Nostalgia
Today I am wearing an outfit that has set off a sudden and unexpectedly profound bout of nostalgia.
Strawberry/black cherry fine-check short-sleeved fitted shirt
Coral short-sleeved t-shirt (under the shirt)
Slightly retro (something about the shade of blue, and the stitching) navy jeans
Zip-front navy blue cardigan with contrasting pale blue zip details
Brown suede Vans sneakers.
I'm suddenly back in 1979, or maybe 1981. I never actually wore this outfit, but I really could have.
When I was a kid, we visited family in the former Czechoslovakia almost every summer; today's outfit reminds me of being in big pine forests and finding tiny wild strawberries. Big deep green branches overhead and tinder-dry pine needles underfoot. And ants - huge wood ants, living in big mounds of earth and dried pine needles, going about their business with great seriousness. There's also a smattering of idealistic self-sufficiency in this outfit, a lá My Side of the Mountain (one of my favourite books as a child) and that TV movie (?) about the kids in a light aircraft with their parents who crash in a forest and nearly get set on fire when the fuel tank leaks (does anyone but me remember this? What was it called?). It's about seemingly endless summer holidays and the ridiculous thrill of staying in a very basic wooden holiday hut and cooking sausages on the end of a stick over a campfire (and slicing a cross in the ends so they curled up when cooked).
Some days, I really miss being a kid.
Strawberry/black cherry fine-check short-sleeved fitted shirt
Coral short-sleeved t-shirt (under the shirt)
Slightly retro (something about the shade of blue, and the stitching) navy jeans
Zip-front navy blue cardigan with contrasting pale blue zip details
Brown suede Vans sneakers.
I'm suddenly back in 1979, or maybe 1981. I never actually wore this outfit, but I really could have.
When I was a kid, we visited family in the former Czechoslovakia almost every summer; today's outfit reminds me of being in big pine forests and finding tiny wild strawberries. Big deep green branches overhead and tinder-dry pine needles underfoot. And ants - huge wood ants, living in big mounds of earth and dried pine needles, going about their business with great seriousness. There's also a smattering of idealistic self-sufficiency in this outfit, a lá My Side of the Mountain (one of my favourite books as a child) and that TV movie (?) about the kids in a light aircraft with their parents who crash in a forest and nearly get set on fire when the fuel tank leaks (does anyone but me remember this? What was it called?). It's about seemingly endless summer holidays and the ridiculous thrill of staying in a very basic wooden holiday hut and cooking sausages on the end of a stick over a campfire (and slicing a cross in the ends so they curled up when cooked).
Some days, I really miss being a kid.