Old Photo Friday

10 thoughts on this rad shot from 1985:

• We're somewhere Northeast. Either Boston, Connecticut or New Hampshire. My dad worked for Amtrak, and we road the rails. Mom?

• I look like the middle child of three boys in my hip Dorothy Hamill do. I can thank The Sound of Music, a velvet water pillow, and Big League Chew for that one. Immediately after "the chop" I started growing my hair to Crystal Gayle length.

• My mom had pin-straight locks like me, but she was swept up in permatopia with the rest of the world. I loved this look on her, but it would be her first and last perm. The chemicals caused her hair to fall out. A little bit.

• My brother Mark is wearing a v-neck sweater with an alligator logo. He would never, ever wear one of those today. Though I think he'd look really cute.

• Yes, that's chocolate ice cream around my mouth. Some things never change.

• I recognize the lens cap on the table. It's from my dad's vintage Minolta, the really cool one he let me borrow for photography class freshman year.

• Artificial flowers on restaurant tables always annoyed me, even as a kid.

• The photo reminds me of the word "slacks." When we went anywhere as a family, my dad either wore "slacks" or jeans with an ironed crease.

• There's an uneaten plate of food in front of my little brother Billy. What it was and why he wasn't eating it... now that's one of the great mysteries of our time.

• People smoked in restaurants in the '80s. Crazy to think.