Memorial Day WAR WAR WAR picspam.

[amand_r]

So. It's Memorial Day. I have issues with Memorial Day. My grandmother (Viola's namesake) killed herself on Memorial Day when I was ten. This bothers me less than the fact that my anniversary was May 24th. In any case, I forgot both of them until other people reminded me. It's not their fault. Anyway. In light of that (and my recent interest in Torchwood, with its historical delving into war), I went in search of some war pics from my family. Because it's Memorial Day.

So, I present:





(All the pics are clickable to larger images.)

My paternal grandfather joined the military in 1919. Yeah, not loving the hair.


He cleaned up better a few years later. Nice suit! Where's the tie?


My grandmother was many years his junior. She was from Texas, but she spent some of the WWII years in San Francisco, where she did the club thing. I have at least a dozen of those nightclub pictures in the folders with the club names. July 14, 1944:



My grandmother (Kay) is the blonde on the right.


And I like this one because she's wearing trousers, and because she's laughing. It's a shame something spoilt the picture. I think I'm going to frame this one anyway. April 2, 1944



Kay is the first girl in from the right. Trousers!

And another, from August 19, 1945:



First girl on the left.

My parents were both Marines. All dad's good pics are elsewhere, but a paper clipping:



And my mum, joanwilder, in uniform with her mother, whose death day we're celebrating today:




Wow, is that awesome. I leave you with this parting image:


ARE YOU MY MUMMY?

Comments

[irishkate.livejournal.com]

Your daughter certainly looks like your family.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah. we like to call her "Asian Mandie."

[amonitrate.livejournal.com]

Your grandmother was a knockout. Thanks for sharing, these are great pictures.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

Dude, yeah, I thought so too. I was like, WOAH. HOT MAMA.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

I love old family photos like that. It's always interesting to look back and see things.

Your mom looks so different in her uniform from how she's looked the times I've seen her! Uniforms do things to people, I think.

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

Well, that photo was from 1971, I think, so she's a lot younger. But yeah, even looking at the photos of my grandmother, I can see the woman I knew as my grandmother in there, but it's hard to recognize.