reunion and getting married-- I'm talking "we went to prom together, we shared one malted with two straws down at the soda shop every Friday night after the game, and then we got married and stayed married". It's amazing to think about knowing someone that long and still being able to "make it work". Check out Lorna's lace up espadrilles! And Lewis's print shirt...?! I think it's a tropical scene; I KNOW I love it.

Here the glamorous duo are again in July of the previous year. Things to think about: one, they're wearing matching crazy-pattern shirts (stranger yet, the couple with them is wearing a different pair of matching crazy pattern shirts-- was this a thing?). Two, they're in a cemetery. Lorna's sitting on one monument, and you can see the marble of a tombstone dead right from the middle of the photo. Ummm.....? It was a far more common practice sixty years ago to have picnics, outings, etc in a graveyard. It's peaceful, it's pastoral...but from my twenty-first century eyes, it still seems off. I feel like if Matthew and I took a picnic basket to my local cemetery, and dressed or not dressed like Tim Burton and HBC, it would draw strange looks from people who just came to put flowers on a relative's grave and leave. But maybe not? I like to go tombstone-sight-seeing in the older parts of cemeteries, but I do always feel like someone might be looking over at me like, "What's she up to?" But I digress. Back to the picnic!

Here, Lewis goofs around lakeside with a class member in some truly memorable swim trunks. Are they tiki print?

There are several photos of classmates in similar canoes on the water, but I especially love these two of Lewis and Lorna together, and Lewis looking like Paul Newman himself in aviators and no shirt. See his belt and his rolled up jeans? SWAGGER.

Here they are in their swimsuits-- Rae told me last month at the flea market that she's started collecting "awkward photos of people in swimsuits", and I think this would be one for her scrapbook, for sure! While each of them is just as cute as they can be, notice how their arms aren't quite naturally held, and the squinted glances they're throwing at the picture taker. Lorna's hair looks fabulous in this photo, by the way. Don't get that set wet, gal! It would be hard in 1950 to stand around in public practically naked, I guess. It's hard in 2013 to do the same!

In spite of his reticence in the above photo, Lewis has two more photos in this collection in his swimsuit! Something about his nose and the set of his eyes reminds me a lot of my dad's dad, an equally handsome swell, if I do say so myself. See the wet footprints in the photo on the left, and the shadows in the photo on the right? I love the little details.

Seen any black and white swimsuit photos that caught your eye lately? Which of these photos is your favorite? Did your parents or anyone's parents you know meet in high school and stay together for the long haul? I'm interested to know!

Have a great weekend, and I'll see you guys on Monday!