Friday 20 October 2017

Moments in Time



The prompt above shows a smiling young woman standing outside a house with a wrought iron fence.

My first photo in response shows another unknown young lady, smiling as she stands outside premises of the Quebec Liquor Commission. It comes from the album I have of photographs taken by my Uncle Ken when he was doing his pilot training in Canada in 1942. I have no idea who this attractive girl was but it seems likely that Ken met her while he was over there. She may or may not have been the same girl who is with Ken in the next photo. I can't be sure, but the girl with Ken is wearing glasses, unlike the girl in the first picture. I hope she found someone else with whom to enjoy life after Ken left for England, sadly never to return, but at least they look happy together at this moment in time.




According to Wikipedia, the Quebec Liquor Commission was formed in 1921 to control the sale of liquor in the province of Quebec. Why Ken chose to pose his friend outside such a store is not known, but here is a photograph in Wikipedia showing customers queueing for their liquor supplies outside another QLC store, taken only a couple of years later. Perhaps Ken had just made a purchase there himself.


Another feature of our prompt is the wought iron gate or fence, which reminded me of this next photo, showing the first home that my parents lived in after their marriage in 1950. My mother wrote in her Life Album that they were "fortunate to be able to rent this beautiful old home in Barrington St Christchurch. The grounds were extensive and Ian (my father) enjoyed looking after them. The rooms were large and in the dining room and lounge were huge dressers." Unfortunately they had to move out shortly before I was born.
A few years later while we were living in the UK and Dad was working at the Low Temperature Research Station in Cambridge, he was invited to attend a Scientific Congress in Paris.  My parents were able  to leave me with friends and go over to Belgium and France for about a week, where Mum has captured Dad, looking suitably debonair beside an archway at the Paris Hotel de Ville, adorned with a wrought iron gate.



For more fleeting moments in time, possibly prompted or inspired by that unknown girl standing outside the unknown house with a wrought iron fence, there's no need to stand waiting at the gate, just walk on in to Sepia Saturday 390#

9 comments:

Molly of Molly's Canopy said...

Great photos! Particularly like the first QLC photo as I have Quebec ancestry on my dad's side. And those gates are impressive, too!

Kristin said...

He posed her there so you would have that photo available for this prompt! Thoughtful,right?

smkelly8 said...

I wonder what Uncle Ken's connection was.

Alan Burnett said...

The photographs are wonderful - particularly the one of your father in Paris. Some photographs manage to convey so much about their subject that you almost feel as if you knew them based simply on looking at a photograph - this one does that for me.

tony said...

Fine Images Jo.Photography is thirsty work!

La Nightingail said...

You caught the door AND the wrought iron work both with your pix. Nice going. And nice pictures!

Mike Brubaker said...

The girl from the Liquor Commission is perfect. But I'm intrigued by the one-legged man walking away from your father!

Barbara Rogers said...

Sorry to be so late commenting, but finally getting to read SS posts. Love the pretty girl, and am sad to hear that Ken didn't become part of her future. Your dad in Paris does look very pleased.

Wendy said...

I guess Ken got around! Go Ken! Love the fancy gate at your parents' first home. I enjoyed the description of it. (I'm REALLY late commenting, so now Barbara doesn't need to feel so bad.)