A Stroll Down Memory Lane

We’ve been working hard these last few days trying to get everything packed, cleaned, and organized for our upcoming move. The boys were packing books and stuff when they came across old photo albums. So, of course, everything had to stop so that we could all take a look at all those old photos.

There were several pictures that made all of us laugh so hard. There were a couple of pics of their dad back in da day when he had a mustache. These were from the days when the two of us had just met so the boys weren’t even a blimp on the map yet. A couple of pictures were taken at Pago Elem where he used to teach. Do they still have those fale style school houses? The boys had a good laugh over those ones. To make matters worse, he was even sporting what the boys called an afro, even though it really wasn’t. They’ve seen other pictures of him with this hairstyle before but that didn’t stop them from cracking jokes at their dad’s expense again. Hubby is in the military so he wears the standard military cut and in my humble and unbiased opinion, he makes it look really good.

There were pictures of them when the two older boys were about 6 and 3 holding hands. They’re now 19 and 16. They got a good laugh out of that one too. They were in their Power Ranger costumes for Halloween. I’m gonna save that one for when they get married. It’s going to show up on the highlight video for sure:-).  The youngest one got a lot of grief over some pictures that we took of him in his birthday suit.  He was about a month old at the time.  I thought it was cute.  Still do.  Hey, it was backside only, no frontal nudity.  By today’s standards, it rates a G, not even close to a PG13:-).

We spent a lot of time on old pictures taken in Samoa. Again, these were from the days before the boys were even born so we spent a lot of time talking about them; where, when, who etc. There were some black and white pics of my siblings and I when we were all so young. These were taken at Fosgren’s photo studio in Samoa. It was probably the only photo studio in Samoa at the time. I believe this photo studio/pharmacy is still in business today in Samoa. All the pictures had a fala (the one you sit on, not the one you eat) as the background. I wore a dress that I probably wore to Church and flip flops. Yeah, can’t beat the styles back in da day:-). That also got a lot of laughs.

There was one picture of us and some other village kids hanging off my father’s red truck. It was the first car our family owned and at the time, it was the only vehicle in the village. That red truck has a colorful history. For one thing, it went for a dive off the uafu at Mulifanua. I’m serious, it really happened. My dad had gone to Apia for some business, and he was coming back to Savaii. He got there too late for the last ferry from Upolu to Savaii so he had to wait there overnight for the next ferry. Apparently, my father fell asleep sometime during the night and the truck just rolled into the ocean – with my father inside. He’d forgotten to set the brakes!

The boys had never heard that story so I tried to paint a picture of what life was like back then. How we took the ferry from Salelologa to Mulifanua and vice versa. I tried to tell them what that felt like, the smells, the people, the jostling to get on first, and the seasickness (mostly on my part). That part grossed them out, for sure. Oh, I also told them about sleeping at the uafu, (along with everyone else that was trying to get either to Apia or Savaii) just so we can be sure we’re on the ferry the next day. They had a hard time visualizing that one. Definitely a lot of adventures that I still have to tell my boys about. I’d love to take them back there again now that they’re older. They will appreciate it much more now so I’ve got to work on this. I hear Salelologa is quite the modern place now. Good, progress is a positive thing. I just hope things don’t change too much or I won’t recognize anything when I do take my family back there again.