Stories of Awful Hair Styles and Inspector Morse

I’ve been watching Inspector Morse, an old TV series, starring John Thaw.

My dad was a great Morse fan. I contributed to his Morse DVD collection, buying him a new series for some of his birthdays. I knew my dad enjoyed this crime series but never wondered what exactly it was that attracted him to it. It didn’t occur to me to find out. I failed to say, “Hey, Dad, what is it about Morse that you like?” Months after my father’s death, I’m watching Inspector Morse and finding out for myself.

I’m currently working my way through series five. There are eight series altogether, so I’m over halfway to the end. I’m immersed in 1991 when mobile phones were as big and heavy as bricks, and women loved to style their hair big.

I was a young mother with three small children in 1991. I don’t remember having big hair then. That phase was over for me. I’d moved onto short spikes, which was a great mistake. Having hardly any hair didn’t suit me. I realised this when I looked into the mirror once my hairdresser had put down her scissors. I spent the next couple of years growing my hair back.

The other day, I was talking about big hair with my daughter, Gemma-Rose. I described some of the hairstyles I’d tried out many years ago.

“I once had hair like Rod Stewart,” I said with a smile, remembering how I’d scrunch up my hair as I dried it, creating lots of volume.

Gemma-Rose knows of Rod Stewart because he performed a Day on the Green concert at a local winery last year. But my daughter has never listened to his music.

I lifted a photo album down from a shelf, saying, “I wonder if I can find some photos of the awful hairstyles I had when I was younger.” Gemma-Rose turned the pages. Occasionally, she grinned. She said, “Dad used to have hair!”

We talked about the days before my daughter was born: the music, fashions, technology, and world events. I told her about the first time I saw a video. “A friend had a video player and brought it to our house when she and her husband came to dinner. We went to the video store, chose a movie and watched it on our TV.” Gemma-Rose, who doesn’t know a time before the Internet, doesn’t understand what a big deal that would have been. These days, of course, we can watch practically anything we like just by opening our phones or computers.

So, I’m watching Inspector Morse. And I’m imagining the conversations I could have had with my father, a big Morse fan. We might have discussed Morse’s character: his love of classical music and cars, how he said an excellent beer or whisky helped him think, and how his search for love always ended in failure. Perhaps we’d have talked about how the show, with its unique style, was filmed. While chatting, we’d have shared, learnt and connected with each other.

Share Some Family Stories

Challenge 55 in my book The Unschool Challenge is called Share Some Family Stories. Here’s the introduction:

I love telling stories, and my kids love listening to them. I share tales about my childhood and teenage days: what life was like, the places I lived, the experiences I had, the clothes I wore, and the lack of technology in days gone by.

I share photos or google items and events from my younger days, we look at Google maps of the homes I used to live in, and I talk about the painful times of growing up as well as the happy moments.

I talk about my travels, school and university days, and how Andy and I met and married. Then there’s the story of how I became Catholic even though I’d declared that I’d never do that. I describe the grandparents they can’t remember and how their paternal great-grandparents were deaf, and how this affected their lives, isolating them within their community.

I also like to tell stories of when my kids were younger. I tell them how I felt when I saw them for the first time, how my heart overflowed with love (and still does). I describe our days together: what we did, what they liked, and where we went. I talk about the brother they never knew.

Family stories bind us together. They tell us who we are. We have a shared history and belong together. Our stories also teach us a lot about such things as history, geography, science, and how the world changes quickly. We learn about our faith and relationships and how we’re not alone when we struggle, grieve, get upset or feel pain.

There’s a wealth of learning experiences wrapped up in our family stories, isn’t there?

What you could do next

• Why not check out Challenge 55 in The Unschool Challenge?
• You could share an old story with your family.
• And how about taking an interest in one of your child’s passions? Find out what the attraction is. You might discover a lot about your child. You could gain a new interest. You will certainly have lots to talk about as you’re strengthening your connections!

How you can help

Please consider treating me to a coffee, making a small PayPal donation or buying one of my books. Your support helps keep my blog online!

I’m wondering

Do you enjoy watching old TV shows? Have you seen Inspector Morse? And what about hairstyles? Do you ever look at old photos and wonder why you ever adopted particular hair fashions? What was your worst hair mistake? Why not stop by and say hello?