Class Photo Grade 6

1969-70, Grade 6 - Vincent Massey Public School, North Bay, Ontario, Canada.
Now that I’ve located my younger self in space and time do you think you can locate me in the photo? I played this game on FB over the last couple of days…only my daughter got it right. She said she knew who I was because of my posture…she said I stand like that in every photograph… :slight_smile:

It was sent to me by a friend…he’s in the pic too. He and one other person in the pic (Red, can you spot him?..haha) are friends of mine still and a third person in the pic is someone who remained a friend for many years into adulthood and who passed away a couple of years ago. What a strange trip it is for me to see old photos like this. Time…that a trip!!

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Hmm I may be wrong, but is this you then?:see_no_evil:

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Nope…that’s my friend Ivan. We remained friends for many years afterwards and then lost touch further into adulthood as we each had families of our own and work etc. We’ve been back in touch now for about 2 years and we talk regularly on FB messenger and have semi-regular video chats. It’s been great to get back in touch with someone who goes that far back into my life.

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Blue and white checkered shirt 2nd from left in back row?

Nope!! Not me. I’ll give you a hint though…I’m not one of the people wearing a dress.

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How about in the red stripped shirt next to the big guy?

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Sorry…not me…shall we keep playing or should I just tell you…I tell you what, two more guesses and then I’ll reveal myself if you don’t get it…

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@Glenn ahh that’s wonderful reconnection ;’) old friends that vibe always have a beautiful sense of nostalgia…

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Yup! It’s very…comforting?..not sure of the exact word to describe my feeling of having a couple of friends who go back into my past that far. There’s lots of shared history during very formative years of growing. We still have lots of stories that we laugh about and it’s interesting to hear one of them retelling a version of an event that doesn’t quite mesh with my memory of it years later (if I remember it at all). Of course, it’s very likely that we all could have told a different version 5 minutes after the event took place…we don’t need to wait 40 or 50 years for that to happen…lol…we all perceive things differently.

It’s comforting for me but also there’s a bittersweet element as well for me because it’s a measuring stick as to where we are on a journey that does have an end…an end to this part of the journey anyway. There’s a sense of ‘letting go’ I suppose…I’d love to go back and have some of those same experiences again with those same people and with that same level of excitement and adventure and curiosity and enthusiasm and freshness that youth provides. It seems that everyday held the promise of adventure and discovery. I do miss that.

I’m talking like I’m ancient but I’m only 63 so there’s lots of opportunity for those feelings left in my life. It’s interesting that we do age physically but feelings and the energetic aspects of ourselves don’t age. The feeling and sensations of ‘excitement’ and ‘discovery’ feel the same at 63 as when I was 10…I don’t get the feeling as often, that’s for sure, but when it happens it doesn’t feel like ‘63 year old excitement’…lol.

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Ummm…back row, 4th from the right in the blue shirt??

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DING! DING! DING! Winner winner…chicken dinner!! That’s little me alright…cute little bugger wasn’t I? LOL.
I had logged into this page and I saw that you were in the process of writing a response and I thought to myself 'Norene has the eye of an artist…an eye for seeing subtle things…I think she’ll find me in the picture." :slight_smile:

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I’m still close with my friend, Mary…we met in kindergarten but didn’t become besties until the 3rd grade! And I am still connected with a couple of other elementary and high school friends, too!

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:sweat_smile: I kept looking at how the boys were standing using the hint from your daughter and I was imagining a goatee on all the boys! Also, I didn’t think you would have had dark hair!

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I’m not sure why it looks like I’ve got dark hair on one side because I was a straight up blondie…can’t explain that. My friend Don who is two kids to the left of me was really blonde. He was a real good friend into adulthood…lived a bit (ha!) of a wild existence that was hard on his body and he died a couple of years ago. I hadn’t seen him in many years but I still am sad at the idea that he’s no longer in this world.

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I just noticed that now for some reason…hahaha…

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@Glenn I was reflecting on myself as I read your response. And perhaps made me weep a little in my heart on the part of bittersweet and letting go. I was watching a school of life video and it resonates with this. The word “Saudade” may just describe such that bittersweet feeling that I too am too familiar with…!

Definition: Saudade is a feeling of longing, melancholy, desire, and nostalgia that is characteristic of the Brazilian or Portuguese temperament. It describes a deep emotional state; a yearning for a happiness that has passed, or perhaps never even existed.

How the Right Words Help Us to Feel the Right Things - YouTube (Take it if it resonates with you, don’t if it doesn’t!)

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Thanks for sharing that! I feel like I grew up where all emotions were described the same way were describe primary colors:

If someone asked what my favorite color is, I might say “red” but, uhhh, definitely not “primary red”. My favorite tones of red are darker for sure. Maroon even sometimes.

Adding more emotional words to describe feelings to me is part of the move from elementary emotional understanding to richer heartistry.

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Why do I feel somewhat responsible for this statement…lol…

Thanks for the word ‘saudade’ and the video Jun Rong…and mostly thanks for sharing your wonderful mind and being…

Peace.

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I agree completely and you have added a number of really important words to my emotional vocabulary over the last couple of years…thanks!! And there have been a few incidences where I have offered one of those new words/concepts during a conversation with someone and it has been met with some form of ‘Yes! That’s it exactly!’

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I strongly suggest watching the video that Jun Rong linked to and take the time to read some of the YT comments. They are outstanding! There are some really interesting comments on the language of emotion, particularly German words that describe very complex and deep feelings. And some people sharing personal experiences.

A couple of examples from German:

Weltschmerz - It refers to the unhappiness caused by how you perceive the world in comparison to how you feel it should be.

Geborgenheit - It’s the release, calmness and peace that you feel when you’re held by a loved person, it means being safe, sheltered, warmed, deeply loved, seen and understood at the same time, a feeling of oneness and home, in which no time exists. A child can feel ‘geborgen’ looking into his or her mother’s eyes, or you might feel ‘geborgen’ in your partner’s arms. How can people in other countries live without the name for that feeling - there’s no more intimacy then saying to somebody: ‘I feel so ‘geborgen’ with you’.

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