On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Two pictures from when I was two years old. The back of the crying picture says “he didn’t like his horse but now he rides it all the time. Two pictures from the Christmas I was 16 years old. Dig those side burns!
Barbara
Very sweet.
zhena gogolia
Love the crying one! Merry Christmas!
PST
I’m quite surprised by how much 16-year-old Paul resembled 16-year-old me, including the haircut and sideburns. However, my wife thinks I was a bit chunkier. The furniture and the hair all look about right for 1969, the year I turned 16.
MomSense
Mom was rocking that dress with the contrast piping!
cope
Great evocative pictures, thanks. You look a little more enthused in pic #3 than #4. Is that a dress shirt in the box?
I am in my seventh decade and still can’t grow sideburns.
NotMax
Cellophane cover for the lampshade. So 1950s!
:)
Scout211
I love the crying pic. I have one of those for my first birthday.
My goodness, the theme running through all of these pics from Christmas past is, “TINSEL! TINSEL! TINSEL!”
Paul in KY
I can’t grow sideburns like that now & I’m 63! They do look bodacious.
WaterGirl
@Paul in KY:
Joining the chorus of “great sideburns” too! Now we know it’s not a “Paul” thing. :-)
I love the last photo where it caught the tossing the box aside thing that we do at Christmas. I’m not sure that we would just toss boxes and wrapping on the floor at any other time of year, but it’s definitely Christmas.
WaterGirl
Sorry this OTR was so late this morning – I was apparently on drugs when I set the time to 8am. This one cannot be blamed on WordPress.
Paul in KY
@WaterGirl: Boy, do I wish I could have had a set like that in HS. Think I would have gotten a bit more interest from the ladies. When I was 16, I looked like I was 11.
Nancy
Tinsel memories:
My parents insisted that we put the lead tinsel on the tree one strand at a time. I never saw this myself, but one of the uncles said he saw my dad using the clothes iron to flatten the tinsel.
When I left home and got my own tree, I used to throw handfuls of tinsel sometimes while standing facing away from the tree.
Their trees did look pretty, while mine made a statement. Not sure what that statement was.
Reboot
@MomSense: Also the slingbacks–want!
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: I love it!
Just turned in my grades. Woo-hoo! Now for the violent rain and windstorm!
zhena gogolia
@Scout211: Tinsel was da bomb
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
No more pencils, no more books. No more students’ bored ass looks!
;)
@a href=”https://balloon-juice.com/2022/12/21/on-the-road-paul-in-st-augustine-old-christmas-photos/#comment-8711383″>cope
To these ancient eyes it appears nothing so much as a gag gift of a giant-sized package of Oscar Mayer bologna. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
:)
NotMax
Fix for screwed up code of #16.
@cope
To these ancient eyes it appears nothing so much as a gag gift of a giant-sized package of Oscar Mayer bologna. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
:)
sab
@NotMax: How is that a gag gift? It is my husband’s go to lunch choice.
jeffreyw
@zhena gogolia: My mom and older sister always cautioned me to place tinsel by hand and to stop throwing it at the tree like confetti but I was never one to listen and now look at how I’ve turned out.
sab
@zhena gogolia: My husband always dreamed of teaching. I think he forgot about the grading part.
sab
Our car doesn’t start this morning. We don’t know why. It was fine yesterday. Grrrr.
evap
I’ve got some pictures, is it too late? How do I send them in?
WaterGirl
@cope:
Great observation!
edit: he does not have a poker face. :-)
WaterGirl
@evap: Not too late!
Send them to me by email. my nym at balloon-juice.com
eclare
@Reboot: Second vote for the slingbacks!
West of the Rockies
@NotMax:
Did you teach? My God, those withering looks of boredom that you’d see now and again… made me really question my career choice and personality.
Tinare
The pictures of Paul at 16 look like they could’ve come from the house where I grew up. I swear I have a picture of my brother that looks really similar to the first one. Similar chair, similar window, similar tree.
Paul in Jacksonville
@PST: One year before I turned 16.
Paul in Jacksonville
@cope: Yes, a dress shirt. It’s in my right hand.
NotMax
@West of the Rockies
Yup, for a short stint. 11th grade American History to the terminally disinterested, who were only present because it was a required course.
stinger
“Two shirts? Really? That’s Grandma’s idea of a great Christmas present? Didn’t you tell her I wanted a cassette player?”
WaterGirl
@Paul in Jacksonville: You are now knighted as Paul in Jacksonville.
Paul in Jacksonville
@WaterGirl: Merci
NotMax
@stinger
Little Stevie Bannon’s dream gift.
//
WaterGirl
@NotMax: hahahaha
CaseyL
@WaterGirl: One of my most indelible Christmas memories is from a few decades ago, when I went with my boyfriend to visit his family in Utah.
At his sister’s house, one of the nephews (about 5? years old) tore open every one of his presents in record time: grab box, rip off paper, open box, quick glance at contents, then toss aside for the next one. At the end, the kid was surrounded by a small mountain of torn paper and discarded gifts, whereupon he melted down completely because he had no more to open.
It was ghastly: a microcosm of greedy expectation that would never be satisfied.
On the one hand: OK, he was a little kid, and we already know little kids are monsters, so no big deal there.
OTOH: I knew I was looking at a microcosm of How Humans Operate In Their Environment. And it appalled me.
WaterGirl
@CaseyL: Yep, I have seen the same thing.