Opelousas, Louisiana, July 1974
There was nothing remarkable about that day, and yet somehow, it stayed with me.
In this photo from my teenage years, I am wearing what I loved most at the time, a simple top and a pair of jeans. We did not take many pictures back then, which makes the ones we do have feel a little more meaningful. My older brother Glenn was the one behind the camera, and he managed to capture a few moments like this.
It was July 1974. We lived miles from town, far enough that walking was not an option, and I did not have transportation to go where I wanted to go. Days like that were often spent at home, whether I wanted to be there or not.
This photo was taken in his bedroom. On the wall behind me is a Beatles poster, something that felt very much like Glenn. One of the first movies I remember seeing with him was A Hard Day’s Night. I liked some of their music, but I was never quite the fan that he was.
Looking at the photo now, I notice things I never paid attention to before. There is a green print on the wall that looks like a house. I believe he had an eight-track player in there as well, something that felt modern at the time.
The mirror on the wall carries a different kind of memory. I believe Mom got it from a woman who helped her with cleaning and laundry when she was pregnant with my sister while we were living in Worms, Germany. We lived on the third floor, and the laundry room was in the basement. It was not easy for her to go up and down those stairs while pregnant. There were times when I helped with the laundry, hanging clothes along the lines in the basement.
Other details come back slowly. The floor lamp had a brass base, though I remember Mom’s table lamps more clearly. They seemed larger, more noticeable somehow.
I remember another photo taken that same day in my own bedroom. I did not look happy in that one either, though I cannot recall why. My bookcase bed had been bought second hand not long after I was born. A clock from my parents’ antique collection sat nearby. My eight track player rested neatly on a chest Mom had given me, along with my stack of 45 records and my Dutch wooden shoes.
Like many girls my age, I had stuffed animals on my bed. One of them I won at a carnival in Fort Knox. Hanging by the window were my pom poms from my time on the pep squad in Ocean Springs.
I did not look happy in either photo, though I cannot recall what I was feeling that day.
It was just an ordinary time in my life. Nothing planned, nothing staged.
Just a day at home, miles from town, with nowhere in particular to go.
