someone else's life

on saturday i visited one of my favourite stores, bellbottoms on pierneef street.

in the back of the store, behind a glass cupboard of old toy cars, KISS figurines and a toy that i think was supposed to look like a vagina, was a shelf of drawers. full of old liesegang slides.

there were shots of botanical gardens, ponds of water hyacinths obscured by out-of-focus willow branches. a family's holiday at the "zulu reserve", their boat trip, and their well travelled ford ranger.

there was a woman in a shift dress, with a pale blue hat that looked like a mess of feathers on the top of a ruffled parrot's head.

she was everywhere.

on the side of a pond feeding ducks and in a park feeding pigeons. inside a fenced off area stroking a "tame" cheetah. on the banisters edge of a massive dam wall.

the quintessential old school south african holiday. a similar pattern of behaviour that is probably recorded on small white squares in my grandfather's box of old slides.

south african travel circa late 60's to early 70's.

it made me realize that we often take local travel for granted, always thinking that something better and more interesting is at least a 10 hour plane ride away.

but these slides, although scratched, faded and discoloured, show the landscapes, beaches and vintage bathing suits that once characterized a typically south african trip.

maybe it was the lack of infrastructure, or television. but i can't help but think that political isolation made people appreciate local travel more.

i felt sad as i looked at more of the slides, the highlights of someone else's life relegated to the depths of an old dusty drawer, with the distinct smell of old wood.

maybe it's enough that i found them interesting. for R10 a shot i could convert them to digital format, post them to this blog, and share them with people again.

but to be honest, like the slides, most of my own memories lie forgotten in digital archives, never to be printed and placed carefully into photo album plastic sleeves.

perhaps memories out of context are more appealing because they don't carry the weight of emotions and experience.

they're like art works, open to interpretation and free of personal attachments.

and like the one slide, three seals on a grass bank not obviously close to any water, maybe they're just good for a laugh.