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Thursday, April 22, 2021

Happy go lucky


This photo is foggy in a key area, but I love the carefree expression on the soldier's face.
Those slippers may have been ordinary at the time, but seem strange now.

 

8 comments:

  1. Could someone have purposely fogged this shot up? I mean, you can still make out his gear, but... Or could it just be the age of the picture that caused this imperfection? Maybe he looks so happy because he's finally washing off that Sahara sand after a long patrol.

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    1. I've been trying to figure out the fog, too. Your guess is as good as mine, lol.

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  2. "Maroquinerie" from the French "Maroque" - for Morocco - is a term that translates as "leather work" or "leather shop" and these slippers would still be typical of the styles that the Moroccans produce to this day to the highest quality. They would have been cheap enough then even on a national serviceman's pay - bought at a local souk with a bit of haggling - and probably lasted him 20 to 30 years and add to the genuine quality of historical record of these images.

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    1. I've read that traditional Moroccan leather tanning involved lots of urine and that it had something to do with the quality.

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    2. Not just in Morocco. My grandfather was in the hides and leather industry, and a century ago, urine and even dog's mud was used in the tanning of leather. Urine was also used in the production of tweed and wool cloth, and I have heard it said that on Winter days, the House of Commons used to pong of it during lively debates as the wearers' body temperature rose. We have much to be grateful for in our modern age!

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    3. Right about tweed. I have spent a lot of time in the Outer Hebrides, and the folks who make Harris Tweed have a folkloric museum where they even have early 20th C. movies of women "waulking" the tweed in urine infused troughs. I was told they don't do it that way any more, but they still gather the dye making material from local plants and wildlife.

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  3. Not as strange as crocs or those dumb looking tennis shoes where there's two inches of sole sticking out the back.

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    1. True. Footwear has become bizarre in some circles.

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