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Here we are, expectantly poised on the brink of the 1960s

Family Fortunes: I felt self-important, as I had graduated to wearing a suit with long trousers.

The author Ken Shehan (far left), his mother, Bridget, father, Patrick, and younger brother, Pat, at Dublin Zoo

Ken Sheehan
Fri Nov 18 2016 - 06:00

Here we are, the four of us, captured in a moment of time, expectantly poised on the brink of the 1960s.

This photo was taken on visit to Dublin Zoo at the beginning of that decade, and shows my mother, Bridget, my father, Patrick, my younger brother, Pat, on the right, and myself on the left.

Such old photos prompt reflections on the passing of time and mortality and, on a more mundane level, the vagaries of fashion.

My mother and father were in their prime and looked happy. I seemed more serious, perhaps feeling self-important, as I had recently graduated to wearing a suit with long trousers. It was quite a rite of passage at that time, marking the transition from boyhood to manhood, but with the changes in fashion over the years, it no longer has any such significance.

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And speaking of attire, those gentlemen in braid in the background were presumably bandsmen.

My little brother subsequently became my big brother, as he outgrew me, becoming taller than I am.

In 1968, I was so impressed by the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey that I booked two cinema seats for my parents to see it. As it happened, rather to my disappointment, they were underwhelmed by it. While this may be a trivial anecdote in itself, it pointed to a deeper concern with the passing of time.

Millennium

On several occasions, discussing the distant advent of the millennium, my father used say, “We won’t live to see it, but you probably will.”

In fact, he did live into the early 21st century. He had been active in the Civil War, and had been an amateur boxer in his youth. He was also a keen sportsman, into fishing and shooting.

He had an iron will and a constitution to match. Once, when he was in his 80s, a neighbour complimented him on his vigour and he declared, “I’ll live to be a hundred!” He almost made it, passing away in 2002 at the age of 98.

My mother was one of four sisters who hailed from the townland of Chamberlainstown near Kells in Co Meath. She died in 1994 at the age of 87. She possessed a kind of psychic intuition.

I’m glad to say my younger brother is hale and hearty, as he nears retirement age this year.