A while ago I stumbled across a Facebook private members-only page, appearing to consist of a huge collection of multiple school yeargroup photographs and scanned newspaper clippings of class activities, all relating to the education board district in Scotland where I first grew up.
Not surprisingly these have tended to be more-recent photos from the 1980s and 90s, with a small amount from even the 1930s and 40s: but very few from my era (mid/late 1960s to early 1970s). And that, I thought, was very much that.
Within the last few days I suddenly felt motivated to have another leisurely look through these unfamilar-but-almost-familiar images, and was immediately intrigued to see that the inspired moderator/curator had recently added a whole pile of 'new' old photographs! I tried to curb my optimism, and started to plough through them, hoping/praying that I would find an actual class photograph of me, and my old classmates.
And suddenly there it was: not a formal class picture, but something strange and much better!! A newspaper cutting of me, and my *entire* year group, on a huge school visit to a zoo park!! I was able to see myself clearly looking back at me from an entirely-forgotten image taken over half a century ago in my first year at primary school : surrounded by other tiny faces (to which I could only put a couple of names) but many of whom seemed so deeply and strangely familiar. It was (and is) still wonderful to see, and has been disproportionately-inspiring for me to have found this vision from my past.
Then...I noticed the date of the newspaper, wonderfully-legible and uncut from the cutting, above the miraculous photo. It looked like a familiar date....except it wasn't quite as familiar as I thought. I re-read it twice, and (on the not-unreasonable basis that newspapers in the 1960s tended to publish photographs the day after they were taken)...this wonderful press picture was taken of me (probably the first-ever public/group picture I ever had taken of me) on the day my wife was born.
So there are all sorts of curious interwoven coincidences in the above rambling tale: and they've rather inspired me, in some strange sense.