Photo Follow-up to LJ Idol Post, "Run, Don't Walk"
In follow-up to my Run, Don't Walk post for this week's therealljidol, I went back through one of my photo albums and chose a few photos to share with y'all.
I found several photos from when I was ages 2-4ish wearing leg braces, but not many after that time period - mostly because once I got to be school aged, I only had to wear the braces at night. Anyway, here are two representative shots with me in the leg braces, and one taken shortly after I had the surgery, sitting in my dad's car, with both legs in thigh-high casts.
In this first photo, I was a very happy two year old. Please ignore the ohmigodfugly jumpsuit I was wearing... it was either late 1969 or very early 1970, and I can't be held responsible for the tastes of my parents. My brother (who rarely smiled in photos unless told to) was approximately 5 years old. He, of course, is tastefully attired in a plain white sweater with thin black stripes and black jeans. I'm sorry, VI folks, but I cannot adequately describe the weird mish-mash of patterns on my Peter Pan collared jumpsuit, but let it be known that I'm sitting to the right and slightly behind my brother, with a huge cheesy grin on my face, holding a small guitar off to my left side. It is hard to see the braces as they are mostly underneath the jumpsuit, but you can see the intoeing pretty well in this photo.
In the second photo, I was 4 years old and it was Christmas, 1971. My grandpa Irving is seated on our goldenrod colored couch on the left, wearing a blue shirt and slacks and blue tie. I'm in the middle, with my long brown hair in two ponytails tied with large dark green bows. I'm wearing a short knit dress with thick multi-colored vertical stripes. The dress is only about mid-thigh, so you can easily see the metal rod going down the outside of my right leg, the strap just below the knee, my white knee socks, and the reddish-brown T-strap shoes that the braces were attached to. This is the brace that I most distinctly remember, partly because of the photo and partly because I wore them the longest. My nana (maternal grandmother) is to my left, smiling at the camera, wearing a dark gold sweater and black slacks. She is passing a red 1972 calendar to my grandpa. On the couch between myself and nana is my Gnip-Gnop game.
The last photo was taken in September, 1976, a few weeks after my legs were operated on. I'm sitting inside my dad's car, looking at the camera. My hair is very short, and I'm wearing a blue sweater over a short green and white floral dress. Both legs are in casts up to mid-thigh. I've got peds on over my feet to keep my toes warm, and you can see quite a lot of signatures up and down the casts! This photo is actually two photos layered, so that you can get the full effect of the casts - the left photo is me to mid-thigh, and the second photo is mostly my legs - we didn't have a wide angle camera back then. :)
And there you have it. =)
I found several photos from when I was ages 2-4ish wearing leg braces, but not many after that time period - mostly because once I got to be school aged, I only had to wear the braces at night. Anyway, here are two representative shots with me in the leg braces, and one taken shortly after I had the surgery, sitting in my dad's car, with both legs in thigh-high casts.
In this first photo, I was a very happy two year old. Please ignore the ohmigodfugly jumpsuit I was wearing... it was either late 1969 or very early 1970, and I can't be held responsible for the tastes of my parents. My brother (who rarely smiled in photos unless told to) was approximately 5 years old. He, of course, is tastefully attired in a plain white sweater with thin black stripes and black jeans. I'm sorry, VI folks, but I cannot adequately describe the weird mish-mash of patterns on my Peter Pan collared jumpsuit, but let it be known that I'm sitting to the right and slightly behind my brother, with a huge cheesy grin on my face, holding a small guitar off to my left side. It is hard to see the braces as they are mostly underneath the jumpsuit, but you can see the intoeing pretty well in this photo.
In the second photo, I was 4 years old and it was Christmas, 1971. My grandpa Irving is seated on our goldenrod colored couch on the left, wearing a blue shirt and slacks and blue tie. I'm in the middle, with my long brown hair in two ponytails tied with large dark green bows. I'm wearing a short knit dress with thick multi-colored vertical stripes. The dress is only about mid-thigh, so you can easily see the metal rod going down the outside of my right leg, the strap just below the knee, my white knee socks, and the reddish-brown T-strap shoes that the braces were attached to. This is the brace that I most distinctly remember, partly because of the photo and partly because I wore them the longest. My nana (maternal grandmother) is to my left, smiling at the camera, wearing a dark gold sweater and black slacks. She is passing a red 1972 calendar to my grandpa. On the couch between myself and nana is my Gnip-Gnop game.
The last photo was taken in September, 1976, a few weeks after my legs were operated on. I'm sitting inside my dad's car, looking at the camera. My hair is very short, and I'm wearing a blue sweater over a short green and white floral dress. Both legs are in casts up to mid-thigh. I've got peds on over my feet to keep my toes warm, and you can see quite a lot of signatures up and down the casts! This photo is actually two photos layered, so that you can get the full effect of the casts - the left photo is me to mid-thigh, and the second photo is mostly my legs - we didn't have a wide angle camera back then. :)
And there you have it. =)