Wednesday, November 01, 2006

The Child Is the Father of the Man

While we were visiting Detroit I had occasion to rummage through several boxes of old family photographs. Two taken of me at age five seem uncanny in their foreshadowing of the adult I would become.

Cowpoke

"Keep your hands where I can see 'em, pardner, while I go fetch the lasso."

Studmuffin

"Hey, Mr. Sondheim! Here I am!"

I'm beginning to understand why my parents didn't look all that surprised when I came out to them.

37 comments:

  1. Fabulous pics! There are photos of me staging three-act musicals at the age of four--true foreshadowing of my future life, as well. Looking forward to Saturday!

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  2. Anonymous11:01 PM

    Adorable photos, and I loved the Wordsworth shout out.

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  3. Does that shirt say "sit on it"?

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  4. That first outfit is guaranteed to get you into the back room at any of a number of bars-of-a-certain-type - especially with that t-shirt. As for the second one, well, I can just picture you leaning up against a lightpost on Halsted watching the boys go by. Absolutely precious.

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  5. Holy crap! It's the forerunner of the assless chaps!

    You were cute then. You are cute now.

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  6. Anonymous6:30 AM

    I loved the pictures when I took them and I also love the person you have become.

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  7. The pictures? Precious.
    The comment your mom left? Amazing.
    (and left me a little teary.)

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  8. Haha. I was thinking to myself that your hair was so dark when you were a kid, which is weird, because it's so much lighterrrr.... wait that's not hair. That's skin. d'oh. Now I feel really stupid. And wonder what you'd have looked like if you shaved your head as a child.

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  9. (And I just realized that could come off as making fun of bald people. Totally not. You're cute either way.)

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  10. Oh how adorable!!!
    I loved your mom's comment --she's adorable too!

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  11. Anonymous8:38 AM

    a "happy days" shirt? ROFLMAO

    your mom's comment? priceless

    good luck with your knit-in this weekend.

    and thanks for sharing "the little child inside the man", as john lennon put it.

    anne marie in philly

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  12. I see a happy, confident boy. It's what any good parent would wish for.

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  13. Anonymous9:03 AM

    Franklin, you've seen the French film "Ma Vie en rose", n'est-ce pas? If not, you and Delores need to plan a movie night.

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  14. Anonymous9:26 AM

    Mrs Habit is my heroine.

    Carol

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  15. Mama Habit visits!

    We are not worthy!

    Good Pepsi(?) shirt!

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  16. Anonymous9:49 AM

    As one would expect, you were absolutely adorable as a child. Thanks for sharing. Now I don't feel so weird for having shared that vonTrappish picture of me at age 6.

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  17. Anonymous10:07 AM

    Aren't you a sweetie?! Do you still have a cowboy outfit? (nudge, nudge)

    And wow, what a nice note from Mom. Tell your folks that they did a great job raising you. :)

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  18. Your Mom is the coolest. (and your Aunt Fran looks pretty cool, too.)

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  19. Anonymous12:16 PM

    Oy - such *cute* chubby little knees! ;-)

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  20. That's my brother! What a cutie. I was going to ask if there were cute pictures of me in that box (you know--it's really all about me, right? I'm so vain, etc. etc.), but then I thought that might be opening a potentially dangerous can of worms. :)

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  21. Dude, you were out before you were out.

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  22. Anonymous1:37 PM

    Funny - I had always imagined you bald as a child.

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  23. You were completely and totally adorable (no surprise). I would have been crushing on you and wondering what the heck was wrong with me that I couldn't even catch your eye.

    Neuroses. Aren't they fun?!

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  24. You are not playing fair. After seeing those pictures, I momentarily contemplated dropping out of my show and buying a plane ticket to Chicago for tomorrow.

    I wish my kid photos looked that cute.

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  25. Anonymous5:34 PM

    You were photogenic even then!

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  26. Awwwww!

    And hello to Mama Habit! You've raised a fabulous son -but I guess you know that.

    Now... how do i get my mother to figure out her e-mail and say nice things on my blog??? Do you do workshops?

    On second thought... the image of my mother in cyberspace..... maybe not!

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  27. Anonymous7:52 PM

    Nice hairdo

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  28. Anonymous11:19 PM

    Those pictures are priceless! There's a classic shot of me at my sixth Christmas--I have a beatific smile on my face as I behold lovely new sewing machine. "No more sewing by hand," I exulted! Yet somehow, my mom (who gave me the sewing maching) was still utterly shocked twenty years later that the boy who had sewed countless purses for her had turned out gay.

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  29. Anonymous12:28 AM

    Oh, man, just look at that smile! I don't go all googly over kids, and still I'm sitting here with a goofy grin on my face.

    Mrs. Habit, you sure do a great job - at taking pictures, raising lovely human beings, and of course, being the bestest mom.

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  30. Anonymous11:39 AM

    Holy crap! You look like something out of a Sears catalog ad!

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  31. Anonymous12:06 PM

    Gotta love the Fonzie T.

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  32. Anonymous5:32 PM

    What a cutie pie kid you were!

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  33. Too funny! I laughed out loud when I read the comments to your picts!

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  34. Fantastic pics!! I figured out that my son's best friend was gay 3 years before he came out. And yes he was wearing a cowboy outfit with white assless fringed chaps at the time! Son's friend and I laugh about it now.

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