Posted on by Cathy

What do you see?….

This little ‘colour’ photo was tucked into an old envelope amongst some things my mother gave me after my father died.  ‘You have it, she said. Don’t know why he brought it home.   It was the cause of a few ‘fights’ over the years’.

‘What do you see’, she asked me.

‘Looks like a very young Dad posing for the camera with a girl dressed in a Hawaiian grass skirt’, I replied.

‘I see a man with a secret’, was what she said.

 

It seems Dad spent some time in Hawaii during WW2 and this photo came home with him.  Mum found it, confronted him and he laughed and shrugged his shoulders.  ‘Nothing in it, he said.  All good harmless fun.  She sang, she danced and entertained us’ – us being lots of young men away from home, fighting for their lives and the lives of their loved ones.

Unfortunately my mother being my mother wouldn’t let it end there.  And over the years made reference to the photo – which for some reason Dad kept in his wallet.  No one knows why.  He’d take it out (just to annoy her, she said) look at it, then put it away.

Now the photo would have to have been taken mid 1940s and Dad died in 1990.  A long time for a bit of teasing to carry on.  If it was teasing 😊

I often wonder what it was that Dad didn’t want to (or maybe couldn’t) share with Mum.

Are there any ‘secrets’ you keep or have kept from your ‘loved ones’ ?
Ones that you are willing to share.

MicroBlog Monday can be found at Mel’s Blog

21 Replies to “What do you see?….”

    1. Yes Marie the real or imagined secret turns over in the minds of us who knew him. And by talking about it we’ll pass it on to the younger ones who didn’t.

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  3. Secrets, I have 150 years of secrets in my family. Debriding the burn, peeling back the layers… there is a lot of resistance.

    It strikes me that if there was any disloyalty to you Mom, your Dad would not have “teased” her by taking out the photo. He may have been teasing her about her reaction, which told him that she cared. Having said that, I didn’t know them.

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    1. That’s what it looks like doesn’t it Andrew. For some reason my mother was convinced otherwise. LOL on the beloved. I remember some years when that would hardly have been the word used to describe the two of them.

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  6. Soldiers had to relax, and he loos as if he did. I agree she is a dancer and he was entertained by the dancing, nothing more. No secrets here, just things I prefer not to think about now.

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  8. My husband gave his dad a picture from Greece. Ron (my husband) was holding the breasts of a smiling Greek lady. His dad carried the photo everywhere and had it in his wallet until his death. Who understands happiness? Go around the military and see dozens of photos like this from the “good ole days”…Or better yet the horrible old days that enjoyed levity of any type.

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  9. Only he knows the truth but don’t know if I would like it if my husband would do that. I know we all have a life but we all have to let go or should let go of when we choose to spend the rest of our life with someone. Best to keep secrets who would want to know anyway! My thoughts only.

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  10. I do have a secret that I keep.It isn’t something about me, but something I know. It isn’t at all like the one in your post, but it is one that never needs sharing. I’m okay with that.

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  13. DH has a couple photos like that – from when he was in the Navy. He was in Thailand, I guess, on shore leave. Nothing to it, just R & R. Those girls worked for tips, hahaha. Hot pictures to show off to your friends stateside.

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  16. I have many memories, some I might share – others best kept in the archival brain box with the padlock key lost… I too have a number of pictures (okay nothing raunchy) but certainly with no details on the reverse. What family or other may surmise later, is anyone’s guess…

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