I was somewhat dismayed to read that 'Selfie' has been made
Word of 2013 by the wonks at Oxford Dictionaries. Quite apart from the fact that people have been snapping poorly taken photographs of themselves ever since Kodak was first marketed in the late 19th century, surely #YearOfTheDiet has been the most important new addition to the English language over the last 12 months? Well, maybe not!
But just to prove my point, below is a selfie that a younger me took during the summer of 1992, a few days short of my 12th birthday. What information can we glean from this Bailey-esque image? Well, firstly it goes without saying I wasn't the prettiest kid in my class. Double chin and unkept hair were never a good look, nor indeed is the stupid face I've pulled for the camera. The other thing that can be established from this photo is that in my earlier years, I supported The Reds.
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| I was a hit with the girls. Not! |
Like a huge number of children of my age, I was a glory-hunting supporter of Liverpool FC. Before my sadomasochistic tendencies came to the fore and I followed Slough Town through the depths of the non-league, I was a long-distance Kopite. Using money from my 11th birthday, I bought my first ever football jersey, the Liverpool home shirt in distinctive red with white Adidas stripes over the right shoulder. You tend not to see too many of these replicas these days, given they marked the start of the ill-fated Souness era. For some reason though, despite outgrowing the shirt within a couple of years and switching allegiance to my local club, I retained the shirt for nostalgia.
Having spent years gathering dust, I recently found myself reacquainted with that shirt. I did think about flogging it on ebay just as I did with a programme and ticket stub from my one and only Anfield visit (Liverpool lost 1-0 to Norwich, last game before the Kop was redeveloped), but couldn't see there was much demand for a 22 year old well worn replica shirt.
Instead, and for my own personal amusement, I though I would try the shirt on. Now bearing in mind I bought this as an 11 year old, wore it during after school football clubs at primary school and can be seen in the selfie above modelling it just shy of my 12th birthday, I didn't expect to get much more than my head to fit into it. On the contrary, my torso didn't need any help to squeeze in, as the next selfie below shows.
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| 21 and a half years later, and I'm 11 years old again |
Even factoring that I was a big child and probably bought a larger shirt than I needed for longevity, it seems crazy to me that I can comfortably wear something that I adorned in my pre-teenage days. When I boast about being in the best shape of my adult life, the claim probably holds true for most of my childhood too. Wonder how much longer before I start trading clothes with my 5 year old?
Think Nathan's trousers might be a bit on the short side xxx
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