When my parents decided to emigrate from Austria to Australia in 1969, we all needed passport photos and my parents decided to also have a family portrait taken. Check out my short dress! I wore a really short dress at my First Holy Communion aswell...someone gave it to me a few months earlier and it fitted perfect but then I had a growth spurt and it was shorter than short on the day. I had great legs back then but I wouldn´t be caught dead in a mini these days.
About 3 months after this photo was taken, my parents left their siblings, parents and friends behind and started a new life in Australia. They had some Austrian friends there and for the first year or so we lived in a small flat at the back of a house where my mother worked as a housekeeper. She also baked apple strudel which my father sold to his work mates at a building company. It wasn´t long before they had saved enough money for a deposit on the house in the western suburbs of Sydney where they still live now.
It wasn´t possible to call overseas as it is these days so my parents taped casettes which they sent back to Austria, talking about how they were adjusting, their homesickness and anecdotes of their new life far away from home. When my Grandmother moved into a retirement home some years ago, she gave me some old photos - including the one above, and the box of cassettes she had kept. I was amazed by the stories, how strange our voices sound and what a show-off I was, always wanting to sing new songs I´d learnt at school and talking about my teachers and friends. Many a memory would be lost without these tapes so I feel very lucky to have them.
3 comments:
I love the dress - especially the tie!
How brave your family must have been to pick up and move like that. I'm sure that move had an enormous impact on you and who you grew into.
What a treat to have those tapes! I have a couple of tapes somewhere of me and my siblings as kids. The most memorable moment being my brother saying, "Spiderman!" repeatedly, lol.
What a treasure those tapes are! I would do anything to be able to listen to some of the voices of people in my life again. I love that you were so audacious on the tape. It's nice to remember how full of life we were when we were small. There's so much possibility there!
Thank you for stopping by. Glad you enjoyed my pictures. It's fun to share our corners of the world. I love your mosaic (such a lovely shape and a great idea) and your cozy pictures of the sewing paraphernalia,etc. You are very creative. I too am enjoying the ittle glimpses of other people and their daily lives on several of those wonderful blogs out there. Meanwhile, you and I will be dreaming of the lovely hot summers in Australia! Great job with your recent posts. We used to make tapes and send them back and forth too. They do make a lovely keepsake.
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