Greetings over your interweb devices
“Well, she was just seventeen,
You know what I mean,
And the way she looked was way beyond compare”
“I don’t want to be 17,” she said, “I just don’t.”
It was Julie Kim’s birthday, but she wasn’t having much fun. Vanity wasn’t the issue, Julie Kim wasn’t that type— she was as innocent and down-to-earth as the freckles which graced her face.
We had gone up to the Griffith Park Carousel, where we’d both previously had summer jobs. I was new to photography and took her there to commemorate the day and to take advantage of the old-world setting as a backdrop.
Sitting back in one of the chariots she finally offered an explanation. “Sixteen Candles, You’re Sixteen, You’re Beautiful, and You’re Mine, Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen, all the good songs are about being sixteen – I don’t wanna be 17.”
There are a couple of images from that day in which Julie Kim is smiling, but the melancholy face of a girl about to become a woman marked the day. I finished the roll and we gathered our stuff to head to lunch.
As we got in the car I got an idea. I turned to her and sang/spoke the lyrics to the Beatles standard above to the birthday girl. Such is the power of music. Her face lit right up as she realized there might yet be lyrical days of innocence left ahead. Too bad the camera was in the trunk, but we had a really nice lunch.
To one and all, Be Safe-Stay Healthy