Pre-Pilgrim times - photos of when you were young?

[JillGat]

Age, 22, at my mom's place in Montana (no running water).

 

[mspath]

1958 at 19 in Boston, Mass.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I'm glad JillGat resurrected this fun thread as it was dormant for a year.
The beginning of my bear phobia.

 

[trecile]

I recently came across this picture of me - maybe 4 or 5 years old.View attachment 73619

I just realized something about this picture. I was in kindergarten at the time, and the name of my school was El Camino!

 

[JillGat]

I just realized something about this picture. I was in kindergarten at the time, and the name of my school was El Camino!

See, the original roots of your life! When I was in the 5th grade, we had to do a big report on a topic, not of our choosing. I picked out of a hat the subject, "Early Roads." Which sounded like the most boring topic imaginable at the time. Then I started to read about it... The foot trails in North America laid by indigenous people in ancient times that were followed by later peoples and finally became major paved highways. Historic routes in my country and others. Evidence of prehistoric trading of regionally specific goods; like seashells and parrots. I was completel intrigued after my research. I am now active in the Camino Real Association; a group that studies and visitis the sites of the original royal road used by the Indians, and then by the Spanish, to connect Mexico City to Santa Fe, in Nuevo Mexico. It connects me, in a real way, to the history of our region more than anything else could. And the Camino draws me in the same way.

 

[CWBuff]

I just realized something about this picture. I was in kindergarten at the time, and the name of my school was El Camino!

It is "weird" hot things like that happen. We recently moved and as I was going through (yet another set of) boxes to unpack I came across an object I was baptized with.... it is a scallop shell - whichnow whole of a sudden took a completely different meaning.
Then it also occurred to me that the person I was portraying in my 13 years of ACW Living History was named James.
Go figure!!!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I just realized something about this picture. I was in kindergarten at the time, and the name of my school was El Camino!

I had gotten a couple of big white scallop shells at a garage sale, not knowing about the Camino at the time, I simply liked them. Ironically I saw "The Way" a short time later and was fascinated by the "coincidence" of those shells.

 

[hunsta]

A photo of my mother and myself. About 6 months before she pasted away. I posted this picture on the cross at Cruz de Ferro in 2015. The 50th year anniversary of her passing. She was all of 22 years old

 

[Robo]

Great thread @David .

15 yo Robo.

 

[Arctic_Alex]

Hey, we all are still young ... it is just that we have been even younger some time ago ;-)

Still these images are like a journey back in time

 

[malingerer]

View attachment 73546
How 'bout some 80's hair?

What hair? I'm IN my eighties!

samarkand.

 

[Arctic_Alex]

I just realised there are not many images of younger me in digital form!

This one was 25 years ago in Scotland. Top-Gun style

 

[Jeff Crawley]

Missed this the first time around. My most treasured photograph (so I don't share it lightly): Easter 1953 Dad was 48 - when he died 40 years later he'd hardly changed a bit





Me, at O Cebreiro, 50 years later

 

[Ladydigs]

Missed this the first time around. My most treasured photograph (so I don't share it lightly): Easter 1953 Dad was 48 - when he died 40 years later he'd hardly changed a bit

View attachment 132476

View attachment 132477

Me, at O Cebreiro, 50 years later

Heya ... oh dear, lockdown ... rambling mind had a thought - we meet pilgrims on Camino 'as they are' and virtually meet on the forum ... but what did we look like in our formative years, decades before we became the glorious and gorgeous heroes of Camino that we now are ..

I will start ....

Me at about 3 .. looking utterly bewildered and still stunned to find I had been born on the wrong planet by mistake ... I still am totally bewildered - (older child was my half-sister). Sandals, shorts, what not to like!!

View attachment 73527

at about 18 passport photo .. pretending I know the ways of the world and hoping my beautiful blue eyes will make all women fall into my arms

View attachment 73528

And now?? at 72 saggy and baggy with a head like an old coconut that has been in the sea too long
(no photo - I break camera lenses).

I still like popsicles!

 

[Arctic_Alex]

This was from not too long ago. I was 10 years younger then. But definitely pre-Camino

When I am back in the office I will try to find one from maybe 30 years ago ...

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Arctic Alex certainly is a good fit for your Avatar name.

 

[Arctic_Alex]

Arctic Alex certainly is a good fit for your Avatar name.

Well, my name is Alex(ander) and I currently live at the Arctic Circle. So that name was quite straight forward

 

[Arctic_Alex]

Not 100% sure, but this must have been between 15 and 18 years ago. ... most likely Dartmoor, England.

