I have received a 4th Anniversary Greeting from WordPress.
Haircut; car tax; filling up with petrol; paying in cheques; a new plant tray. I don’t normally report on the mundane, but this lot did occupy most of the morning.
This was a day of poor light, not conducive to photography, so I scanned some more colour slides from 1980, made during our last few months in Horse & Dolphin Yard.
Just after New Year the Christmas lights still illuminated Regent Street’s night sky which sported several moons and numerous shooting stars.
In February, as often at weekends,
Michael
and Matthew (clearly in the midst of a perennial growth spurt) played football in Horse & Dolphin Yard.
To take these photographs I must have been standing outside the door of our flat. On another occasion two gentlemen, to my left, somewhat the worse for having consumed a quantity of the cheapest possible intoxicating liquid, sprawled against each other in a corner on the floor. Michael and his friend Eddie were playing with a tennis ball. Soon, my son came running up the stairs to inform me that one of the imbibers had taken their ball. Naturally I descended into the yard to persuade the gent to give up his spoils.
The man’s fingers still clutched the ball, even though he was now dead.
I called the police who arrived quite quickly. The officer in charge, whilst arranging for disposal of the body, instructed me to send Michael inside because he shouldn’t be seeing this. It didn’t seem politic to argue, so I quietly suggested to the fifteen-year-old that he would get a better view from an upstairs window. Up he went.
There were no blue and white tapes applied to keep out sightseers, and no chalk outlines were made. Clearly this was not really considered to be the scene of a crime. Except possibly the snatching of the ball. In the circumstances, I was prepared to overlook that.
On 1st March Jessica emerged from the flat on her way to our wedding at Marylebone Registry Office,
and later returned to celebrate among a myriad of bouquets.
In the last Soho picture, later that month, she is drying her hair.
This evening Jackie and I dined on succulent cod fish cakes in fish gravy, new potatoes, cauiflower, carrots, and runner beans; followed by treacle tart and cream. The Cook drank Hoegaarden, and I drank Vineyards cotes du Rhone 2014. Fish gravy, by the way, is white sauce laced with fresh parsley.
Just one slight negative….does Matthew know you are showing photographs of him in fancy dress on the Internet?
He’s OK, John
You don’t consider a stiff nicking your ball a “negative”???
Thank goodness I’ve never been able to catch a ball.
Thanks, Bruce 🙂
What a story about the tennis ball! I love the fact that you told Michael that he’s get a better view from the upstairs window. 😀 Jessica looks really lovely on her wedding day.
Thank you, Sylvia
Jessica looks heartachingly beautiful in her wedding pic. I admit to dropping a tear.
Thank you, Mary
This is not really a comment.
Nor’s this…
🙂
Do you have all your photographs organized for your family or will you? I just wonder because my dad left a basement filled with albums of photos and nobody knows what to do with all of them. And now I am just the same!! I keep trying to organize, but more photos comes into my life than I scan and organize old ones!
Mine are mostly all organised. I am working though identifying some of the negatives, but they are all in files. I am also gradually scanning them. Thanks, Luanne
Oh, I envy you! I have so many photos from my grandparents, my parents, etc. and I can’t keep up with any of it!
I don’t have many from before my time; and I’ve always kept mine, never imagining what I would be doing with them now
Aside from your artistic skill with the camera, I am also jealous of the quality of your photos (camera-speaking). My photos from the 70s and 80s are atrocious. The quality is so poor and the color has already been ruined.
Many thanks, Luanne. See my response to Paul
Happy 4th anniversary!
Thanks, Susan
You certainly made up for it being a mundane kind of a day with your tale Derrick 🙂
Thanks ever so, Pauline (trying to keep up with Bruce) 🙂
That was quite a tale about the body and the ball!
Jessica was so lovely in the wedding photos–and the hair dryer photo is cool. 🙂
Many thanks, Merril
Way to kick off the 4th year, Derrick!
Thank you, Jill. I thought I’d run out of Soho stories 🙂
I can think of quite a few of even your earlier posts whose content might seem “mundane” compared with that! “Go upstairs for a better view”: THERE’S a “dad to son” comment!
Many thanks, Paul
Congratulations on four years of blogging. Love seeing all the old photos of your family. I need to organize mine better. Some day. Perhaps a retirement project down the road.
I’m already retired 🙂 Thanks Mama
Derrick – such a story! Happy 4th anniversary to you. Would you tell me the name of the post where you told all about your family? I remember it was quite full of sad things happening to people you love – but I don’t remember the specifics and would like to reread it – but I am not sure what to search for.
Thank you very much, Jodie. Here is the link: https://derrickjknight.com/2014/01/05/my-branch-of-the-family-tree/
Happy WP Anniversary! I loved looking at your 1980’s photographs — vintage and undeniably so 80’s — Michael’s pants and jacket especially.
