Theme Thursday: Askew

I'm doing a dual link-up today: I'm on day 4 of a blogging challenge over at Conversion Diary called  7 Posts in 7 Days, and I thought I'd also jump in on Theme Thursday with Clan Donaldson.  It's my birthday, so I can do that.  Right?

Today's Theme Thursday topic is interesting: askew.  I thought about breaking out my Nikon and trying to photograph something crooked or off-center to post here, because above all this link-up is supposed to be about photography.  But instead of doing that, I'm cheating once again and unearthing some old photos, from way, way back when I was a whole lot younger than I am today.  (I was born in 1958, so you do the math. Young I am not.)

I've always thought grade school pictures were some of the best examples of things that are askew that you'll ever see.  Hair, teeth, and/or clothing are often askew in them.

Here's yours truly in second grade, bangs askew.

And in third grade, teeth askew (chipped and crooked).

My hair is askew again, too, if we're being honest.  I had pin-straight hair 364 days out of the year, but on school picture day, my mother insisted on pulling out the pink sponge rollers and giving me "luxurious" curls.  Oy.

Some of my boys' school pictures rival their momma's.  Here's son #3 in first grade.

With that hair, he's a chip off the old block.

And here's son #4 in second grade.

His hair is impeccable.  But his front teeth are a bit of a mismatch.  (Something's askew here!)

At our boys' Catholic elementary school, they had a picture re-take session, for those parents who didn't think the first shot had come out good enough to justify buying one of the packages, but we never did those. It's the imperfection--the askew-ness--that I love about these photos in the first place.  (We never didn't buy a package.)

We get a good laugh when we look at our little-kid selves, all askew in all our unsophisticated awkwardness. (One of my husband's sisters wants to make a "wall of shame" in their family homestead, where she and her siblings post all their most unattractive school pictures.)  But to me, imperfect images such as these are so endearing and sweet.  They're so REAL.  Because let's face it, we don't walk around ready for our close-ups most of the time.  Usually, there's something slightly askew.

There is with me, anyway.  What about you?