Marilyn on the phone. I love her twining legs in the photo. I could not do that with my legs if you paid me a hundred dollars. They just don’t seem to “go” that way. Her legs remind me of this famous photo of Anne Sexton, used to promote Sexton’s poetry readings in Cambridge (which my father attended, once upon a time):
I love how Monroe looks like she maybe just woke up, or maybe came in from a swim … there’s something lazy and disheveled about her that reminds me of long summery days.
I am obsessed with both their legs.
And look at Marilyn’s little toes!
I’m loving that there is a badminton box in the background; maybe she’ll have some friends over later and play a bit.
hahaha yes – the toes all spread out!
I hadn’t noticed the badminton set – good eye!
I did not stop until I could cross my legs like that. It took some practice, but I was young and flexible, and wanted to imitate Marilyn’s lesser known gestures, those that you notice after looking obsessively at her photos for some time…
This shows my degree of crazy.
I love the degree of crazy! That you would practice the leg-twine-maneuver!!
I think it’s too late for me to accomplish that small bit of behavior.
Your dad saw and heard Anne Sexton read???!!!
Why does that photo of Anne Sexton remind me of your mother?
And it reminds me of that ultimately cool photo of your dad and uncle on the steps of a church(?), where they’re both looking cooler than any man has a right to look, but also nonchalant and just themselves.
I’m very nostalgiac for the 1960’s, even for years before I can remember, when our parents were young amd there was so much hope and everything, everything was possible. It’s heartbreaking to see my mom and dad younger than I am now, and to know that everything was about to go to shit, and to know that if they had only made that left turn instead of the right, so much would have been different. But then, so would I.
When my dad died, I found a shoe box filled with b&w photos that he had taken of my mother one morning when they were lolling around their apartment. It’s a year or two before my sister Adele was born – so 1959 or so – and 3-4 years before I was even a twinkle. And it’s the first time I have ever looked at photographs, not for what they showed, but for what the person behind the camera must have seen. And it was miraculous. My father loved my mother so much, and she loved being loved. And they were so young and lovely and sexy, and ignorant of all that was to come. It was mind-blowing. I just sat there on the floor, surrounded by my dad’s stuff, with my brother in the other room packing boxes and yelling – “did you know dad had 5 pairs of earphones?” “hey, here’s that squirting nickle!” “I don’t think I can do this anymore” – and I was captivated by a past that I never knew and that maybe only existed for a few months, and that may have been the best time of my parent’s lives.
Tonio – I love that you think of Sexton looks like Mum. I hadn’t seen it that way, but I think you’re right – especially from that time – the dark hair, pale skin, big bouffant – a beautiful young girl all dolled up.
I love that picture that I sent you of Dad and Uncle Jimmy – we think it was for a christening, that is our guess … they look soooo Irish, and so masculine (despite the dandy-ish 70s clothes). It was a treasure, finding that photo.
Your words about the photos you found (and I was also laughing at the image of Philip in the background – didn’t I talk to you around that time??) are almost too emotional for me to deal with right now. But I can really see, especially in the case of your parents, that you would see that photo – the evidence of happier times – a time from before you were born even – and be blown away by it. I hope you kept a lot of that stuff.
It’s bittersweet to say, “Well, at least they had that happy time, right??” – and in many ways I think saying such things is actually insensitive, especially considering the pain and anguish that followed.
All I can say is I sure am glad that you’re here on this earth – and Philip and Adele … and also very glad that you shared your thoughts with me (right now, here, on this intranet-gizmo).