Back to the Future with Fading Photographs
Today I became an Archaeologist of my own past .
Months ago, I submitted my application to LaMaisonduBeaumont Artist Residency in the South of France, I explained that, beyond painting up a storm, I’d hoped to revisit a moment in a time and place that seemed so surreal, I wasn’t sure it really existed.
This pilgrimage (an hour and a half away from the Residency )started
over 50 years ago and its genesis is described in this FB post.
1969. France. Le Castellard-Melan
A Summer with Girl Scouts/Girl Guides fromall over the world meant (this is NOT a joke) to use our high school level arts and crafts skills to revitalize a small French village.
My Dad, a French professor, happened to be in the country at same time. He hunted down the tiny village, asked around (oh “little baby Jeanie?,” the French girls called me) found me digging a ditch with my buddies, Deni and Willie.
He got out of a cab, took this picture, gave me a roll of toilet paper, got back in the cab and headed off.
I had ditches to dig.
Note the home-sewn plaid shorts made by conformity disdaining mother. And yet there I am sporting an army hat —the emblem of my fellow French ditch diggers.
Our chaperone was only 3 years older than we were. We travelled all over France as free range 16 year olds.
TODAY, OCTOBER 2023
Now we are in 2023 and thanks to some google map skills, the memory of one of my scout mates, and the patience of my husband Tom, we located the remote scene of the photo. The nearby tree may have aged as did ‘Little Baby Jeanie,’ but no stone has moved in a 1/2 century!
Le Castellard-Melan, 2023
My scouting buddies, Deni, Willie and (not pictured) Lucy couldn’t be here but I found a some stand ins. (Apparently the spot remains a destination for French Guides as they call Scouts here)
I’m not convinced the young men knew why they were being roped into a photo but as the third law of Scouting dictates:
A Scout is Helpful
Ahhhh…..what an unforgettable day!
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