Top 5 Footprints Movember tributes

List by Tosca

"There was a time I could have been mistaken for Burt Reynolds. I had a moustache and so did he. But he was the number one star in the world, so there wasn't really much confusion."
- Tom Selleck

My dad has sported a moustache and/or beard on and off for most of my life. Mum has years worth of photos that can attest to this fact. In fact *points left* I have one here that was taken on his wedding day. It is my (unsolicited) opinion that 70s moustaches are something quite wonderful (and scary) to behold. And yet dad's one (to the left) was from the 90s. My parents didn't get married until I was 18. In fact, all of my brothers and sisters and I were there for the event. OH THE SHAME. Kidding. As for moustaches, the 70s (and 80s and, sigh, the 90s) have so much to answer for.

Here for your delectation (and because they are more than worth sharing) are the best of the best top 5 moustaches from our Footprints database! Our Footprints online database is a record of historical images from the South Auckland and Counties-Manukau area. There are so many fantastic images (this VJ Day pic, taken on Queen Street a day before the official VJ Day celebrations - is my favourite). The database is well worth a browse, so give it a go. And tell us what you found!

Top 5 grassroots rugby pics from Footprints

List by Danielle

'Rugby football is a game I can't claim absolutely to understand in all its niceties, if you know what I mean. I can follow the broad, general principles, of course. I mean to say, I know that the main scheme is to work the ball down the field somehow and deposit it over the line at the other end and that, in order to squelch this programme, each side is allowed to put in a certain amount of assault and battery and do things to its fellow man which, if done elsewhere, would result in 14 days without the option, coupled with some strong remarks from the Bench.'
~ P. G. Wodehouse, Very good, Jeeves!

Here for your perusal, may I present 5 of the very cool photos from our new online mini-exhibition, 'Celebrating our history of rugby'.

As well as a selection of photos of local grassroots rugby, we've recently added over 1,000 new images into the Footprints online database, a record of historical images from the South Auckland and Counties-Manukau area. Many of these come to us from the fantastic back files of Fairfax Media and the Courier newspapers, as well as through the generosity of local photographers (and their families) and historical societies throughout the region. There are some wonderful treasures in there, and you can search the thousands of images by keyword, decade, location and more. Kids with sheep! The Pakuranga Hunt Club! Catching sharks in Mangere! It's well worth a browse.

Top 5 old-time South Auckland wedding photos

List by Danielle

'I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.'
~Rita Rudner

Happy Royal Wedding Day! Well, to be honest, I'm kind of ignoring the royal wedding, happy enough for it to pass me by, and my own wedding was a heartfelt but very very low-key meet-up at the Manukau registry office, but something about these old photographs of wedding parties from the 1800s and early 1900s really gets to me. I guess I'm trying to see within the wedding photo the story of the courtship and marriage; they fill me with questions mostly - what happened next? Did they have children? Were they in love, and did it last? How does their family remember them?