Thanks very much, Rose
Oops! I forgot to leave you cake for your 4th…. 🎂 🙂
Thanks again, Rose 🙂
Enjoyed the time travel 🙂
Than you, Cynthia
Happy Anniversary! Very generous of you to overlook the matter of the stolen ball. That made me laugh. Beautiful pics of Jessica. I thought your title was in reference to perhaps a fashion crime with Mathews outfit 😊
Thanks, Mek. A bit of Arsenal kit
Goodness, I like going back in time with your pictures. What a tale about the thieving corpse.
Thanks, Lisa. You often come up with a phrase I wish I’d thought of 🙂
Too right!
Luanne, you’ll probably find it’s only the prints which have discoloured. Try scanning your negatives, if they’re with the prints. Even without a specialist negative scanner (under £50/$75US, in the UK), you can do a basic scan on a flatbed, making the equivalent of a contact-sheet. Most imaging software has the facility to invert the colours, to make positive images of them. If the negatives HAVE discoloured, too, almost certainly they’ll all have shifted in the same colour-direction so, one you’ve sussed the correction for one, it’s quick to apply it to all.
For sorting the prints, even if a bit ropey now, your family might be glad of your naming people in the pics and stating their connection with you. You could do his film by film as a first run, which might be rather ‘broad brush’, but better than nothing for anyone finding them, in a situation when you’re not there to ask about them.
Thank you for this, Paul. Luanne, if you do have the negatives, I’d be happy, if we can trust the post, to have a go with a sample on my specialist scanner, if you don’t have success with what Paul has outlined
I would like to learn how to invert colours because I have a lot of white on black pictures that eats up all the ink when all I want is black on white.
Look through the menus of your software (I expect there’s a general menu item labelled “Image”, or similar: a likely source) until you find a “Negative”, or “Photo[graphic] Negative”, option. (You can ignore the labelling “photo”: the software (or hardware) won’t know if it’s an actual photograph, or any other type of image).
I don’t now enough about even the standard imaging software programs (e.g.Paintshop, Corel or Photoshop) to walk-talk you through the exact sequence, but I rely on your intelligence [ulp!!!!] 🙂
Thank you; will try my best 🙂
Happy Blogiversay!
Matthew probably grew out of his clothes overnight!
Thanks, Yvonne. He usually did, but that Arsenal top may have been borrowed from Michael
I liked the photos of the boys and was rather shocked at what apparently was some kind of natural death. I like how you politely told the boys to go upstairs for a better view! 🙂
I tend to like tartar sauce on my cod but you made the white gravy with parsley sound like it would go deliciously, Derrick.
Jessica is beautiful any way you capture her.
Many thanks, Robin
Beautiful photos and as always I like your posts. Thanks
Thank you very much, Lakshmi
Another beautiful incursion into memories, Derrick 🙂
Happy 4th anniversary!
xoxo
Thank you, Monica X
You’re welcome, Derrick 🙂
xo
Happy anniversary wow 4 years! I love these photos so special! What a weird thing to happen right there outside your door. I love the pictures of your children Derrick!
Many thanks, Lynn. You have as many children as I do grandchildren 🙂
hahaha when the kids were little (they were close in age) people often stopped me at the store and asked if I was running a daycare!
As many times as I’ve tried to organize older pictures – mine are a mess in various stages of sorting. Good for you, Derrick!
Many thanks, GP
Happy 4th Anniversary in the blogosphere, Derrick! I laughed at loud at the dead drunk story. Kind of sad, but what made me laugh is you telling Michael he would get a better view from upstairs. 🙂 You crack me up!
Thank you, Patsy. Much appreciated comments
You’re welcome, Derrick. 🙂
Congrats to your 4th WP anniversary, Derrick! Thank you for making us laugh… 🙂
Thanks, Amy. I’m pleased to make you laugh
Happy wp anniversary, that shows staying power!
My parents used to take me to Regents Street when I was a child, to see the turning-on of the lights at Christmas. Are you also (like me) originally from London?
Born in Leicester in 1942 – moved to paternal origins, Wimbledon aged 2. So, yes, a Londoner. Thanks, Val
Congratulations Derrick!
Thank you, Mary
Congratulations on your four years. Guess God really doesn’t like ugly and took care of the man for snatching the ball.
Thank you, Kim
Congratulations on your 4th year at WordPress! You enjoy it out here on blogosphere and it shows in your posts. I enjoy your photographs, observations of life, and detached humour (in my opinion). I didn’t know I could look forward to reading about what someone had for dinner, until I started reading your blog! 🙂
Very many thanks, Timi. The dinner began as a joke. When I forgot to mention it one day, my niece, Danni, commented that she wouldn’t be able to sleep without knowing what I’d had for dinner. I like your analysis of my blogging
And the dinner has now become your trademark sign-off. 🙂
You’re welcome!
It’s like Pepys’s ‘and so to bed’