yes, that’s velour, thanks for asking

hippieparentsI’m not sure exactly how old I am in this picture – maybe almost two. It can’t be much later than February 1982, because Mom would have been pregnant with Ginny at that point and would be showing, which she’s clearly not in this picture. Dig if you will my dad’s crazy-ass mountain man beard. He had to cut/shave it off later that year when he took a job at a nuclear power plant where beards were a safety hazard (insert jokes here). I’m told I cried when the beard went away. I probably thought it was a pet.

This might also be a good place to share that my family has a bizarre penchant for saving odd things. That beard? Sealed up in an envelope in a box of pictures somewhere in my parents’ house. We recently discussed whether or not I should save this week’s K-Mart ad, because it uses Northwestern pennants as props.

In this picture, my dad is around 28 and my mom is 24 or 25 years old. I’m older now than my mom was then, and she was about to have her second child in several months. Crazy. I think we lived in Virginia, but I’m not sure. Since Mom and Dad read all the time these days, I bet they’ll show up and clear things up pretty soon. Hi, parents!

I don’t remember anything from this time period, but I believe this is around the era when I was pouring entire bottles of shampoo and conditioner down the drain every day and just generally being horrible and destructive all the time.

This is the first in what will be a multi-part series of posts based on old photos. I intended to write about the memories sparked by each photo and everything I know about this photo is secondhand, but I’m just so damn cute I had to share it. I always liked that little velour outfit.

12 Replies to “yes, that’s velour, thanks for asking”

  1. Hmmm, my father, too, worked in a nuclear power plant and had the crazy-ass mountain man beard in the 70s. (?) He also had to shave it off one day for a job that required a hazmat suit and respirator…I had no idea who this man was standing in my kitchen, but he owned a chin I had never seen before. In fact, once I realized it was him, I was kind of dismayed to learn he had a weak chin (much like mine). He grew the scruff back and still has it to this day. I don’t want to see him hairless again. It was traumatic.

    As for keepers of the hair? Yes, my family does that as well. Although it’s a little more sweet/romantic than the creepy beard in a box. My mom kept her childhood pigtails (curiously in an envelope in a box…) when Nana chopped her hair short. We’ve compared it to the first trimmings of her first grandchild. Same colour.

  2. Thing one… I have velour camo sweatpants.

    Thing two, “owned a chin I had never seen before…” Hilarious.

    Thing three: When men with lots of facial hair suddenly have non… they kinda look like a naked baby ass has appeared on their face, and that is wierd.

  3. I think men who shave their long-had facial hair, their mouths look like vaginas. And they look like child molestors. Issues, much? Anyway, you look just like your mom.

  4. I always said that I would never date a boy/man who had a beard. When I met my husband, he was beautifully clean shaven…nice mouth, beautiful teeth and a cleft/dimple in his chin. The week before our wedding he decided to grow a beard. FOR. OUR. WEDDING. I was traumatized.

    His facial hair grows alarming fast and in three days he had a full beard going, nothing Grizzly Adams about it or anything, it was nicely trimmed, but still. I was seriously pissed about the beard and in all of our wedding pictures where we are supposed to be kissing, I’m doing this weird face-scrunching air kiss thing. He had the beard for FIVE YEARS. And then one day I came home from work and it was gone. His face just looked totally weird and again I couldn’t kiss him for a couple of days until it grew back. Funny how things change.

    I totally agree with thing 3 from Ginny’s comment! Our kids used to cry when he would shave off the beard. Now they are 4 and 7 and I believe the words “ass face” came out of my daughter’s mouth the last time he shaved. But that didn’t come from me or anything. Nope. Not me.

  5. Talk about memories…..Until I saw this picture on your site and you said I was 24/25 yrs. old I didn’t realize how old that sweater was. I wore it for my high school graduation picture! Circa 1975……

  6. I almost missed this post in a recent frenzy of work. (The work was normal, but I was frenzied for whatever reason. Self-manufactured drama, I suppose.) You saved the beard? Awesome!!
    -cK

  7. my dad had a beard like that, too. and i also think we have hair of our family’s in bags kept. that’s weird, don’t you think.

    and i also freaked out several times in the last few years when i’ve thought about how old my parents were have been at different periods of their/my life. and i’m MUCH older than they were already (i’m 32), and then when i think about them being in their mid/late 20’s, i’m like … damn, i was drinking and getting high then! i was a kid! that’s crazy.

  8. look my twin brother without turbin. He look like back of camel with out hair. Bet daughters look just like him.

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