Photographs: 1970s

This page contains links to family photographs dating from my first leaving England for the Far East in Summer 1971 to my taking up a job in mainland China in October 1982.

I was in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia from July 1971 to January 1973. At the latter date I returned to England, but stayed there only eight months. In August 1973 I went to New York. No photographs have survived from this period.

I stayed in the U.S.A. until October 1978, living in southern Westchester County (New York) for practically the whole time. Then I returned to England. In the Spring of 1979 I took a long vacation in Hong Kong. From September 1979 to June 1980 I studied Chinese at Ealing College in West London. In 1981 and 1982 I was working in Northampton, Dublin, and London. In October 1982 I took up a lecturing position at Siping Teacher's College in Northeast China.

	While living in Hong Kong in mid-1972, I was an extra in a Bruce Lee movie. The story, with movie clips, is here (click on the picture).
	This is the pretty little courtyard on East 36th Street in Manhattan. The date is August 1974.
	My sister Judith in Hawaii, sometime in 1974.
	From mid-June 1974 to mid-December 1975 I rented this annex room at 57 North Perkins Avenue in Elmsford, NY.
	At a Halloween fancy dress party in (I think) 1975. I was a redcoat.
	My bowling team, 1976(?). This was Savin Business Machines company league.
	My parents on the garden swing at 62 Friars Avenue, 1976.
	This photograph and the next were taken during my mother's visit to the U.S.A. in June-July 1976. Here I am with Mum on the beach, somewhere in Connecticut.
	On July 4th — the Bicentennial — we went to see the tall ships come up the Hudson. This was taken in Riverside Park. Yes, I do regret the mustache. Funny thing, fashion.
	I am pretty sure that this photograph and the next are the ones Mum referred to in her letter dated January 17, 1977. If not, they date from a year or so later. This first one shows Mum with Tessa. Looks like Abington Park.
	Mum, Tessa, and Dad, on the front doorstep at 62 Friars Avenue.
	This is the photograph Mum referred to in her letter dated February 7th, 1978. She says it was taken "at a 'Hospital do' last Summer," so this would be Summer 1977, the hospital presumably St. Edmunds. Mum, on the right, is with her friend Jean Isherwood. I think this is the only photograph in existence of Mum smoking a cigarette — a very rare event. Jean was a chain smoker, as were a surprising number of Mum's medical acquaintances.
	Mid-1977 (I'm guessing) at the home of Frank Schaustal in New Windsor, NY. Frank was a colleague at Savin Business Machines, as were most of the others in the picture. I'm at center with the beard. All very Seventies <sigh>.
	I was an usher (leftmost of the two beards, the other being Mike McCue) at the wedding of my friends Jay and Mary Bodo; August 1977. The bridesmaid directly above Mary is Jay's sister Kathy, and the little boy is Kathy's son Courtney. I think the bridesmaid next to Mary is her sister Nellie, and the litte girl is Nellie's daughter … but my memory runs out about there.
	Before returning to England in October 1978, I took a farewell photograph of the car that had served me faithfully for four and a half years — my first American car. It was a 1964 Chevy Nova. I had bought it for $200 in the Spring of 1974. I sold it for exactly the same amount, having taken the odometer from 57,000 miles to 125,000. The picture was taken at Carroll Park in Thornwood, New York. [Added August 2022: In conversation with a seasoned auto mechanic who is also a general auto buff, I learned that my 1964 Nova would today, 44 years after I sold it for $200, be worth about $30,000. That's about a 12 percent annual return …]
	My parents, me, and my niece Tessa. This was taken at the christening of my nephew Marcus in October 1978, shortly after I came back to England.
	Soon after Marcus' christening we got news that Auntie Polly had died. I took Mum and Dad to the funeral in Oakengates. We stayed with Cousin Isobel (Polly's daughter) and her husband Ken (Jones) at their cottage overlooking the ruins of Lilleshall Abbey. This is Isobel and Ken. The date "1978-11-15" is written on the back.
	Later in November 1978 I took Mum for a trip to the West Midlands to visit her relatives. Here are Fred and Muriel Littlehales at home in Birmingham, November 24.
	Same trip: This is Uncle Harold (Knowles) with his wife, Win (standing at left, next to my mother). I don't know who the young woman is. Harold and Win lived in Telford, Shropshire.
	This picture and the following three were all taken late in 1978, some at Christmas time (which I and my parents spent at Judith's house). This is Mum with Judith.
	The nuclear family: Me, Judith, and our parents.
	Dad.
	Mum & Dad.
	Judith with her family: Tessa, Phil, and Marcus. Looks like 1979.
	I spent the Spring of 1979 in Hong Kong. This picture and the next were taken on a picnic in the hills above Aberdeen, on the south side of Hong Kong island. Here I am with my old friend Chan Kwong Chi (陈广智) and Tony (陈天文), the youngest of this three sons.
	Mr and Mrs Chan.
	A passport photograph; June 1979.
	The Moores, around 1979: My sister Judith, her second husband Philip (Moore), Tessa (Dailey) and Marcus.
	In the summer of 1980 I vacationed in Caithness, on the northernmost coast of Scotland, with friends Peter Nalder and Anni Ruzicka. This is Peter and me in the kitchen of the cottage we rented.
	Here I am with Peter on a hike over the headlands, gazing out towards the North Pole.
	This is Jingzu Chen (陈京祖 — no relation to 陈广智), who tried to teach me Chinese at Ealing College of Higher Education, 1979-80. The photograph was actually taken in June, 1989.
	I graduated with a Postgraduate Diploma in Modern Chinese, entitling me to put the legend "P.G.Dip.Chin." after my name. I keep forgetting to do so. There was an award ceremony, which I attended for Jingzu's sake. I forget who the fellow was giving out the awards, but he did it very well.

» The Virtual Attic — Photographs — 1971-1982