‘Strutting their stuff’.. ’20′s style !
Posted by Big John on October 14, 2008
Remember how I told you that I used to stay with my aunt and uncle during the school holidays. Well this is a picture of them taken during the 1920′s (No ! I wasn’t at school then) strolling along the promenade at Margate.
Don’t you just love my aunt’s outfit ? Judging by the look on the face of the woman on the left it must have been pretty unusual and I fancy somewhat ‘Bohemian’ in a ‘seaside’ sort of way.
From what I can gather they were rather a gay couple, in the days long before the word ‘gay’ was ‘hijacked’ by our homosexual friends: my uncle being an accomplished musician, playing in dance bands during the ‘flapper’ years.
When I got to know them twenty or so years later, they were settled into their comfortable suburban lifestyle, with my uncle commuting to his well paid job and my aunt spending her time baking and ’belting out’ .. ‘Jerusalem’ at the local ‘Women’s Institute’, by then dressed in her ‘twin-set’ and pearls.
I’ve many photographs of members of my large family dressed in the fashions of the 1920′s, and most of them look pretty glum, but this one sums up that era for me, when it must have been so good to be young and alive, and not give a shit about sour faced old cows …
… staring at your skinny legs. 
Lucy said
What a good-looking young couple! I bet they turned heads wherever they went.
Darlene said
Lucy is right. That was my first thought when I saw the picture. They are indeed a beautiful couple radiating the joy of youth. A carefree day spent at the seaside is the same at any age and in any era.
SilverTiger said
Old photos are fun and it is easy to forget that the people wearing the – to us, strange – costumes are really no different from us, just set in a different social context. Looking at them, I wonder how I would fare if magically transported back to that time.
Margate too is no doubt a very different place from its 1920s self. Today rather rundown, it bravely struggles on as a cheap seaside destination in summer when the trains from London are packed with families heading out for a day on the beach. The arcade machines still swallow your money and donkeys still stroll across the sand.
Terri said
Oh, this was great! I just love the old photos. And you’re so right…that smile on their faces says it all. They both look mighty happy with life and each other. Love the outfits.