This week’s theme for Sepia Saturday is “going out”, as suggested by Liz Stratton of Attics and Old Lace. I could have posted many photos of the family on outings to the playground, picnics, or fishing trips, but I chose a few showing my maternal grandparents, Douglas and Elsie (of the road trip to Monaco) going out to dinner. Please feel free to come along!
Here they are at a social event in 1950 – they’re the couple on the left. I don’t know who their friends are but they were obviously close, and I love the lady’s halter neck dress. On close inspection, I wonder if the man is Elsie’s younger brother, Bill, who was a surgeon and emigrated from Scotland to the US. I don’t remember ever meeting him. His sisters called him “Wee Billy B” as he was the baby of the family 🙂
And again at a Christmas Bash in December 1951 – Elsie’s sister, Jan, is the lady on the left sporting a rather nautical-looking hat similar to the man in the middle. I wonder what that was about? If you look closely behind the glamorous lady holding a glass of wine, there is someone loitering at the door with a shopping bag. It’s not Santa, then.
Grub’s up! We’re waiting on the dessert course and Elsie is showing great interest in something on the table. Where on earth did she get those black lacy gloves? There’s a poster pinned to the curtains – maybe it was advertising the entertainment for the evening?
Douglas looks rather proprietorial with his hands clasped in front of him. Some of the boys at the back look very young. Maybe it was a “works do”? Douglas started off as a mechanic and ending up running a motor dealership in Dunfermline, so maybe the youngsters were apprentice mechanics.
A more recent shot – I reckon from the 1980’s. Elsie is in red with Douglas’s brother, Norman, on her right. The brothers were spread out over the UK, but met up regularly. It must have been cold outside – look at the condensation on the windows. Do you think Douglas is trying to stick his fingers in his ears as the piper goes past? 🙂
Go out with the other Sepia Saturday contributors and have fun!
Before we pack up and get in the taxi, Jen at Climbing My Family Tree says that Google Friend Connect no longer works with WordPress blogs, so if you follow me using Friend Connect, you’ll need to add me again using another method.
Jo
Jo Graham
Images Past 
Very social family! I like the sweetheart neckliine of your grandmother’s dress in the first photo. And lace gloves — ooh la la!
Wonderful photos. I love the ladies’ dresses.
Jo you always make me smile with your wonderful pictures and witty words. This is a great series of photos. The loiterer could be the cleaner or one of the kitchen staff going off duty and grabbing a quick peek at the ladies and gents in their finery. I love the lace gloves and how clever of Elsie to appear so interested in what appears to be the gent’s plans, sketched on his napkin, for……well who knows what!
Thanks, Little Nell – Elsie was always interested in new things, so whatever sketch he had done on his napkin was probably up for discussion with great enthusiasm. I can’t get over the Madonna-style gloves 🙂 She was ahead of her time!
Oh, the ladies dresses are beautiful in all of your pictures. It must have been the times, but it looks like Grandma Elsie was quite stylish. The window/bagpipe photo is realy cool; I wonder if the photographer knew that he was going to parade by the window right then.
Thanks so much for sharing these with us!
Kathy M.
I think she was ahead of her time with her Madonna style gloves (Desperately Seeking Susan times) but I think the photographer was one of the family and just snapping around the table. Caught Douglas at an awkward moment 🙂
There’s a time and place for bagpipes I’m told but not at events like the ones you’ve shown. It definitely wasn’t Burns Night.
Do these formal dress affairs still go on? They were certainly enjoying theirs’.
It looks like quite a small family affair, so I guess they got the Wee Piper in as a special touch. The pipes would have been pretty loud in a small dining room, verging on deafening, but Douglas was a little deaf by then anyway, but it explains Elsie’s facial expression. Pipers are still available here in Scotland for any occasion – in fact, there are probably more good pipers here now than there were 30 years ago, due to the rise in youngsters taking up the pipes 🙂
The men look quite up to date, but the women definitely look 1950s.
There is definitely a nautical theme going apart from the hats there is the gondola picture, I was almost distracted from it by the lace gloves. I want some of those. A very elegant “going out”
When I looked at the first photo I thought family right away. The women are holding his hands..he must be a close friend or relative.. That first dress must have been red! My goodness they were dressed up! Great bunch of old photos:)
Those are some beautiful dresses. I am always in awe of your family; they are at once so handsome, elegant, and relaxed looking.
They look so elegant. Dressed to the nines.
Fine and interesting pictures. I like it how they hold each other, I think this is lovely. Beautiful, everybody in elegant evening dress.
It’s a great collection of photographs, and dating from the 1950s it depicts a period we don’t usually see on Sepia Saturday where photographs tend to be from an earlier (or even a later) era. But they are full of social history clues – quite fascinating.
How stunning! What a wonderful time we have going out!
In each and every photo even the last with fingers in ears they are enjoying themselves and the company of others. That is a treat to see. I love some of the clothes and the gloves; I had some of myself at dances with gloves…thankful we no longer wear them.
I love those elegant dresses, and they seem to be having a good time too. Lovely!
I would love some bagpipe, but not inside…
A lovely set of photo.
Nice to see some people knew how to look glamourous,
once upon a time…
🙂
HUGZ
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In the coloured pic the chap with his fingers in his ears is Gordon not Douglas…… He was never very tolerant! Andrew has his back to us with his wife Ella beside him and Peggy (Normans wife and my Mum) is beside her. Don’t know who the man on the right is. I suspect that Douglas was taking the pic. Hope that’s helpful. We need to talk… And talk …. And talk ….
Oh yes, we do Mary – Gordon and Douglas must have looked very similar for me to mistake Gordon for DD. We called him Daddy Douglas rather than Grandpa, because his Mrs, Elsie, refused to be called Granny – she was La La – due to singing to me in my pram and not remembering the words of the song and filling in with la-la’s 🙂 Jo