Posted by: Debra Kolkka | January 7, 2013

It starts early

I have a large collection of handbags, and it would appear that the fascination began early. Jim recently bought a device that scans slide photos and this one has made an appearance after sitting in a box for almost 60 years.

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My mother would have made this dress and starched the petticoats. My hair is straight, and always has been. Mum used to put my hair in bobby pins for hours to give me curls.

Dad built the house I am standing in front of.  It would probably have been still under construction at this stage. We did have grass eventually.

While I do collect handbags, I no longer wear a bonnet, socks with my sandals, or short skirts that show my undies.


Responses

  1. How adorable!!!

    • …and I still have knock knees.

  2. Great photo Deb – tell me what brand was the slide scanner and do you recommend it? I am looking for one – but have seen some pretty dodgy nes on the market. Would love to hear you comments. Happy New Year to you F xx

    • It is a Kaiser Baas Photo Maker. Model KBA03005. It is easy to use and does an excellent job. We have been having a lot of fun going through the old photos. Dad took lots of photos when we were very young. He made himself a darkroom under the house and loved to work with his photos.

  3. Loved the picture Debra – just adorable.

    Pam Proctor

    • It is difficult to imagine putting little girls in starched petticoats now.

  4. You were adorable. And yes that bag fetish does start early. And. White dresses with frills. Pretty girl.

    • The curls get me. My hair could not be straighter if it tried.

  5. Love this, Debra! And how wonderful that everything was made by your parents – both inside and out!

    • It is possible that my mother or my grandmother made the bonnet as well. I come from a very practical family. My Dad could turn his hand to anything.

  6. Bellissima! You were an adorable child. It is good to know that you still don’t dress like that, but on the other hand it could be quite interesting. LOL

    • I think it would be scary rather than interesting.

  7. Nothing like a new toy to help share the past with others.

    • I don’t often do personal stuff, but these old photos are fun…I may do some more.

      • I actually have an old one of me at Ponte di Diavolo I want to work in someday.

      • You should, that is an amazing bridge. I have dozens of photos of it. I drive past and think it is looking particularly wonderful and I stop and take yet another photo.Strangely enough they all look remarkably similar.

      • To me, it’s not if I post it .. but when. 🙂

  8. Wow-quite a fancy purse for a little tot!!! I wonder if it is Italian made?

    • The photo was taken in about 1956/7, so I doubt there were too many Italian handbags in Australia.

  9. Look at you! So adorable and such a pretty outfit. Love that you had the handbag detail sorted out at such an early age! 🙂

    • I have no recollection of the handbag, but I do remember walking up the street most mornings to visit my aunt and grandfather.

  10. Very European – the sandals and sock I mean but the little handbag is tres chic.

    • Sandals and socks are OK for little kids, but it is not a look I like on adults.

  11. well socks and sandals have always been a no-go unless you’re continental but skirts that show your undies are all the rage now – ahead of your time! sweet photo

    • I have been seeing lots of middle aged women in mid thigh skirts lately…it is not a good look.

  12. How adorable! It’s such a wonderful photo and I too remember being dolled up like that.

    • I used to dress my son in beautiful clothes that I had made for him. People would stop us in the street to say how lovely he looked, but then he got older and it was uncool to have things your mother made.

  13. This is amazing and adorable, dear Deb. How lovely… Thank you, love, nia

    • My mother made all our clothes for us back then.

  14. Adorable, especially the chic little handbag! Can’t have too many . . .

    • I subscribe to that theory, although I think I may be reaching my limit.

  15. Aww, that’s so cute! Glad to know you dress differently now 😀

    • It would be quite alarming if I went out now looking like this.

  16. Very, very cute. I also love handbags and my mother insisted on curls when my hair is straight and no curl would last more than 5 minutes….

    • My hair still does exactly as it pleases, and fiercely resists being curled.

  17. I started collecting handbags early too, and I’ve never stopped! Your picture is really cute 🙂

    • I find them very difficult to resist, but I am trying.

  18. So cute – pleased to hear you no longer wear socks with sandals 🙂

  19. I love this post – you look so cute and the curls are adorable. The story reminds me that my Mum still keeps a bag that I had in childhood and as I too love bags I guess the interest does start early.

    • In some of our early photos my brother is clutching a reindeer, clearly a favourite toy. Mum still has that. There aren’t too many relics from our childhood. I have kept some of my soon to be 40 year old son’s baby clothes.

  20. Happy 2013, Debra. And if you didn’t it to the world’s largest collection of handbags, the Tassenmuseum Amsterdam. keep it in mind for next time.

    PS I’ll be in Brisbane for a week from Jan 28. Will you be there? Coffee?

    • I will definitely look out for the museum next time I am in Amsterdam. I would love to meet for coffee in Brisbane, but I leave for Italy on 16th January.

  21. That photo is such fun – very Shirley Temple. My poor mum was always trying to coax my fine, straight hair into curls. I can still remember the pong of home perms and trying to comb my newly permed tresses was like trying to comb wire springs!

    • My mother permed my hair on the odd occasion and it was horrid…and I certainly remember the smell.

  22. Such a cute photo of you, Debra. My hair is straight, and my mom would wrap it around pieces of bandage at night, so that I had ringlets in the morning. They were very uncomfortable to sleep in. 😯

    • I wonder why our mothers were so keen for us to have curls. I think I looked much better without them.

      • It must have been to copy someone they admired in the movies, maybe. 🙂

  23. Oh, too cute!

    • Thank you. I must have been about 3 in the photo.

  24. Hi – I came over from Lisa’s Mozambique post.

    Are you sure your father cropped the heads off the photos? I wonder whether the scanning machine wasn’t set correctly for each slide?
    We’ve also got boxes and boxes of slides which we have to transfer to digital format. Its a huge job. Do you recommend your machine?

    • Hi Dearrosie, it wasn’t the machine that chopped of the heads. It did a very good job and is very easy to use. It is a Kaiser Baas Photo Maker.
      My sister has a lot more of the transparencies, and my mother has boxes of them, but she can’t find them. I hope they turn up before they disintegrate.

  25. Reblogged this on Sabethville.

  26. I made a mistake,I thought I Reblogged the cat.Anyway the girl in the picture is cute,thanks.

  27. Such a cutie pie!

  28. I could virtually pinch those cheeks right now! No worry, I’m a gentle pincher. 😀


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