"What I love about this photo is that it couldn't look any more early 80s if it tried. Everything from the velvet curtains to the plastic flowers, the old-school cathode-ray tube TV to the MK1 metallic purple Ford Escort just in view (the one in which I would later learn to drive), screams 1981. Pictured, we have Pandy the bear; my younger brother Jon, five; Sooty; and yours truly, aged seven, all of us covering a variety of skin and hair colours between us."
"These outfits were made by our gran (my mum's mum), who was as much a whiz with the sewing machine and a knitting needle as she was with a wooden spoon, and would make us outfits for birthdays and Christmases, as well as baking us a seemingly never-ending supply of chocolate cake. This photo would have been taken at a time when the unwritten rules of being an older brother had already been established. I got the top bunk because I'm oldest."
A 1981 Christmas photograph shows three children and two toys dressed as Batman and Robin, evoking early-80s details like velvet curtains, plastic flowers, a CRT TV and an MK1 purple Ford Escort. The children include Pandy the bear, a five-year-old brother, Sooty, and a seven-year-old narrator who is adopted. The photo was taken with a Kodak camera and flash cube while the father wore bell-bottoms and sideburns and the mother sipped a Babycham with a beehive haircut. The grandmother made the outfits and baked chocolate cake. The photo reflects established older-brother privileges and a memory of staying in disguise when introduced to the family.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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