30 in 30: Day 10 - Old Photo Day

[fivecats]

Tom at Bobs
circa 1980, Washington, DC
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Day 10 → A photo of you taken over ten years ago

So, that's me back around 1980. It's the face, the physique and the physical shape I still expect to see in the mirror every day and it's becoming an ever-greater shock to me that it's definitely not what I see.

You'd think by now I would have come to accept what I am, what I have become, but there's still that part of me that just doesn't get it. I don't understand how I've come so far in such a short period of time.

Anyways, about this photograph:

In the autumn of 1980 I left Maryland to move to Madison, WI. I was, of course, following a woman who broke up with me as soon as we arrived in town. I tried desperately to get a job in a town overrun with PhDs who loved Madison so much they were willing to work in a bagel bakery instead of doing something with their PhD. After two months of rejection and a deepening depression, I moved back to Maryland.

I started working again at The Kite Site as the night manager. During the days, on a suggestion from my mother and really more on a whim than anything else, I started working in the county public schools as a substitute teacher. And, because I was broke but missed being able to afford my favorite ice cream, I got a one-night-a-week job at Bob's Famous Homemade Ice Cream in the upper-most reaches of Georgetown.

Slinging 'scream was a fun gig. For five hours on Sunday nights I'd fill ice cream cones, eat handfuls of M&Ms and down a free cup or two of coke to keep myself going. The place was bright and colorful, the staff and the customers were all very laid back and cool and, of course, the ice cream was fantastic.

I think I even still have that Kite Site T-shirt somewhere.

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Comments

[bardcat.livejournal.com]

Your photo journal has been very interesting. I guess pictures tell us something about our journey, what we're thinking. I particularly liked this one and knowing a little more about your history. Thank you/jeff

[fivecats.livejournal.com]

photographs tell me where i've been, what i've seen and what i've thought was visually interesting and/or what i had never seen in just that way before.

or, they're just more pictures of the cats i love so dearly.

i'll post some other, older pictures of me in the coming days.

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