Christmas dinner at 'The Bungalow' some time in the 1970s
Me, Sandra, Harold Mangham and Alice Murphy, with Harold Murphy taking the photo
I don't know the exact year. We moved from The Bungalow in 1982 and we got our dog, Mitchum (an Irish red setter), perhaps around 1976. Harold Mangham, Sandra's grandfather and Alice's father, is in the picture so at a guess: 1977 to 78 so I'll say 1978 but could be 77. Harold Murphy, Sandra's father took the photo. There's his Christmas dinner on the table.
This is the same old Belgian table we have now as a dining table. I think we still have the pot at the front and the knives and forks and plates (wedding presents) are still in our kitchen. The curtain material at the back was used for the main curtains in this room and are still in use as our bedroom curtains forty seven years later (and not for much longer).
The bust of Beethoven in front of me looks like I was given it for Christmas. This item has been waiting patiently on the window sill of our present house since 1982 and it ain't goin' anywhere.
I don't know what happened to the flying saucer light shade. It was used in our present house for a while. We still have the picture on the wall but not on a wall – a painting of clowns we bought from José Christopherson, a friend of my parents and the partner of Richard Weisbrod, whose daughter, Annette, was a well-known international concert pianist. She played at my parents' house occasionally. We have another clown painting by José. Clowns are all she ever painted.
This is what I would call 'an historic family photo' so thanks to my late father-in-law for having taken it. Harold was in fact a professional photographer and knew how to take a good picture – which this is.
