Old Photographs 4 - Cecilia Brainard - 6-7 Years Old

 

 My childhood seemed to have stretched out longer than human time. Those childhood memories have a dreamlike quality.  I have memories of the time when I was perhaps three, perhaps younger. I even have an infant memory, although I am not sure if this is a true memory, of me laying on the bed and a big dog entering the room and everyone getting excited. I remember being with my Yaya Yvonne in the second floor of our house in Capitolio and looking down at a group of carolers singing outside our gate. My Yaya Yvonne was the one who taught me to eat green onions.  Yaya Yvonne got into trouble for stealing and I was told she ended up in jail - a point that my older sister used to rib me about -- "Your yaya ended up in jail."

 

Old Photographs 3 - Cecilia Brainard 5-6 years old

 

Here are more old photos. I was around 5 or 6 years old in these pictures. I just acquired the color photo from a nephew. I think this was taken near Manila de Bay. During our summer vacations, we used to visit Manila, stay in our place in Georgia Street, Malate, and from there, we kids used to walk to the Bay. We used to actually swim in the water; you can see people swimming in this photo. The water was pristine then. I learned how to float on my back for the first time in that Bay. I remember my brother holding me up as I lay on the water, and then he let go and I was surprised that I was still floating.

 

The second photo shows me playing the piano at a recital. Even though my mother was an accomplished pianist, she never taught us. It was a young man named Bokoy who gave us lessons. Papa used to drop us off at his home, in the Parian Old Cebu, if I recall right. I was not really good at it, nor was I interested, so I only remember one recital -- this one --- in which I played Skating on the Lake and Volga Boat Song. I can imagine my mother, who was playing piano from the time she was a child, listening to us and thinking, "Oh, dear, this is not for them."

 

The third photo shows me and my sister in our St. Theresa's College uniform. Our skirt was navy blue; our long-sleeved blouse was white. We had a blue ribbon and we should have had a badge (pin) in the middle of the bow. I don't know why we didn't have the badges on. We are posing in front of some of my mother's orchids. She had a collection that hung on a walkway arbor.

This is all for now. Stay tuned for more old photographs.

Read also

Old Photographs 1 - Baby Pictures of Cecilia Brainard

Old Photographs 2 - Cecilia Brainard "Happy Days by the Sea" 

Old Photographs 3 - Cecilia Brainard 5-6 years old

Old Photographs 4 - Cecilia Brainard 7 years old 

Tags: old photographs, old photos, vintage photos 

Old Photographs 2 - Cecilia Brainard - Happy Days by the Sea

 HAPPY DAYS BY THE SEA

As I mentioned, I just have a handful of photos from when I was a baby and child. This was during the time when people used real cameras, with real film, that had to be developed and printed.  The paper used were not necessarily archival and the pictures disintegrated; and most of the time, the rolled up negatives got lost or were destroyed. 

Here is one photo I found of me at around 4 years old. I'm with my mother, father, and older sibling. We are bathing in the sea, and this could have been in Talisay or Liloan beaches which we frequented on Sundays.  I suspect this photo may have been taken in Liloan because there is land in the background. I don't recall Talisay beach looked like this.

Old Photographs 1 - Baby Pictures of Cecilia Brainard

 

I thought I would post pictures of me through the years, starting with my baby pictures -- 2 of them, that's all I have.

One shows me on the bed; this photo is in very poor condition (it looks almost like some kind of art). The other shows my siblings and me the baby. L-R: Vicky holding me, Ana holding a doll, and Junior or Jess holding a Brownie camera. In the back, you can catch a glimpse of my father's Buick.  

This photo was taken in 1947 (yes, so long ago!), and the Philippines was still recovering from World War II. My parents and three siblings were in Mindanao for most of the war years; Papa was in the guerrilla movement. When war ended, and because Manila was almost totally destroyed, my father's house included, they decided to rebuild in Cebu, where Mama's family comes from. In this photo, we were still staying in a temporary house in Talisay and Papa must have been building our house near the Capitolio.

Stay tuned for more pictures!

 

 

Read also

Old Photographs 1 - Baby Pictures of Cecilia Brainard

Old Photographs 2 - Cecilia Brainard "Happy Days by the Sea" 

Old Photographs 3 - Cecilia Brainard 5-6 years old

 Old Photographs 4 - Cecilia Brainard 7 years old 

Tags: vintage photos, old photos, family photographs