 

[woody66]

Just found this thread and the picture below was on the window sill next to me!

My only claim to fame in my life is that i was the heaviest baby born at the hospital for 52 years at 13 pounds and 12 ozs;I was also a month premature!
I haven't changed a bit over the years since this photo; just as gorgeous but wear long trousers now
Woody
Just to add it does look a bit like Queen Victoria took it but not quite that old!!!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

My only claim to fame in my life is that i was the heaviest baby born at the hospital for 52 years at 13 pounds and 12 ozs;

Your poor mother!

 

[David]

Oh my - daughter recently sent me this one via her mother. Her as a new tiny, and me ... so, April 23rd 1982 ... crikey! did I really look like that????

 

[Camino Chrissy]

I have loved this thread and hope the new entries jump start a whole new "chapter"!

 

[Former member 71219]

25 years ago in Chamonix - clearly before the internet and the ability to search for terms like "Ultra light packing", "how to fit your backpack" and "is it wise to hike in jeans". Safe to say I had no idea at the time.

 

[Arctic_Alex]

(...) "is it wise to hike in jeans". Safe to say I had no idea at the time.

... my first real hiking after my army times was also in jeans. Decades ago, but I remember quite well how bad an idea that was

I was a pro with my army gear at that time, but had no clue how to do it as a civilian ...

 

[malingerer]

How lucky you were at 18 not to have any spots!
Cheers from Oz -
Jenny

I had! Usually before my eyes, being a young sailor on the loose in Hong Kong back in 1956

Samarkand

 

[JennyH94]

Not 100% sure, but this must have been between 15 and 18 years ago. ... most likely Dartmoor, England.View attachment 139912

It probably was, @Arctic_Alex - those Ordnance maps in the pack are a dead giveaway!

Seriously though - it’s a lovely photo - you look so happy.

Cheers from Oz -
Jenny

 

[JennyH94]

How terrific to see this thread revived David!

‘Then’ and ‘now’ for me …

Sun and sandy togs for my sister Franny (on the right) and me at Gunnamatta Bay, Cronulla, back in the early 60’s -



And now a selfie with me in specs at Lubián on the Sanabres last May. Gala, who runs Casa Mariana there - was so kind and friendly - we chatted for ages -



Cheers from Oz -
Jenny

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Jenny, you are such a cheerful gal; so full of life and I love your big smile!

 

[David Tallan]

This may not be quite pre-pilgrim times. It is probably from about the time of my first Camino in 1989. So I'm comparatively young.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

View attachment 139976
This may not be quite pre-pilgrim times. It is probably from about the time of my first Camino in 1989. So I'm comparatively young.

So it really was your wife that gave you that great smile (in your avatar at least).

 

[David Tallan]

So it really was your wife that gave you that great smile (in your avatar at least).

This might have been from a passport photo sitting. We're not allowed to smile for those.

But my wife did make my smile more permanent.

 

[Paul McAmino]

London 1974. Don’t remember what circle of bureaucratic hades this was for, but I’m not smiling, perhaps due to being awake since Ireland.
All the best,
Paul

 

[Arctic_Alex]

Gosh I was young then ... I am not sure when exactly this was – some decades ago I would guess. All I remember is that those where quite some rough times still in Guatemala and that my path into the country was advised as by "armed convoy only" in my guidebook. I instead decided to blend in with the locals and remember sitting in an old rusty bus filled up with school children, old ladies with some chicken and toothless old men with machetes. Not the most clever idea when you cannot speak a single word of the language. But it certainly generated some stories to tell

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

But it certainly generated some stories to tell

And they may still be telling them ... to their grandchildren.

 

[Arctic_Alex]

And they may still be telling them ... to their grandchildren.

this was exactly my thought right after I typed it

 

[Mycroft]

To whom I owe everything.
View attachment 80861

Intriguing photo! Tell me more!

 

[Arctic_Alex]

Me and some other kind of hiking gear quite some time ago.

I have been posting too many historical photos of myself on here... so this was the last one, promise!

 

[KariannNor]

Just digitized my dear father's hundreds of old slides.. my first skies, remember them very well and the cool yellow outfit.. taken in 1975. The second photo taken one year later, him and me prepping. He was a skiing enthusiast, and these pictures are such precious memories for me *big hearts*

 

[KariannNor]

Me and some other kind of hiking gear quite some time ago.

I have been posting too many historical photos of myself on here... so this was the last one, promise!

