The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
L.P. Hartley, The Go-Between
I was again reminded of the truth of this wisdom (or platitude, or both) when I prepared to clean out this book I got from the second-hand market. This is 1966, but it looks different, ancient and also strangely modern. It looks like a parallel timeline that never really happened. But it did happen. And now it's gone more completely than the Middle Ages.
At the municipal graveyard
This is from Toon, Foto's van Robby Pauwels, 1966, by Toon Hermans, Robby Pauwels, Andries Blitz, (De erven de wed. J. van Nelle N.V., Rotterdam). A book about a well known and talented Dutch entertainer (he called himself a clown). He died not too long ago. But how different it all looks!
Innsbruck, just before we would start decorating the Christmas tree
It might have been in the depths of the Cold War, with the hippies, student revolts and the invasion of Czechoslovakia a few years into the future. Charles de Gaulle and Harold Wilson were in power. How calm and peaceful this time looks, compared with today.
Wall flowers
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