Sepia Saturday 295 : 5 September 2015

For Sepia Saturday this week, Alan asks that you: 

"cut through the fog, reach out into the void, build bridges between different lands and, most important of all, not to miss the bus. Whatever prompt you care to find in our theme image this week, just link it to an old photograph of your own and tell us about it."

There is a series of photos from my mother's photo album and I am reaching out into the void here as they were taken before I was born.  I did sit down with my godmother about 20 years ago and ask for identification of people on some of them.  As a point of interest, my godmother doesn't feature in them...maybe she had gone overseas by then.  And I have no idea who the men are in the photos - brothers maybe?  So we're talking 1950s.

On the back of the waterfall photo is written, I suspect in my mother's handwriting....

Liz, Carol, Wilma, Is, Lae, Aud

Liz and Carol were my mother's bridesmaids.  I know that much.  Basically I think all the women went to school together.  

From the same series, this one has written on the back:

Audrey E.,Liz,Iz,Barb Mc ?

So, now I don't think it is my mother's handwriting because she is NOT in that photo.  And why wouldn't she know who she was...?

She is however in this photo...second from the left.

My handwriting is on the back of this photo from the session with my godmother and it says:

4th from left Isobel Eamons

Note my mother holding the box brownie!  She was a fiendish photographer.

There is no writing on the remaining photos in the series...

The photo below probably provides a good clue to their whereabouts - somewhere in the Blue Mountains - as it is taken in the car-park.  If I could bear to go into Robert's messy study (this is calling the kettle black, I do realise) and use a scanner which could give me a higher resolution, I might be able to read the sign on the left there.  I'm going to guess that in the first photo they are looking at Govett's Leap or Bridal Veil Falls but I am happy for someone to correct me.

 

I think that for today, things will have to remain foggy and blurry - lost in the mists of time.

But wait!

I still have my mother's letters to her father.  

One from 3 September 1959 reads as follows:

I had a very pleasant surprise yesterday when Audrey Eamens called in to see me.  You probably remember her from back a bit; she's Isobel's cousin, lives at Parramatta, and she stayed with us a couple of times; very tall and dark angular girl, quiet, with a nice slow smile. She took over from Carol Reeves as French mistress at Murrumburra when Carol pulled out to come to Strathfield, and has been in charge up there for over two years now.  Anyway, the long and short of it is, she's gone and got herself engaged.  They are being married in January and will live in Melbourne.  She had planned to sail for England in October, but that's all been ditched now, and she's giving up teaching completely.

Elizabeth bought a two-door Morris (new) last Saturday, and is in the process of chucking everything she can lay her hands on, including her mother, into it, and heading for a week at the Hydro.  The poor kids looks knocked out and really needs a break....

Carol Reeves is till up at Kosi and Val went down to Perrisher (spelling?) on Friday morning with enough equipment, mostly borrowed, to sink a ship. 

So I choose to believe that Liz convinced my mother and other school friends to join her for the weekend at the Blue Mountains.  My godmother, Val, was still skiing at Perisher but Carol must have got back in time from Kosciusko.  From the letter I found that Is and Aud are cousins and that I spelled Eamons incorrectly and that it should be Eamens.  I was going to ask everyone what kind of car they thought the men were playing with but I think it is Liz's two-door Morris.  What do you think?

If you want to see some fabulous photos of the Hydro Majestic in the snow check out its website here.  The Blue Mountains are not skiing country but the Snowy Mountains in NSW which includes Mount Kosciuszko (pronounced Cossie-Osko and Australia's highest mountain) and Perisher are some of the favourite skiing places in Australia.  And it seems that our snow season may last a while longer yet this year.  The official end is 4 October I understand.

For more beautiful photos of the Blue Mountains - one of my all time favourite places in the world - follow my former work colleague, Gary Hayes and his photos on Instagram or check out his website here - I've linked you to the "misterious land" range of photos, as he calls them.

For more foggy memories of times gone by click here.