Pictures from my father's album # 5.wmv

[nickwallacesmith]

hi andrew - i responded to this one as i lived in china (not japan) for a year and played with the notion of marginally and superficially fitting in

[andrewnorris1]

@nickwallacesmith My father had many pictures of his time in Japan and I think he was well liked by the Japanese and his colleagues, the country certainly left a deep impression on him that stayed with him all his life. He only left the country when he married my mother, who appears in the 6th film in this series.

[nickwallacesmith]

hi andrewnorris1 - to travel to such then 'foreign' places and live for a period is so much more adventurous than it is today. i had a great aunt who travelled through China, Japan and India and on to Europe in the 1890s - she was unmarried, from the country and had a glass eye. happily she brought lots of furniture and artefacts back (no mean feat in itself), some of which i have. looking at them i fancifully try to intuit more about this extraordinary relative

[BigLoveZone]

wonderful beyond words

you speak and I listen

[pnm1941]

As always, anything that you put on the web contains a touch of genius! Awesome!!

[MrCatstail]

Lovely Andrew.... My folks are no longer here, but worse is that there are no photos of them either.... only the pictures in my mind.

[andrewnorris2]

@MrCatstail That is such a shame that not even a picture of your folks survives. If we needed reminding to talk to our parents and cherish them while alive your comment did just that. Thanks for watching.

[ourDC888]

Thanks for sharing!

[MultiVerseUniVerse]

Both your father's and your own impression captured so cleverly with so few lines of poetry. Left unspoken, that word is as present in its absence as that distance to the unnamed place is immesurable in miles. Beautiful. ;)

[andrewnorris2]

@MultiVerseUniVerse Thanks, James, sometimes a single word can resonate for years that the recollection of it sends a shiver down the spine.

[cinderellalifestyle]

Children do wonder, about the mysteries of a parent, their history.... another culture is even yet more tantalizing..........it is a wonderful photograph.....sad is the lack of recounting directly from him, or any time a parent passes before getting to relate it to offspring as they become adults....I'm sure he would have loved to tell you, himself....my Pa recounting at 89. his youth, and times..tom sawyer-ish stuff, some of it.......;-)I will try and get a sound clip..histories are needed.

LLC

[andrewnorris1]

@cinderellalifestyle Yes, it always happens too late that one becomes interested in one's parents history. Thankfully, my Mum is still around and I have been recording conversations with her on her last visit here, 2 weeks ago.

[cinderellalifestyle]

@andrewnorris1 that's super! all I have stopping me in capturing my Dad is lack of a new media card.........my pa, a natural rambler.......that is quite a background!!! maybe someday you can travel there...it is such an unusual country--lovely people.

.

[andrewnorris1]

@MissJezebel61 Thanks for watching. You never know when an old photo will start to speak again.

[Junemori]

Only a photograph can freeze a moment and bring such a treasure for us to see

[andrewnorris1]

@Junemori ...and how is it that some such ordinary photographs just capture a moment that leaves such a deep impression?

[Junemori]

@andrewnorris1 this is not some ordinary photograph

[poligrapher]

wonderful story

[andrewnorris1]

@poligrapher thanks for taking the trouble to watch it.

[keanghiero]

Nice

I like it

All the best

Kean

[tinySpectacle]

Great poem. I really like that part about the strange word slipping out--such a small detail that says so much.

[andrewnorris1]

@tinySpectacle It happened occasionally that such foreign words would slip out and so naturally. When my father died I got sent a bundle of his books, mostly about Japanese culture and its customs and several teach yourself language books, he made a really effort to become a part of the place he was living in. Thanks for your visit.

[Idlinfarm]

Interesting. How fortunate you are.

[Poemsapennyeach]

Very nice...you are a chip of the old block...excuse the pun...in that you look very like your father ?

[Poemsapennyeach]

@Poemsapennyeach  should have said OFF !!

[andrewnorris1]

@Poemsapennyeach I am quite happy to be a chip

[ronpolla]

....the complexity of becoming a part of your environment....

[andrewnorris1]

@ronpolla absolutels, the more you find out the less you know, that seems to be my experience now, yet, the deeper one goes the more fascinating it all becomes.

[DickensianDreams]

Wonderful.

[andrewnorris1]

@DickensianDreams Thanks, it is a wonderful picture that I treasure

[PassionateMistress]

So your father's sense of adventure extended well beyond Ashdown forest ; ) Right down to you, Andrew... Quite a wonderful online photo album you are building ^_^

[andrewnorris1]

@PassionateMistress One day I shall get some of my Dad's old cine-movies transferred yt, I think there are scenes from Ashdown Forest there. Thanks for stopping by

[HerAeolianHarp]

I love that your father and the man on the left are in kimono/yukata, which is also incongruous--as in photos from the time one so often sees women dressed in traditional clothing. I wonder where this was taken? An onsen or holiday spot? Your father had a fascinating life and you know, it strikes me that you, too, have traveled where the sound has called you, though I love the last stanza, your voice still asking and turning to your father to make meaning. Wonderful. :)

[andrewnorris1]

@HerAeolianHarp I also have wonderful pictures of an English pub interior, mock-tudor beams, gentlemen wandering around, except it is also in Japan. One only knows this by the ladies in traditional dress. His time in Japan was I think one of his best times.

[masabo2]

Suddenly your father became somewhat familiar to me. So he was in Japan around the time I was born.

[andrewnorris1]

@masabo2 My mother, of German parentage, was born in Kobe (the house where she lived is still a museum showing Kobe residents how Europeans lived in Kobe before the war). After the war she and her parents returned to Japan and it was there that she met my father. They both always spoke most beautifully of their time there, before they met each other and up to the time they married.

[Iddybud]

Very nice, Andrew. ~ Jude

[andrewnorris1]

@Iddybud How nice to hear from you, thanks