On Sunday you may remember I was recalling my rowing days at Cambridge and comparing my failures with my dad’s successes. Jody, who blogs at about last weekend, commented that she had also failed at rowing: too many occasions catching crabs meant that she and her friends were asked to resign. I laughed and then it came to me in a flash, that somewhere I had a hugely embarrassing photo of me doing just that in a boat.
The photo in my previous post showed our ladies’ eight looking rather cool, in fact surprisingly together. This was on account of the photo being taken after the race when we were merely paddling downstream. The photo below was taken a few months earlier, during a proper race. I was the stroke of the boat, the one who has to keep a good rhythm going, so getting my oar caught in the water cocked the whole thing up good and proper. What a bloody shambles! I blame that curly perm……
Ahh the old curse of the curly perm!! I loved/love crab catching. String and bacon and hours of peaceful fun.
I am living proof that the catching of crabs and wearing of curly perms are neither causally connected nor correlationally significant.
@kelloggsville – String and bacon? So that's where I was goign wrong.
@dotterel – So, Tim, when did you last sport a curly perm? Or should I be asking when did you last catch crabs?!
Catching crabs? Hope the cox escaped.
@Steve – yes, thankfully the cox didn't have curly hair ;-))
Oops, rowing's not so easy, is it!
I had a disastrous curly perm when I was about 16. My brothers laughed at me until it fell out – months. I even had to wear it to Paris on a weekend trip – the shame!
@Sarah – I was okay going slowly!
Must admit I had many years with perms on and off – usually they weren't too bad as they were loose curls. Some girls had some frightful Leo Sayer type perms which, if that's what you had, would certainly have been embarrassing in Paris!
Hands up here…another perm girl from the early eighties! Ironically, now my hair wont keep a curl in it for love nor money….
ps always fancied rowing it looked such fun and strangely the 'ocd' part of me would appreciate the regularity of the strokes or whatever you call them!…please don't call me crackers….
@Libby – I daren't perm my hair again – I'd worry it would fall out.
I know exactly what you mean about the regularity of the strokes: there was something very satisfying when everyone rowed in time, the clunk and swoosh propelling you through the water. It was far more enjoyable at a leisurely pace.
Brilliant photo Trish!
Takes me back to my rowing days – the only sport I've ever been any good at. Though in those days there wasn't the technology to check how hard each member of the crew was pulling, of course!
Louise – If that technology had been around in our day I'd have been hoofed out on Day One!
Just blame your coxie. She can take it.
Perms never stayed in my hair. Always had to be marched back to the hairdressers a week later by my mum to have the thin twisty things, not the fat twisty things. The humiliation…. A couple of years later (by which time I really should have known better) a home perm on peroxided hair resulted in no hair left at all…. well about half an inch all round. But, she sighs, I still didn't learn……. Well – no more perms but a few years on again, re-peroxiding without due care and attention to time-keeping resulted in half an inch all round once again. In fact to this day I am regularly spotted in Superdrug wearing a headscarf looking for something to cover up the latest disaster. But hey….. as yet no crabs – so there's a result.
@Trooper Thorn – How silly of me! Of course it was her fault, she must have steered me into choppy water. Some people eh!
@Madame SG – I think the peroxide and permy chemicals have probably killed them off.
OMG How can you put a headline like that and then not provide a post about that unfortunate time you caught pubic lice! I must say I feel a bit short changed
Hilarious – oh my gosh , you've give me such a good laugh! And thanks for the clickable link to me, you are too sweet. I must say the perm must have provided some good traction and is very attractive. I also had a perm trying to emulate Barbra Steisand and it looked more muppet mop, had to wear a scarf for months. Gosh the mem'ries just keep flooding back…haven't thought about the perm for years!
@Roxy – the value of double entendre in a post title can never be overestimated.
@About last weekend – I suspect the perm did little to help good air flow round the boat! So glad to have brought back memories of rowing and bad hair dos!