Saturday 14 July 2012

Pram-bulating

An entry to Sepia Saturday "Using old images as prompts for new reflections"

From the gardens of the Schloss Belvedere and the wonderful needlework seen on the Sepia Saturday prompt picture lets journey to northern England
and wave.  I'm waving at my father here but was told I used to wave at everyone from the pram; I still enjoy waving.  This is Bardsea Road one Sunday in June 1950 it encompassed a walk which I would take with my mother Sadie shown here until her old age, you had to take up a brisk pace because she considered that slow walking tired her out. While browsing through the many pictures of me in a pram I noticed for the first time the pretty woven basket which seems to vary from half to brimming full.

Wheeling back in time a month to
May 1950 here at Canal Foot by the side of Morecambe Bay, the railway viaduct just visible in the background.  Now there are two elements from the prompt both a pram and a blanket. My mother and her life long friends Julia and Harry Boyd share a rug while it looks as though my 'Aunt' Julia is instructing her son Roger to do something or more likely not do something, I'm an 'innocence bystander'. 
Five years later and I don't think I quite fit a pram although it was good fun to roll up and down the garden path in it. The month is August and the photo says it is a warm day; I look brown so, unlike this year, it has been a good summer. I once stayed with Mrs High, the mother of my friend here Marion (who you can see is blond with complexion to match).  She tried to scrub the 'dirt' off my knees in the bath until I told her it wasn't going to come off because that was me.   But lets get back to the pram, I suspect this is the one from which I saw a tyre in a stream and insisted on visiting it every day which meant that the Bardsea Road walk in the first photo was one that my mother could not deviate from for some time.

Not long after this photo only the wheels survived of the pram when they were turned into Go-cart, not by me but one of the neighbourhood boys, although I did get rides on the completed construction, bliss. You never see home made go-carts today and I have no photos of these particular wheels but to relive those memories of simpler times with the help of Flickr and the National Library of Wales
The Longden Bay Go-cart Racers, September 1953 - Photographer Geoff Charles (1909-2002)

10 comments:

Helen Killeen Bauch McHargue said...

What a beautiful baby you were, so happy. Who wouldn't be in a pram like that with the good looking suspension. Very interesting that the wheels are the parts that survive...oh and the passenger too.
Wonderful photos.

Wendy said...

I'm waving back! I enjoyed reading the evolution of your pram.

Postcardy said...

Your first baby picture looks a lot like the way I looked in my baby pictures.

Little Nell said...

Ah, you travelled in a pram like mine with a useful basket attached.These are wonderful pictures and the one of you waving is so full of happiness, it’s a real winner.

Kathy said...

What a sweet smile and wave! And you seem to be soaking in whatever instructions your cousin is receiving.

Brett Payne said...

Not to detract from your great pram photos, I'm afraid I was transported by the Go-cart Racers, back to my childhood when I spent many happy hours in the workshop tinkering with and test driving a series of go-carts, often made using old lawn mower weheels. Not very satisfactory, but the pram wheels I had my eye on were never released for their proper purpose! That's a variation on the theme which hadn't occurred to me - of course, that's where prams go to die!

Bob Scotney said...

Never mind the prams; go-carts were the rage when I was the same age as those boys. Prams were for girls!
Until that was I realised that girls were interesting too. Eventually that brought me back to one pram at least.

Sharon said...

I couldn't believe it when someone wanted to buy the bottom section of my pram (pictured in my blog) to turn it into a billy cart. No way was I going to allow that, even if the pram now sits in the shed collecting dust and spiders.

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed this post - and I love how your little waving hand is blurry in the first photo. So funny :-D and you look so cheery. You must have enjoyed your high speed walks! Jo

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy said...

This is a wonderful, wonderful post! I loved seeing you and your family, and that go-kart picture is something else.

Thank you so much,

Kathy M.