Tuesday, December 23, 2008

And then, after we opened the Santa presents, they'd bring out the elephants

I've been pulling out the childhood photos. Please bear with me.

Because sometimes, in winter, I'm out on the street and I catch a whiff of something that smells like airplane fuel, and it makes me hugely nostalgic. Because we always lived in places where you walked across the runway to get to the plane.

Like I ever intimated I was normal.

The picture above was taken on a houseboat in Kashmir on my Gramma Lillian's first trip to visit us in India. From Minot, North Dakota. In fact, it was her first trip out of the continental US. Minot does, in case you're wondering, have an international airport; they have a daily flight to Canada.
This photo jumps forward several years, clearly. I love that we are decked out in our Christmas finest - and so are the Christmas elephants. (And please, please check out my mom's hair and my dad's pants.)

This photo has nothing to do with Christmas, but it makes me giggle. I'm not sure why I'm propped on suitcases. And I look like I'm smoking a cigarette. Although, casual as my parents may have been about us wearing seat belts and going to the bathroom in public and such, I'm pretty sure, on closer inspection, that I'm clutching a hankie or something.

12 comments:

  1. So cute! :)
    Also, I really want those pants.

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  2. Must. Have. ELEPHANTS!!! (I wonder if the San Diego Zoo is open Christmas day?)

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  3. A.S. - They are kind of awesome, aren't they?

    J - Oh, I wonder too! I generally hate zoos - so depressing - but that's such a great one. I love the okapi.

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  4. I love, LOVE the notion of Christmas elephants. I bet they get to roam around more than zoo elephants, too. And accessorize!

    Also, your attitude in that last photo? Priceless.

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  5. What's a girl gotta do to get a ride on a Christmas elephant?!

    Have a very happy holiday, lady.

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  6. I love going through old photos of our travels. We stayed on a Kashmir houseboat that looked exactly like the one in your picture for a week the summer before our senior year. I have vivid memories of waking up early and seeing the sun come up over the the fishermen throwing their nets on a beautiful, misty lake. Thanks for a trip down memory lane, and have a great Christmas!

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  7. Jessica - I know! We need more elephants! And I love that photo - it's just so silly.

    LiLu - THAT is the question, isn't it?

    LiLu - We went the winter of my junior or senior year...can't remember which. It's just so beautiful, isn't it? Happy Chanukkah to you and your family!

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  8. Went through and scanned about 4k family pics last year for a present for my uncle. Some of them? Absolutely priceless!! Especially the ones of my sisters going to prom...in the 70s.

    Question: Why are you dressed like a little boy in the last picture?

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  9. I think my perfect day would involve drinking wine and sitting in total silence as you tell me ALL OF YOUR TRAVEL STORIES.

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  10. I've always wanted to go to Kashmir... but the few times in my life when it's been 'safe enough', I haven't been able to go. :-\

    I'm jealous. :-P

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  11. FoggyDew - God knows. Maybe because I was pretty much bald till I was 3 and people thought I was a boy anyway?

    Nicole - We will definitely sit down over drinks one of these days and talk travel adventure!

    VVK - I'm so sorry about that. It's so tragic the constant conflict in Kashmir. What a stunning place.

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  12. Love your belt as you balance precariously on those now vintage suitcases . . . and the elephants make me nostalgic. Did you ever see a dancing bear in your travels?

    ps - i have to get a scanner - all my family's pics are still on SLIDES

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