I have been looking through old photo albums lately, mostly to locate some mushroom photos. We used to go mushroom hunting up on Mt. Hood all the time when I was a kid, and I wanted to find proof of how many matsutake grew wild up there. Nowadays, you see, the mushrooms have been overpicked and are thus very rare (and very expensive). I was never good at finding them, but my grandmother was:
Browsing through the photos made me yearn for the wardrobe of my childhood. There were some crazy colorful outfits and many sweater vests. I think this is my favorite outfit:
Oh, and what’s this, another sweater vest?
Some green terry cloth shorts might be just the ticket this summer, along with a striped terry cloth t-shirt:
And a fancy new dress (my chunky legs haven’t changed much):
I love my mother’s outfit in this snow photo:
I thought it’d be funny to crop my head out of the photos, since I always chop off my head for photos. All the full images, along with a couple others, can be found at my flickr site here. I’ve totally been getting into flickr these days, mostly because I was shamed into it by Amy and Melissa, who chided me for being a lame flickr person.
I’m so glad you’re getting into the Flickr thing. I love these childhood images!
Whoa, the mind boggles at all those matsutake!
When you copy the sweater vest and flowered pants, I think you should also model them in the same stance.
Wow! I’ve never seen so many matsutake, even in stores back in Japan. I’ve got to show the photo to my husband and show him what he could have done when he was growing up in Lake Oswego 🙂
Oh, my goodness, Mariko! You legs are NOT chunky! Not even now.
SO FREAKING CUTE!!! I love your photos 🙂
WOW, that’s a lot of matsutake mushrooms! i can only imagine how much that lot would be worth today. they could probably pay the mortgage one month 🙂
love all the photos and vintage wear. you should definitely try to recreate some of those.
You were so cute!
Thanks for the walk down your memory lane. It was a delight to see all the wonderful childhood memories and handknit sweaters. I love the picture of your Mom in the snow. I see that your skirt savvy was an inherited gene.
I can’t get Flick’r to work right, so I’m missing out on all that photo sharing fun.
SO HAPPY to see Little Mariko the Mushroom Girl. That smocky sweater vest (with a flower? do I see a flower?), the second one, is just darling and so Now. You must make one for Big Mariko. xox Kay
I love all of those clothes and I think they’d be great as adult versions!
I really like the melmac plate and cup those are very popular now a days. By the way I really enjoy your blog and this may sound sad but on occasion I came to just to see the action of your brothers funny head:) lol
My childhood legs look very similar to yours except your knees are straighter and better looking. My legs haven’t changed much either. I have to get petite pants, hem my pants, or roll them up.
Those outfits are incredible. I am often tempted to take childhood photos to my hairdresser and I once took the movie poster from Spirited Away. They thought I was mocking them.
My latest post sort of involves you. I have become a hideous groupie of the NW Apple Gang. Need a NE chapter, perhaps?
i am so into all your pictures on flickr. i would actually like them all in a single poster format (preferably matte finish) to hang on my wall.
Wow, that’s a lot of matsutake! Your picture really puts it into perspective how treasured they are now. I love the photos of you as a kid with the head chopped off; it wouldn’t be you otherwise.
hahahhahahaha!!! mariko, these pictures are awesome!
What fabulous photos!! And what a great blog – I have had fun looking around. I just love some of those old clothes. Really funky. That second sweater vest is really cute and that fancy dress is just to die for!
hehe, the first sweater vest looks like it’s made from sock monkey skin/fur!