I thought I had something like this around. Here's dad, me and my older brother. I've got binoculars and a sidearm in one, cowboy shirts on in another, (though I remember calling it my Davy Crockett shirt) and a full cowboy getup, including horse, in the last. I've got a gun and knife on along with the hat, chaps and horse.
My older brother was killed with the 173rd Abn in Vietnam and dad has been gone since 1976.
This feels like ten lifetimes ago, though in many ways they are with me still.
Update: Sure had a good time running these images through the photo editor and retouching them. Printed a couple for my daughter, who looks a lot like her uncle.
Real men. We certainly are living in a different country now.
cutest little cowboy ever! and Robert, thank you for sharing. I'm so sorry you lost your brother. But here we all are, admiring his photo and thinking about him...a lovely tribute.
ReplyDeleteWow. Your daughter looks just like your brother. I always thought she looked like YOU, but she REALLY looks like him.
ReplyDeleteI could pass that top picture around and easily get folks to believe that it's me and my kid brother. Hair even parts on the correct sides.
ReplyDeleteSpooky, or a product of the times?
We keep them alive with our hearts and in our memories, one day to rejoin.
ReplyDeleteThose were a couple of real men. This year, if I live, I will be older than my dad was when he died.
ReplyDeleteI remember my brother and I playing cowboy. Dad bought him a toy revolver that had a functional cylinder that swung out and you could actually load 6 plastic bullets into it and it actually fired those bullets, albeit at less than lethal (or painful) speeds. We even had the cowboy hats and everything. The weird thing was: we're Chinese and came to live in New York City. My dad loved the Westerns though, and war films. At times, I feel I was born on the wrong hemisphere and grew up on the wrong side of the Mason-Dixon Line.
ReplyDeleteMy cowboy outfit was a Hopalong Cassidy set, hat, chaps and TWO six shooters and a pair of boots.
ReplyDeleteI still grieve for it's loss.
I'm told that when we "grow up" we should move beyond the losses and disappointments of our youth, I don't think that's possible.
Thank you for the very nice work.