Red Lipstick at the Beach: My Grandmother in 1943

Confession. I didn’t know what #tbt was until very recently. I thought I’d stay relevant at least until my 30s hit but apparently not. Last Thursday, when all the throwback images hit, I immediately thought of my Grammy. It was her 90th birthday.

Grammy was like a second mother to me as a kid. She fixed me after school snacks, took me shopping, let me eat my dinner in front of the TV if it was a new episode of Scooby Doo and was a permanent fixture in my childhood. I’ve only ever known her Grammy, but long before my time she was a beautiful young girl, named Arlene who looked at life with same expectant eyes as I do.

I grew up with out ever seeing the young Arlene. For my grandfather’s 100th birthday a few yeas ago we made a slideshow of his life and in our search through boxes and boxes of photos we found the honeymoon photos. These images are some of the greatest treasures of my family’s history that we have. It was late August in 1943 and Arlene and her husband George (my beloved Grandfather) drove away from their wedding to the banks of Lake Michigan to honeymoon in a little lake cottage. My grandmother wore the most amazing red one piece swimsuit. She was radiant, sexy and maybe a little racy in that bombshell of a suit. Dark hair, porcelain complexion and red lipstick. It’s 1943, you wear lipstick everywhere. My grandfather is featured in some really short swim trunks and while he looks good, I’m glad that fashion hasn’t gone full cycle yet (at least in the States that is). They’re so young. They’re so human. They remind me so much of me and how I feel about life right now.

Today when I was looking over these images again, I saw the image below for the first time and it is quickly my favorite. I’d give anything to know this girl and the thoughts in her head. She’s just 19 years old, at the beginning of it all staring out at endless expanse of water. There is something about great bodies of water and how they stir you. I wonder was she hopeful? Was she fearful? Excited? Brave? Overwhelmed? Expectant? Filled to the brim with love and anticipation? Was she all of these things? In this image, I see myself and I see young women everywhere. Sitting by the sea or a river or a lake, I feel like anything is possible. Did she feel the same way? I really believe that she did.