Digitizing the Past...

Reading on the Facebook page of a very dear friend of mine, how she faces to lose one of her beloved cats soon, made me think about the past life, and how I grew up with cats, the last one living with my parents leaving a few years after my father passed away...

Her cat, called "Frau Katze" (actually her name is Eirene) has an inoperable tumor, which is about to grow and block the respiratory tract. At present, she gets by very well, still chasing butterflies, dragonflies or frogs in the garden - which made my friend run to the rescue of that poor frog, since it couldn't just fly away.

Frau Katze (Eirene, 6 years old, Maine-Coon - obviously - 7 kilograms)

In one comment to her posting about Frau Katze, I commented about our little black mini panther, called "Mohrchen", who was bold enough to even keep a large black Newf at bay, by perching on the window sill, swiping at the dog's nose with her paw, and letting out very impressive growls and hisses, should the dog get too near. That one swipe at the nose and the sounds the cat made were enough for the dog to keep a respectful distance...

Mini panther in her window-sill jungle

We got this beauty as a kitty, together with her brother, a tuxedo tom. It was a hard time, getting them acquainted to us, since they were born to a stray housecat, somewhere outdoors, half-wild. Therefore, touching them, in the first weeks, meant getting plenty of scratches and bitemarks all over our hands and lower arms... and kittens have needle-sharp milk teeth... those impale right away. Later, the tomcat was friendly to anyone, growing up to be a happy cat, indeed, while his smaller black sister remained shy and elusive, but very much fixated on my father... normally, cats are rather fixed to the place they live in, but she was a person rather than place cat. When moving with my parents after graduating high school and just before entering my compulsory military service, we decided to leave the tom with our neighbors, since he was good friends with them anyway. Our mini panther came with us, as to not part her from my Dad.

Speaking about him, I also scanned two old photos of him, showing him with my niece (and with a hairy-faced me in the first picture - one of his glasses' lenses was broken, hence the color difference there)...

Oh, yes, cute kid pictures... Well, I also have a few of myself... so, brace yourselves, and behold ~*Ganesha*~ as a kid:

Haha, just kidding... although, this is my namesake's family portrait. I found this "band of brothers" photo of us in my old photo box, with (left to right) my cousin Thomas, my brothers Wolfgang and Michael (my elder brothers) and me, trying to get away, but having to stay put, since Mom wanted to take a picture in our Sunday best... I kinda didn't like the feeling of those clothes...

Quite clearly, this is from the 1970s... and wearing a blue jeans outfit as Sunday best kind of shows, that the eldest of us three was a bit of a rebellious person... he was the one, having hippie-ish friends for visits in his room regularly, listening to psychedelic and experimental rock music and introducing me to that colorful and weird world. The middle brother of our trio was the violin-playing, math genius and being more of the "good kid". If you look closely at the picture of my niece next to my father above, you might spot the similarity... she is Michael's daughter (and currently in her twenties... just to show the age of the pictures).

Of course, there are also more pictures from my kid days... let's start with me looking tough!

Ready to go to the market, guarding my Mom...

From early on, I enjoyed having a camera, taking pictures (it was a toy camera but could be loaded with 6x6 cm black-and white film!)

And here's a collection of kid pictures, including me on my first day of elementary school... the girl holding the traditional school cone, filled with sweets and gifts, as customary on the first day of school is my cousin Martina).

That passport picture on the top right is from my student ID, made when I entered high school at the age of ten.

Well, to be honest, my cuteness is something I was born with (LOL!).

How about some wild teenage pictures?

Me, age 14:

Afro hairstyle - a setback to 1970s fashion.

And at age 16, I got my first official German ID card... which used to be a little grey booklet, looking like a baby passport...

And yes, here's proof: I'm the namesake of a season (LOL!). I blurred out my signature, since it hasn't changed much from my current one. I wouldn't want anyone to scan it off this image and wreak havoc with it. ;-)

Final looks from the past are now looks out of the windows of my old home... starting with a sunset, shot from my parent's bedroom and three looks out of the window of my home. The chimney showing in the final two pictures was part of the coal mine directly opposite our old home. The green shaft tower is hidden behind the trees...

Scanning old and somewhat battered color pictures can lead to strange color effects... therefore, pictures two to four above look like partly black-and-white... looking at them this way, it has a nice artsy effect, too... Back in those time, the houses at my place weren't as brightly colored as they are today... they were dark-grey, typical industrial settlement standard... that makes the black-and-white kid picture of me on our front doorstep look way older than 1972.


Well, I hope you like this little time travel, the glimpses at my past and my sharing memories and mementos.