Sunday, June 28, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Beachy Keen
In a cruel twist of fate (or shall we call it a crappy sort of coincidence? You choose.), I discovered in the basement my old collection of THESE:
Any children of the 80s who don't remember these? Or maybe it is unique to American beach culture? Anyway. Salesmen (always remarkably winsome, sandy haired & white toothed) would travel the beaches, long chains of these little viewscopes jangling from their bags, approaching groups of teens and appealing to their vanity. You'd pose for some photos, suck in your belly, and try to get the cutest guy in your group to pose with his arm around you.
Well I seem to have possessed a good bit of vanity, because I amassed quite a collection of these. All from the years 1988 - 1991, and documenting all the bad hairdos one embraces in the high school years. But OH. THE SKINNY LEGS. THE FLAT STOMACHS. THE SMOOTH SKIN. Did I really, REALLY obsess over my stomach 'pooching'??
Anyway. The "crappy coincidence" part of this story is that I uncovered my stash of these right before taking off on a family beach vacation, the first extended one since Lars was 3 months old. And let's just say that photos of a 2009 Kirsten On The Beach are not quite as..... inspirational.
So the next few posts will be chock-full of lovely Delaware beach photos of my gorgeous kids that I would sacrifice every inch of smooth skin for, as well as a few of their equally gorgeous dad (who only gets gorgeous-er with age). But if you're hoping for a bikini shot, well, I'll just invoke the Sopranos: fuggeddabboudit.
But P.S. : is there anyone out there who's ever transferred these tiny Viewfinder pictures to real photos? There are some crackers in there of Clare and Desiree..... ;)
Any children of the 80s who don't remember these? Or maybe it is unique to American beach culture? Anyway. Salesmen (always remarkably winsome, sandy haired & white toothed) would travel the beaches, long chains of these little viewscopes jangling from their bags, approaching groups of teens and appealing to their vanity. You'd pose for some photos, suck in your belly, and try to get the cutest guy in your group to pose with his arm around you.
Well I seem to have possessed a good bit of vanity, because I amassed quite a collection of these. All from the years 1988 - 1991, and documenting all the bad hairdos one embraces in the high school years. But OH. THE SKINNY LEGS. THE FLAT STOMACHS. THE SMOOTH SKIN. Did I really, REALLY obsess over my stomach 'pooching'??
Anyway. The "crappy coincidence" part of this story is that I uncovered my stash of these right before taking off on a family beach vacation, the first extended one since Lars was 3 months old. And let's just say that photos of a 2009 Kirsten On The Beach are not quite as..... inspirational.
So the next few posts will be chock-full of lovely Delaware beach photos of my gorgeous kids that I would sacrifice every inch of smooth skin for, as well as a few of their equally gorgeous dad (who only gets gorgeous-er with age). But if you're hoping for a bikini shot, well, I'll just invoke the Sopranos: fuggeddabboudit.
But P.S. : is there anyone out there who's ever transferred these tiny Viewfinder pictures to real photos? There are some crackers in there of Clare and Desiree..... ;)
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