This will be a short and sweet Sepia Saturday post but how could I resist such a perfect match to the theme?
This photo includes my grandmother’s younger sister, Edie and her daughter, Muriel. They are obviously out camping somewhere and having a fine time though they do look rather well dressed for the event – certainly not how I look when I’m holidaying in a tent.
Edie McCorkindale was only 17 when she emigrated to Brisbane from Glasgow with her mother and siblings in 1910. Like most of her family she lived in Brisbane until she reached adulthood and can be found on the electoral rolls for Enoggera in 1915. At the time Edie was working as a saleswoman whereas her sisters had been employed as dressmakers. She married her husband Richard Amesbury in Brisbane in 1919 and after few years the couple moved to Sydney where they lived for the rest of their lives.
I only knew Edie as an elderly woman, very trim and stylish, when she would visit my grandmother next door. It seems so strange to me to imagine her life as a young woman of adventure, riding on a motor bike and camping.
And how could I ignore a “blast from the past” with this photo of Mr Cassmob on his bike many years ago. I wrote about it on another Sepia Saturday post in 2013. All I can say, though, is I’m glad the bike had gone before we married because I can’t quite see myself on a bike or sitting in a side car!
Why not see where other Sepians rode to this weekend?
Family history across the seas 
ahh, you would have looked so cute sitting behind him on the bike — or in a side car.
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Of course I would have!! LOL…just joking.
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I think casual clothes back in the day were not quite as casual as what we think of as casual in this day & age. Mr. Cassmob looks quite the fellow on his motorbike. I think Joan’s probably right – you would have looked cute riding behind him – or even in a side car. I rode on the back of my uncle’s motorcycle once up & back down the block and that was enough for me. Not my cup of tea at all – yet I could be quite daring on my bicycle? I think it was because I very much needed to be in control of my own fate. 🙂
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Certainly not my cup of tea to be on motorcycles either, least of all in the muddy tracks where we lived then.
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These are great photos! Love the one of Edie solo on her motorbike. I know what you mean about the women seeming overdressed in the first photo — but everyone dressed more formally for all occasions than we do today. I am actually finding myself very surprised to be living in knit Capri pants since the coronavirus quarantine began, but it’s more a time for comfort than fashion 🙂
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Yes I too like to conjunction of her, her bike and the cabin…looks so adventurous. Made me change my childhood ideas of the woman I knew when she was elderly. Hanging out is comfy clothes has been an upside of isolation.
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Love the stories behind the pictures.
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Your thoughts about the Edie you knew contrasting with the one in the photo is exactly how I react when I study old photos of my grandaunts as young women. Hard to believe they were young and foolish once.
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