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Confession of an Aged Hippy

June 11, 2007
21:06 PM

OK I have no shame.

I found this photo when going through some old papers.
It is myself photographed at, I think, my nephew Richards christening with him in my arms and his older sister Ann under my oxter.
It is photographed in the back garden of my sisters D’s house in Rathfarnham in Dublin in the summer of 1971, 36 years ago, which makes me 22 years old.

It was at the height of the hippy phase, I had just failed my finals in Arts in UCD and was about to re-sit it, this time successfully, in the Autumn.
The amazing thing is that I can still remember the clothes.
I was wearing a t shirt which was tie-dyed and, when it had started to fray,had been trimmed with some braid by some kind person to stop its disappearance.
The jeans were even more disreputable.
They had gone through several renaissances.
They had started off as yellow, were short, and straight.
As fashions changed they had been extended, flares had been added and (inevitably) tie-dyed. They had also been extensively patched.
They still exist and live out their retirement in an old suitcase in the attic.
As you can see my outgoings on clothing were extremely small.

I imagine that over several years all I had was patched and re patched until there was little left of the original.
This was not of course for reasons of economy but to follow the rules of fashion.

I see that this style is now having something of a revival.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to put on the jeans again.
I doubt if the waistband (I seem to remember it was a mere 28 inches!) would fasten over my thigh.

All in all looking at that picture I begin to think that 58 isn’t such a bad age after all.

Comments

  1. Ann

    on June 11, 2007

    Hi, nice of you to put a picture of Richard on his birthday! Love the clothes (which I remember) and the pretty young thing with you!

  2. Kathryn

    on June 13, 2007

    Martin, The piece on your jeans caused me to smile in recognition. You might say that your blog is an echo of the process – something of an evolving cyberspace patchwork .

  3. Martin

    on June 13, 2007

    Wow Kathryn thanks for that. A cyberspace patchwork indeed! I now have the title for the biography.

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