View attachment 145774

Ohh, tough guy with tough weapon and camouflage... so many guys' dream... I really understand if this is a big memory, but I wonder if you could carry that weight hundreds of km today.. ;-)

 

[KariannNor]

25 years ago in Chamonix - clearly before the internet and the ability to search for terms like "Ultra light packing", "how to fit your backpack" and "is it wise to hike in jeans". Safe to say I had no idea at the time.

View attachment 139919

Think it looks like a smart girl, nothing is cozier than the thickest, most delicious sleeping bag.. or the most spatious tent.. ;-)

 

[lovingkindness]

My brother and I,
ages 3 & 3/4's and 2 & 1/2 respectively:


When it came to significant features these were the areas targeted by our older siblings who loved nothing better than to twist and pull and name call until we howled and screamed:


As far as family tales go, my brother and I have legendary feet.... he for walking by age 9 months and, at age 2 1/2 for climbing into a bath tub full of boiling water and surviving it. A day or so later on the way back from hospital he opened the back door of the family van as it was moving and jumped out into traffic. It wasn't until Mum heard car horns blaring that she looked in the rear mirror and saw him. There he was, howling in the distance, walking along the road with heavily bandaged feet. My earliest memories are tinged with the smell of cotton gauze soaked in Brulidine cream.

 

[Arctic_Alex]

Ohh, tough guy with tough weapon and camouflage... so many guys' dream... I really understand if this is a big memory, but I wonder if you could carry that weight hundreds of km today.. ;-)

That is exactly the point! Looking at those images makes me feel old and weak ;-) Maybe I still could carry it, but I would suffer like hell ...

 

[KariannNor]

That is exactly the point! Looking at those images makes me feel old and weak ;-) Maybe I still could carry it, but I would suffer like hell ...

Looking at them should make you proud, and nothing but.. *friendly heart*

 

[JP]

MG-42 about 15 Kilos?

 

[Arctic_Alex]

MG-42 about 15 Kilos?

Not old enough for the 42
This is the (nearly identical) MG3, basic weight 11.5 kg, field-ready 13,3 kg without ammo

 

[Darby]

Me at 6 or 7. The man in the picture with me is Steven Spielberg. I was one of the little aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Starting from Porto on October 7.

 

[Anniesantiago]

I had to add this one.
It's my favorite mostly because nobody believes it is true.
I had 13 living grandparents when I was born.
Grandparents, Great-Grandparents and Great-Greats on both sides, plus a set of Steps.
Here I am in the middle of 9 of them.
Two grandfathers were at work.
My set of steps were in another city.
All the rest lived in the same small town.
Yes, I was spoiled.

 

[futurefjp]

Oh yeah! Hair!

 

[Anniesantiago]

Age, 22, at my mom's place in Montana (no running water).

I absolutely ADORED this photo!
It brought back so many good memories of baths at my grandparents' ranch.

 

[Anniesantiago]

It is so strange to look at this child and understand how she turned into me.
View attachment 73547

Wonderful photo!

 

[Anniesantiago]

A couple more.
My Great Grandfather, who came here from the Azores, carved these boats. I used to love to watch him work. He didn't speak English - I can just hear his voice in my head. He'd fascinate me by peeling me an orange in a long strip and never breaking it. He'd make me bamboo fishing poles and wonderful kites made from balsa wood and newspaper. Such memories! I have one of his boats that I rescued. Saving it for my grandson who is at Annapolis.

The other photo is me in my favorite outfit. Oh, how I loved Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers and all of those "shoot-em-ups!" I loved riding into the sunset!

 

[chinacat]

1972. Three years old.

View attachment 73676

I can so see your face in this photograph!!!

 

[chinacat]

A couple more.
My Great Grandfather, who came here from the Azores, carved these boats. I used to love to watch him work. He didn't speak English - I can just hear his voice in my head. He'd fascinate me by peeling me an orange in a long strip and never breaking it. He'd make me bamboo fishing poles and wonderful kites made from balsa wood and newspaper. Such memories! I have one of his boats that I rescued. Saving it for my grandson who is at Annapolis.

The other photo is me in my favorite outfit. Oh, how I loved Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers and all of those "shoot-em-ups!" I loved riding into the sunset!

Those boats are amazing!
So good that you rescued one for your grandson

 

[Kanga]

Ha! Kanga, you morphed!

It is called old age...

 

[Camino Chrissy]

It is called old age...

We are all walking towards that Camino...some just get there sooner than others.